Lady Luck has been so far removed from Anfield this season that I almost expected Sir Alex Ferguson to name her up front alongside Robin van Persie. If recent results have been difficult to stomach for Liverpool fans lately then I would probably skip to the end of the following paragraph as the defeat to Manchester United means the club have now failed win any of their opening five league games for the first time in a century.
The defensive frailties of Brendan Rodger’s new look side has helped contribute to the fact that Liverpool have managed just one clean sheet in the past 15 Premier League outings, which has in turn resulted in just four victories from the past 19 league fixtures at home. Is it fair to suggest that Anfield is no longer the unforgiving fortress that it once was?
The worrying truth is that Liverpool’s displays this season haven’t merited any of these demoralising statistics. Sunday’s performance was the second time in recent weeks where Liverpool have dominated a supposedly superior team from Manchester, and yet they only have a solitary point to show for their efforts. The supporters continue to arrive in vast numbers and set about creating an intimidating atmosphere that make my television speakers wince under such strain. So why are do those vital three points remain so elusive?
Gary Neville hailed yesterday’s game as a “reminder of how difficult it is to play at Anfield”, but I would argue that teams no longer fear playing on the hallowed turf. The ailing fortunes of Liverpool football club means that not only do visiting managers believe they can avoid defeat, but they are confident of picking up a win.
The Reds are a side in the midst of significant transition and this makes them vulnerable. The reliance on ball retention evokes a slow, gradual build-up in attack and unfortunately you will struggle to beat a team like United by ‘killing them softly’. For all its positives, there is a growing realisation that Liverpool have forgotten how to win ‘ugly’.
Liverpool are bereft of a natural goalscorer, especially when you consider the iconic names who have lead the line in the past. For all his positive attributes, Luis Suarez will never be as prolific as Torres, Owen, Fowler or Rush. At present he risks mutating into the next Dirk Kuyt, a player whose touch, work-rate and link up play will always impress but mean little without an end product. If Liverpool are relying on Suarez to constantly adorn the scoresheet, then they are in serious trouble.
The absence of Andy Carroll was tragically evident when Liverpool were chasing the game on Sunday. I can fully understand Rodger’s decision to exclude the burly striker from his preferred starting XI, but the fact remains that there are few better, more effective players to bring off the bench. The United backline was there for the taking and even though it would have been unattractive, Carroll would have battered them into submission.
The former Geordie talisman is not the only player to have struggled since his inflated transfer to Merseyside. In fact he tops a growing list of individuals who have wilted under the pressure of the high-profile move. Jordan Henderson for example, has spent most of his time weeping in Gerrard’s shadow although unless my T.V settings were slightly distorted, he has been punishing himself the gym recently in an attempt to make some kind of impact.
Speaking of shadows, Stewart Downing is a fraction of the player who once ran rampant for Martin O’Neill at Aston Villa. If he plays anymore defensively for Rodgers, he’ll never be able to break his goal/assist curse. I don’t deny that he’s been underwhelming in a red shirt but Rodgers should at least attempt to show the same faith that has seen Raheem Sterling and Jonjo Shelvey flourish under his leadership.
The new boss at Liverpool is clearly a dedicated believer of the phrase, ‘if you have the ball, the other team can’t score’. This served him well at Swansea but it goes without saying that teams expect Liverpool to have the majority of possession. Oppositions will sit back rather than become restless and flood forward, which means fewer gaps in the defence, reducing the number of goal-scoring opportunities. They need to be ruthless and in some cases more direct because at present they are not taking advantage of the respect teams are giving them.
Steven Gerrard has today declared that this is no time to “panic” and he is absolutely right, this is a time to persevere. Rodgers doesn’t have a point to prove, but he does have to prove he knows how to pick up three of them.
Join me on Twitter @theunusedsub where for once I feel sorry for Steve Kean.
