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Club Focus – Liverpool – Lack of threat from wide areas at St. Andrews hinders transitional Liverpool
Tuesday 14 September 2010
The width of a football pitch has to be between 64m and 75m, but judging by Sunday’s goalless draw at St. Andrew’s, Liverpool do not seem to want to use all of the grass available to them at the moment. A point at Birmingham City is never a bad result of course – Blues seems to specialise in drawing at home to the ‘elite eight’ sides in the Premier League after all – but the Reds were never convincing at the weekend. When they looked for help, guile and creativity from both Maxi Rodriguez and Milan Jovanovic on the flanks, both were sorely lacking, as the pair struggled to make any kind of impact on the game at all. In such circumstances teams look for width from their full backs, but both Glen Johnson and Paul Konchesky – who slotted into the team like he had been there for years – were needed to defend against an impressively unyielding Birmingham outfit, meaning that a frustrated, bloodied Steven Gerrard and a forlorn, brooding Fernando Torres were barely given any service. At the other end though, there was a Spaniard who saw plenty of the ball.
That old mantra of how form is temporary and class is permanent would apply to Pepe Reina if everyone wasn’t aware of his outstanding quality already. His midweek pratfall on international duty – a slip that allowed Argentina’s Carlos Tévez to score – followed hot on the heels of his error against Arsenal in Liverpool’s opening game of their league campaign, but any questioning of the Reds goalkeeper should immediately fall upon deaf ears. He’s rescued the club on so many occasions before, he did on Sunday, and he will do so again.
That much is obvious, but what isn’t easily apparent is the direction that this new, Roy Hodgson-assembled Liverpool are going to head in this season. The Reds boss has angered a few people with his frank, realistic assessment of how he thinks the club will fare, but contrary to many reports he didn’t quite write off their chances of ending the long wait for Premier League glory, merely stating that it would be unlikely for them to do so this season – and if you weren’t already aware of that then you obviously have not been watching them too closely.
Questions are still more plentiful than answers at Liverpool, both on the field and off. Tom Hicks and George Gillett have now succeeded in losing all of their friends, as the Royal Bank of Scotland start to get tough on the credit-crunched, hapless pair – all too late in many people’s opinions – but, as Hodgson so rightly says, the team can’t use the off-field uncertainty as an excuse for their performances on the pitch, even though some much needed money would make a huge difference to this Reds squad. Sunday’s aforementioned underperforming wingers cost a combined total of zero pounds, whereas Manchester City, a club that Liverpool are supposed to be competing with this season, left the £24m David Silva on the bench as they drew with Blackburn, while further up the league, Chelsea only needed Florent Malouda for the final six minutes of their win at West Ham; both players had once been targeted by Rafael Benitez.
There was little to no creativity from Benitez’s former club at Birmingham though, but drawing conclusions from the draw is pointless, unlike the day itself. One point was gained, but the possibility of three never looked like it was on the table. It is still far too early to tell exactly what will happen to Hodgson’s side though, as the veteran boss searches for the right formula.
Raul Meireles added to that mix when he made his Liverpool debut from the bench at St. Andrew’s (the later appearance of Daniel Agger, plus the presence of the solid Martin Skrtel, must make this Liverpool side the most tattooed in Premier League history) and Hodgson has indicated that his new Portuguese midfielder will start Thursday’s Europa League tie with Steaua Bucharest at Anfield, where Joe Cole will also be back to add some much needed creativity ahead of next week’s trip to a Manchester United side who must be sick of the sight of teams from Merseyside given what happened to them at Goodison Park on Saturday. That can wait though. Steaua are next, as this new Liverpool continues to roll onwards. Onwards, but not quite upwards yet, and not really going left or right with any great confidence either.
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