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Tactical Versatility
When Brendan Rodgers started his rein at Liverpool he preferred a 4-3-3 system and with his limited options for a striker earlier on, he stuck to the formation. Even after the arrival of Daniel Sturridge in January 2013, Rodgers continued to use his preferred formation by either playing Sturridge on the right with Suarez as the man up front or with Suarez playing the number 10 role behind Sturridge.
While coming into the new season, Rodgers stuck to the same formation due to Suarez’s suspension. For the opening match against Stoke City Rodgers started with the following formation and lineup.
Rodgers persisted with the same system for the next three games against Aston Villa, Manchester United, Swansea City and Southampton. He either just changed a player or interchanged the position of some players. Rodgers made the mistake of playing all four of his regular center backs together by playing Sakho as the left back and Toure as the right back against Southampton. This was strange considering the fact that first choice left back Jose Enrique was available for selection. Liverpool went on to lose the match to Southampton making it two defeats in two games against Mauricio Pochettino for Rodgers. Rodgers was outdone by his poor team selection and Southampton’s brilliant pressing game.
Rodgers had plenty of defenders at his disposal and decided to change his formation for his next game against Manchester United in the League Cup by using his resources wisely with Philippe Coutinho and Joe Allen out injured and the return of Luis Suarez from Injury. Rodgers started the game with the following line up and formation against United.
Rodgers used the three men at the back system like teams like Juventus use with two wing backs. This formation enabled both Suarez and Sturridge to play as strikers and helped in coping with the injury crisis the manager faced at that time.
Rodgers persisted with this system which is rarely used by teams playing in the premier league as such formations generally leaves the team vulnerable to attacks from opposition teams with good attacking wingers and full backs. Liverpool played against Sunderland, Crystal Palace, Newcastle United, West Brom and Arsenal with the same formation with the occasional change in the starting lineup.
Following the 2-0 defeat against Arsenal where Liverpool didn’t show their usual attacking fluidity, Rodgers reverted back to the usual two center backs system against Fulham. His challenge now was accommodating both his star strikers in the same lineup and giving them their favoured role at the same time.
Rodgers prefers players who can play in different positions up front and interchange their positions during the game thereby making it difficult for the opposition players to mark them.
He started the game against Fulham with the following formation and lineup.
Although the players started in these positions, Suarez moved up front at times with Sturridge moving to the right and Coutinho to the left with Henderson playing behind the striker or with Henderson on the left and Coutinho behind the striker. The versatility of the players Rodgers had at his disposal enabled him to tweak his formation and move his players around creating havoc on the pitch.
For the next match against Everton Rodgers used the same system but Sturridge was dropped to the bench, with Coutinho moving to the left and Joe Allen playing behind Suarez.
With Sturridge out injured at this point, Rodgers had just Suarez to play up front and he continued with his preferred 4-3-3 formation in the games against Hull City (Home and Away), Norwich City, West Ham, Tottenham Hotspur, Cardiff City, Manchester City, Chelsea and Stoke City.
When Sturridge returned from injury, Rodgers was once against stuck with the dilemma of what formation to choose for both his star strikers to play together. Rodgers changed his formation to a 4-4-2 system for the game against Aston Villa with the following starting lineup.
The match against Aston Villa was also the first time Rodgers deployed Gerrard as the holding midfielder. The 4-4-2 formation backfired on the reds as the Villa players took advantage of the extra space in midfield and Gerrard’s inexperience in the role. Liverpool went down by two goals. Rodgers quickly made up for his wrong team selection at half time by replacing Coutinho with Lucas (later Allen for Lucas due to injury) to give more defensive stability and giving Gerrard more freedom to dictate the play from midfield. The substitution worked and Liverpool drew the match at 2-2 in the end.
Liverpool’s next game was against Everton who transformed into a good passing side under Roberto Martinez. If Liverpool played the 4-4-2 formation against the toffees it would leave too much space in the mid field for them to exploit. Rodgers reverted back to his 4-3-3 formation with players interchanging position. In addition to this he focused on a quick counter attacking game play as the Everton side also liked to keep the play. Liverpool had pace in the team to play counter attacking football with the likes of Sterling, Suarez, Coutinho and Sturridge. The team had demonstrated this earlier in the season. Everton enjoyed majority of the possession on the day but Liverpool won the game by a comfortable 4-0 margin even after Daniel Sturridge missed a penalty.
Liverpool continued with the 4-3-3 formation and their quick counter attacking football coupled with quick slick passing in games against West Brom, Arsenal, Fulham and Swansea. Rodgers had found success with this formation but was facing s Southampton team against whom he was tactically beaten twice in as many occasions.
Rodgers decided to use a formation where he could use both his strikers by not compromising his midfield so that he could cope with the high pressing game played by Southampton. It was the diamond formation which he used against Southampton successfully and gain his first win against Pochettino.
Rodgers started the game with Coutinho playing at the tip of the diamond and when the Saints were trailing and chasing the game, he introduced Sterling who had the extra pace, at the tip of the diamond into a new position and was rewarded with an instant goal.
Rodgers ability to make his team adapt to different formations and garner success with all the formations was one of the key reasons for Liverpool’s huge success this season and all this with a very thin squad that had many key players injured throughout the season.
Rodgers used the diamond formation when both Suarez and Sturridge were fit and played either Sterling or Coutinho at the tip of the diamond. When Sturridge was once again unavailable he reverted back to a 4-3-3 formation.
Is there a golden sky at the end of the storm?
The lyrics of the famous Liverpool anthem say that at the end of a storm there is a golden sky. Liverpool have had their storm, the question remains if Rodgers is the one to lead them to the golden sky? Liverpool under Rodgers had their best start to a league season for 19 years when the defeated Manchester United in the third match of this season.
Rodgers would have loved to have ended the season as Premier League winners. Nevertheless the manager ended the season with two manager of the month awards and the coveted LMA Manager of the year award.
Brendan Rodgers will already be looking at his transfer targets and Liverpool fans will hoping for a really good window. With the right signings, Brendan Rodgers might be the man to finally end the 25 years long wait for a league title.
