There’s not much more in world football that can upstage Anfield on a big occasion, but with Liverpool’s style of play at the moment, you wouldn’t bet against get them getting a good deal of points away from home.
Against Aston Villa on Saturday, Brendan Rodgers’ side weren’t at their best in terms of attacking play. This is not majorly surprising considering the starting eleven was without the terrific trio of Luis Suarez, Raheem Sterling and Daniel Sturridge from last year. However, you’d still hope that with the new additions, Liverpool would have had enough to breakdown the Villa defence after they took the lead.
Strangely, there were flashbacks coming from when Chelsea came to Anfield. It’s hard enough for any team when there are 11 opposition men behind the ball, but even more so with the way we play.
Rodgers has spent his first two seasons as manager implementing his way and putting his stamp on this Liverpool side. The space needed for our bright and energetic players to use their pace effectively is crucial to the way we work. And sadly, the pass and move came to a halt on Saturday.
Unlike the past couple of games, the game at White Hart Lane highlighted that we still do have that type of dynamic play in our locker. And in a peculiar way, not having much possession suits us better.
When we play away, the pressure is lifted. And it’s also why we produce better performances in the big games. We have more space and freedom on the counter attack, especially when we have players like Alberto Moreno to produce the runs and goals like he did at Spurs. We like to invite the opposition forward, as we know we have the pace to punish when there are then gaps at the back.
It may take a while to get going at home if we are playing against the so called ‘lesser sides’ and we’re in control, but buying players like Mario Balotelli may be a good solution for this.
A plan B is definitely needed for when our flowing football is restricted. For someone to be there, ready and waiting for crosses or tricky passes to be played, could be our fallback, and it showed in the late stages in the Champions League win over Ludogorets on Tuesday.
Source: Metro UK
No comments:
Post a Comment