'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Usually, this kind of topic serves as an end-of-season, bullet-pointed summary of how a team fares; so it may seem premature to be drawing these conclusions with 6 gameweeks to go. However, certain features of Liverpool’s title challenge are likely to stay unchanged till May, and can serve as useful form guides for the present.
The silverware may yet elude them, but there is no doubt that Brendan Rodgers’ unit has been immense this season. No other squad in Europe’s big 5 leagues still presents a title challenge without having started the season as favourites. Roma began with a bang, but wilted away by mid-season; Atletico Madrid may come across as underdogs, but they finished 3rd last season and won the Copa del Rey on Real turf. The Reds on the other hand started 2013-14 without European football; the Champions League was a seemingly distant hope. Since then they have accelerated impressively, and are undefeated in the league in 2014, dropping only 4 points. Seven consecutive wins, including brutal four-goal purges of Everton and Arsenal at home, have shredded the pre-season form book.
The ride has been far from perfect. The defending has at times been brittle, the midfield took a while to get into stride. But then who wants a sterile, predetermined Bayern-esque canter – give me a gloriously flawed, adrenaline-inducing campaign any day! Without further ado, here come the observations.
1. Rest days
The most-commonly touted reason for Liverpool’s consistency this season smacks of voodoo logic. It was started by Jose Mourinho (who else) and repeated by fans and media alike as gospel : Liverpool are somehow benefiting from not being in Europe, by playing only one game a week. Which implies that the bottom 15 teams are apparently fresher and fitter than the top 5 every week, every season.
That is a load of dingo’s kidneys. If Mourinho’s theory held true, teams in the lower half of the top 10 would break into the Champions League spots on a regular basis. But barring a single season each since 2001, Newcastle, Everton and Tottenham Hotspurs have failed to nail down a place in the top 4, although each has been in the Europa League.
Additionally, CL money allows clubs to maintain larger squads than other Prem teams. As Liverpool’s own experience shows, unless a club has strong financial backing it can be very hard to return to the top 4 once you slip up. Even Manchester City qualified for the Europa only after 2 seasons of heavy financial doping.
In fact, Liverpool’s current form actually started back in January 2013, when they were still in Europe and the FA Cup. Liverpool picked up 36 points in the second half of the season (the 2nd highest for any EPL team) – the climax being a 6-0 away demolition of Newcastle. The accrued momentum, combined with a low player turnover during the summer, allowed them to hit the ground running next season.
2. Set pieces, penalties and counterattacks
Given that Brendan Rodgers is an avowed fan of the Spanish style of short passing, creative football, it is slightly amusing that set-pieces are such an important part of the Liverpool strategy. After all, the first Premier League team to use set-pieces – throw-ins, free-kicks, corners – as a regular source of cheap goals was Sam Allardyce’s Bolton squad, known for their long-ball tactics and muscular defending. Like Allardyce Rodgers is a pragmatist; where he differs is in the style of execution.
Liverpool play their best football when sitting deep in their own half and counter-attacking with pace; Daniel Sturridge, Luis Suarez and Raheem Sterling are all capable of moving the ball at dizzying speeds and finishing a move with ruthlessness. That is easier when opposition players are forced to play high up the field and closer to Liverpool’s goal, leaving space in behind for Reds attackers to break into.
Early set-pieces have been a useful way of implementing this tactic. Liverpool have scored 28 goals from set pieces, the highest in the division. But it is equally interesting to note how low their possession count is : 54.5%. That’s 8th in the division and 25th among clubs in the big 5 leagues. Additionally Rodgers’ side have scored 8 goals on the counter-attack this season, by far the highest for any EPL side. While Liverpool are capable of outplaying most opponents, they are drilled to exert early pressure on defences and win early spot-kicks deep in the opposition half that Gerrard, Suarez or Coutinho can capitalize on, before retreating and pouncing on the counter-attack.
This point was bizarrely illustrated during the 3-0 win away at Manchester United, when Liverpool’s superior possession actually hampered their forwards. Both Suarez and Sturridge were quiet for most of the game, and the goals came from repeated Liverpool pressure leading to mistakes by the United defenders, rather than the forwards finding a way through.
3. Mentality – Wins instead of draws
Brendan Rodgers celebrating with Luis Suarez
Liverpool’s ‘lightbulb moment’ probably wasn’t at Old Trafford or White Hart Lane, but came at Anfield against Stoke on the opening day. Daniel Sturridge scored the first goal of the PL season to put the hosts ahead. As Mark Hughes’ side piled forwards in search of an equalizer, Liverpool doggedly held onto the lead. Then in the 89th minute Daniel Agger handled the ball in the Liverpool penalty area and the referee promptly pointed to the spot. As the Kop exhaled in collective resignation, Kolo Toure, who had impressed on his Liverpool debut, memorably dropped to the ground and beat the grass in frustration. This was the old mentality – lead, brain freeze, drop points.
But just then another Liverpool debutant stepped up to save the day. As Jonathan Walters hit the penalty to his left, Simon Mignolet guessed correctly and then cleared the follow-up shot. The atmosphere changed completely. As the entire team ran towards Mignolet and swamped him, in the manner of a World Cup-winning goal scorer, the crowd went berserk.
Winners are characterized by a knack of getting results without outplaying their opponents. As epiphanies go, this one appears unremarkable: Mignolet’s save alone didn’t deliver a win, Sturridge’s goal did. But by bloody-mindedly forcing a win out of a potential draw, the goalkeeper had set the tone for the team’s season. Liverpool have since won from a draw position on 4 occasions. That’s 8 extra points, the difference between them and Everton, who are one place shy of the Champions League spots.
4. Tactical flexibility
Liverpool started the season with a 4-3-3 formation, switched to an unusual (for the Prem) 3-5-2 and have since employed a 4-5-1 and two different versions of the 4-4-2 – flat banks of four and the midfield diamond, and won regularly with each formation. This degree of tactical flexibility is unique to the Merseysiders among European teams this season. Even Bayern Munich, with highly versatile players like Javi Martinez and Philip Lahm, have largely stuck to the 4-2-3-1. That players like Jon Flanagan, Raheem Sterling, Joe Allen and Jordan Henderson – none of whom were demonstrating title-challenging caliber at the start of the season – have adapted so well to each change is a nod to the thoroughness with which Rodgers has prepared his players.
On several occasions he’s drawn flak for overthinking games, but his formations have always maximized the strengths of Suarez or Sturridge, while allowing Gerrard to dominate in a role he seemed least suited for, and demanding energy rather than creativity of Henderson. All these players have prospered, and ‘hard man’ Martin Skrtel has actually outdone Barcelona target Agger in pass completion statistics.
This requires skilled coaching and highly sensitive man-management. Usually these changes have been forced on Rodgers due to adversity (injuries, suspensions or a sharp drop in individual form), but he has responded to each setback with immaculate ease.
