What has gone wrong at Liverpool? Here are five major issues holding them back…
Regardless of the result in Liverpool’s must-win Champions League group stage match tonight against Bulgarian minnows Ludogorets, there is no getting away from the major issues surrounding them so far this season.
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Brendan Rodgers’ side have made their worst start to a Premier League season in 22 years; all that after finishing as runners-up last season and narrowly missing out on their first top flight title in two decades. So where has it all gone wrong?
5) Liverpool’s defence is a shambles. There is no leadership or communication.
Last season, Liverpool conceded far too many goals, and it was that fact which ultimately cost them the title. But with Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge banging in the goals at the other end, the Reds’ deep lying issues went somewhat unnoticed. This year, with the goals drying up, the issues at the back – which have existed since the retirements of Jamie Carragher and Sami Hyypia – have been exposed.
Liverpool lack leaders, and by selling Daniel Agger, they lost the closest thing they had to a defensive marshal. While Agger’s form had been far from exceptional for several months, it came as a great surprise to see him ditched for such a minimal fee. Dejan Lovren has been shocking, with his poor positional awareness particularly exposed alongside Martin Skrtel.
Javi Manquillo and Alberto Moreno have impressed at times, but with three new defenders regularly playing in the back four, the communication and consistency is not yet there. They aren’t helped by their goalkeeper, Simon Mignolet, who desperately needs to be a more commanding presence in an already shaky back-line.
4) Team morale is at an all time low and players aren’t enjoying their football.
When you make so many new signings, as Brendan Rodgers did this summer, one of the biggest issues is keeping everybody happy. Last season, the Reds were accused of lacking the squad depth to rival eventual Premier League champions Manchester City, but this year their mass recruitment has worked against them – although more on that later.
With a small squad, every Liverpool player had their chance to shine last season, and they appeared to be a tight-knit group all intent on achieving the same goal. However, that has all changed this year.
Mario Balotelli and Dejan Lovren seem all but undroppable, despite their poor form, with Rodgers blindly pushing forward in the hope that his big money buys will rediscover their best level. That appears to have led to disillusionment among some of Liverpool’s fringe players, although that of course has not been confirmed by a reliable source.
3) Liverpool cannot score enough goals, and need fresh striking talent.
Luis Suarez was always going to be a huge loss. But on paper, Reds fans had every reason to be optimistic at the start of the season. Daniel Sturridge scored 24 goals in all competitions last term, Mario Balotelli scored 18 for AC Milan, Rickie Lambert got 14 for Southampton, and Fabio Borini netted ten on loan at Sunderland.
The major issue is that Suarez’s goals might have statistically been replaced, but Suarez the player was definitely not. The Uruguayan superstar brought so much more than that to Liverpool, from his unique understanding and partnership with Sturridge, and to a lesser extent Raheem Sterling, to his relentless hounding of opposition defenders.
Balotelli, Lambert and Borini are all different types of players. The former is a hold-up player, who needs to be playing alongside a second striker – as demonstrated by his best performance for the club, on his debut against Tottenham. Lambert has himself admitted that he was in the wrong mindset for a successful start to his Liverpool career, while Borini’s head can not have been right after he was all but forced out of Anfield during the summer.
2) Steven Gerrard is past his best, and needs to be used in a different way.
Teams have worked him out, and unfortunately for Liverpool’s legendary skipper, his days in the starting eleven have to be numbered after an indifferent start to the season – and that’s probably being generous.
Gerrard simply doesn’t influence games in the way he once did. When played in the holding role, opposition teams will place two combative midfielders on him and prevent him having time on the ball. As a result of the pressure, his passing goes astray, and Liverpool’s quarterback type role is negated.
On some occasions, Rodgers has attempted to spring a surprise by playing Gerrard in a more advance role. The 34-year-old just doesn’t have the legs for this anymore, sadly. When you have players like Emre Can and Jordan Henderson missing out to accommodate Gerrard, something isn’t right.
1) New signings aren’t good enough and Rodgers has wasted too much money.
Brendan Rodgers promised Liverpool ‘wouldn’t do a Tottenham’. They have. Rodgers had a transfer warchest in the summer. £120m to completely reshape his team and build on last season’s success, to be precise. That money has been spectacularly wasted, and it’s impossible to deny that.
He has simply taken too many gambles. By all means take one or two, but you can never put all your eggs in one basket in football, for want of a better phrase, and by signing a collection of talented youngsters, Rodgers has done just that. He might well have a great team in five years, but he could be out of a job by then.
Football is all about balance, and at best, only one player that was signed during the summer – Adam Lallana – is Premier League and Champions league quality right now – and he isn’t even a guaranteed starter. Rodgers needed to sign a proven striker who would fit the Liverpool system and pressing style of play. Liverpool fans can only hope that what money remains is spent better in the January window.
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