Compromising a philosophy
One of the first actions Brendan Rodgers took when he became Liverpool manager was to jettison target man Andy Carroll. Liverpool fans questioned the action as it left just Luis Suarez -considered profligate at the time- and newcomer Fabio Borini – who’d managed 6 decent months with AS Roma as the club's senior strikers. Rodgers acknowledged that whilst Carroll was a good player, the way he wanted Liverpool to play couldn’t accommodate a player of his style; being strong in the air but otherwise slow and ponderous in possession.
So why the persistence with Balotelli?
It is clear that the Italian is more talented than the former Newcastle striker but he brings with him the same issues – issues that are becoming ever more prevalent as each game passes. For starters he’s a static player; he likes the play to orbit around him yet does little to create space for himself, let alone others.
The supporting cast to Balotelli probably should realise that and run in behind more however when you’re as erratic in your decision making as the Italian is then you can begin to understand why the likes of Coutinho and Sterling are reluctant to play off him; such runs were a regular feature when Suarez lead the line last season so it can only be assumed that a lack of trust in the Italian is the problem.
Contrary to what notable media outlets have portrayed Balotelli as he’s not the sole problem, rather one of many. Whilst every person connected to Liverpool wants the Italian to succeed there has to come a point in the immediate future when – much like with Robbie Keane in 2008 – the manager decides that the player doesn’t fit with his philosophy and moves him on.
Should that decision be taken that would then leave Liverpool without a notable alternative to Sturridge, but do they need one? Raheem Sterling has shown over the past 11 months that he’s at his most devastating when played through the middle of the attack, moving him forward one step further to a false’ 9’ would seem logical.
He moved into that position for 35 minutes against Real Madrid when the game was dead yet Liverpool – for a short period – played some of their most fluid attacking football this season. There’s nothing to suggest that making the tactical change a permanent feature of Liverpool going forward wouldn’t help to elevate the attack as well as Raheem Sterling to a new level.
Brendan Rodgers
What is it about finishing 2nd that makes recent Liverpool managers lose all sense of identity? It happened to Roy Evans, Gerard Houlier, Rafa Benitez and now seemingly Brendan Rodgers.
If last season was a case of Rodgers taking 3 or 4 steps forward as a manager then this season he has done his very best to undo all that good work with self-created ideological conflicts, a lack of tactical consistency and a commitment to players who have no right to be starting for Liverpool. All these issues were prevalent in Liverpool’s defeat away to Newcastle United.
Emre Can produced a promising cameo against Real Madrid and then followed that up with a display against Hull City where he looked a cut above his fellow Liverpool midfielders, he found himself omitted for a legless Steven Gerrard.
Kolo Toure produced yet another commanding display in the league cup yet was replaced by the jittery Skrtel. Fabio Borini and Javier Manquillo both produced fine displays in the same fixture yet found themselves watching on from the bench as they were replaced by Balotelli and Glen Johnson respectively.
These changes either suggest a manager too loyal to faltering players or someone who’s taken little to no notice of recent performances.
Take Skrtel for example. He has one of the lowest win percentages of any Liverpool player with over 25 appearances to his name at just 50.4% as well as a poor clean sheet record, let’s also not forget that this is the same player that Rodgers openly questioned in his first 6 months and appeared more than willing to move on in July 2013.
So what has changed?
Very little it appears. A strong performance against Manchester United in the absence of Kolo Toure allowed him a way back into the team over the Ivorian and with 7 goals to his name he was also the league’s most productive centre back in the opposition box. Those two positives aside the Slovakian international is no more a leader now than he was in January 2013 and as many Liverpool fans will attest to he has a habit of following up decent seasons with horrendous campaigns.
He also has an uncanny knack of making his centre-back partners become a bag of nerves. Carragher, Agger, Toure, Sakho and now Lovren have all looked worse than they are after being paired with the 29 year old. By contrast Kolo Toure has shown himself to be a reassuring presence when not paired with the Slovak, and while he is not the player he once was he still has a big presence on the pitch and the experience as a title winner and ‘Invincible’.
It’s a similar case with Javier Manquillo – albeit the Spaniard is at the opposite end of his career – in that his convincing defensive displays have failed to gain him a spot over a Glen Johnson whose Anfield career went stale almost 18 months back.
When Brendan Rodgers fails to reward the higher level of work from other – usually younger- players in favour of established stars who are passengers in this current team it is of little surprise when you see reports emerging that Liverpool’s hierarchy appear happy to allow the likes of Gerrard and Johnson to leave the club on costless transfers. Maybe they don’t trust the Ulsterman to make the very difficult personnel decisions to allow Liverpool to move forward - especially when it comes to Gerrard.
Rodgers has frequently spoken of how he is happy to look to past greats to help improve himself as a manager, perhaps he should look no further than the way Bob Paisley would ruthlessly discard the under performers – no matter how big the name – in favour of players who would move Liverpool forward.
The systematic tinkering must also stop. Liverpool may have a number of versatile players on their books but the constant chopping and changing of systems has only added to the on-pitch uncertainty.
Brendan Rodgers is one of the best young coaches in Europe but short-sighted tactics and team selections are causing unnecessary uncertainty to a side that is taking time to gel.
Questionable Signings
I’m not going to be one of those who have appeared in the media recently that have written off the entirety of Liverpool’s signings but you do have to question a number of decisions taken in the summer.
For all the criticism aimed at Liverpool supposedly casting their eyes too far on the future it has been the more experienced additions that are predominantly letting the team down. Rickie Lambert, Dejan Lovren, Mario Balotelli and Adam Lallana were all signed for upwards of £60 million yet only the latter has shown signs of becoming a key Liverpool player.
In the case of Lovren he still appears to be finding his way as a defender, understandable at 25 but was spending £20 million on the Croat necessary when Tiago Ilori was already on the books and possessed a higher upside long term?
Liverpool fans – an impatient lot – would be far more accommodating of a 20 year old making the kind of mistakes that Lovren has made in the full knowledge that long term they would have one of the leading talents of what is a new breed of central defender emerging.
The very same argument can be made about the previous summer’s experienced signing, Simon Mignolet. Whilst it is clear that the Belgian is an excellent shot stopper he lacks suitability to the style that Liverpool are synonymous with and at 26 looks unlikely to ever fully adapt. Perhaps Liverpool would have been better investing in a goalkeeping talent along the lines of Jan Oblak or Marc-Andre Ter Stegen that already possessed the necessary components in their game to fit in with Liverpool’s identity - at the sacrifice of refinement.
Currently there appears to be too many half measures taken with regards to Liverpool’s transfer strategy. The lack of clarity behind the committee process has festered a blame culture at the club allowing too many to shift responsibility away from their end, and that needs to stop.
Fenway Sports Group have shown over the last few years that they are willing to learn and in this case they need to make it clear what they want from those in charge of the football side of the club. If they want Liverpool to be a club that snaps up and forms a competitive team out of the best 19-23 year olds in Europe then they need to reinforce that idea to the committee and more importantly to Rodgers so as to avoid signing more Lovren’s at the expense of the Tiago Ilori’s of this world.