Folks, look at it this way. Even if Torres and Myself were available to play, an Away visit to the Stadium of Lights under the new leadership of Steve Bruce was never going to be easy!
On the Beach Ball
I’m not going to go into too much detail about that beach ball incident. We have all read, by now, that it is an outside agent of the game, and the goal should not be counted. Instead, I rather focus, once again, on how much we missed Xabi Alonso.
On Xabi Alonso
In our last season, when was a Premiership game played without Torres, Alonso, and Myself? I’m not talking about a game against lower league teams in the FA Cup, or the Carling Cup. But to my recollection, I don’t remember we played any game in the top flight without all three of us. With that in mind, I think Rafa is forced to try something new.
On Formation/Tactics
So Rafa put 3 in the back, 2 Wing-Backs, 2 Midfielders, and 3 players in ‘attacking role.’ A very Continental formation. His thoughts? With 3 quality Defenders, and 2 defensive minded midfielders sitting in front of the defense, it ‘should’ provide sufficient protection while allowing the offense to happen down the Wings, and maybe from the middle. The result? If you subtract the ‘beach-ball goal’, we really had a draw… technically! Was the formation a success? If you are aiming for a Draw, with the possibility of a win, then heck yeah I think it was working.
On What Went Wrong (in General)
‘Beach Ball’ aside, this team shows the same weaknesses that has been in existence since the first day Rafa took charge. "Liverpool is a 1-man Team.’ However, please give Rafa some credit for transforming Liverpool from a 1-man Team to a 2-men Team these days. (It would have been (was) a 3-men Team, but we didn’t realize it until it was too late.) So from my point of view, there were 2 things that went wrong:
- Key players get called up to International duties when their home nation has already secured top qualifying position for the World Cup… resulting in these players getting injured
- The team lacks depth to provide coverage for the ‘G’ and the ‘T’
Obviously, there isn’t much that we can do with #1 above. Besides, any team in the world would hope that they can acquire players who are good enough to be picked by their National Team. So that’s just part of the growing pain for big clubs.
As for #2 above, instead of immediately point my finger at Rafa, I instead chose to look at our rivalry, Manchester United. The fact that both Giggs and Scholes still play a role in a somewhat regular manner, tells me that Sir Alex’s purchases in the recent past years didn’t fare too well either. Valencia, Anderson, and Nani, all couldn’t hold down a regular place like Ronaldo, Lampard, Frabegas, or Myself does, which tells me that even with lots of money, finding/buying an ‘automatic pick’ is really NOT that easy. Now if you have even less money to play with, which has been our situation all along, it makes things even more difficult.
On an Alternative
So with limited amount of spending money, my next chain of thought is… do what Arsenal did… get the youngsters when they are very young, and cheaper. Wait a minute! We did take that approach! We have Babel and Lucas!
On Babel and Lucas
Babel did not perform as expected during the game against Sunderland. Babel’s starting position is Forward, partnering Kuyt. He was later shifted to the sides, and eventually gotten substituted. During the game (and I’m going to exaggerate a bit here), he failed to complete passes and he failed to finish his dribbles. It was extremely frustrated watching him play… when I KNOW that this boy has got plenty of talents!
Lucas, in my opinion, did a decent job during Sunderland’s game. My general-criticism of him is his passing and (long-range) shooting. But hey, Mascherano can’t shoot either!
On Jay Spearing
As if our Formation isn’t confusing enough, Rafa threw in another wild card… the debut of Jay Spearing. I wasn’t perfect when I first started, but when Arsenal can put up a team of ‘minors’ to play with decent results, I have to hope that our youngsters are at least at par against theirs. Unfortunately, looking at the performances of Babel, Spearing, and Lucas, I couldn’t say the same.
On Liverpool’s Coaches and the Academy
To continue my effort to find someone to blame, I have to look to the Training. Here we are with so many ‘wonderkids’, why aren’t they performing? I would bet that had Babel joined Arsenal, he wouldn’t be one of the most lethal Attacker in the Premiership. Why is Lucas’ passing and shooting so poor? Why did Spearing looked so out of space when playing a team like Sunderland?
Are the Coaches and the Academy to Blame?
YES! I’m afraid! I’m not saying that they should bare full responsibility. The Players and the Manager, by defaults, must own up to their share of responsibilities. However, in my opinion, the Coaches now need to step up and find a way to make these Players to perform at a level where they are capable of.
We need these players, with or without, Gerrard and Torres!
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