How Liverpool have transformed the long ball game

Gerrard celebrating after scoring

Because it’s Steven Gerrard, you have a sense of what’s about to happen fractionally before the ball zips off the number eight’s boot and drifts up-field, somehow unstoppable and delicate in equal measure.

Seconds later, after Luis Suarez has plucked the ball from the sky in the opposition’s third, Liverpool take the lead through Jordan Henderson and, subsequently, all three points from the home tie with Swansea.

The ‘Hollywood’ pass that inspired the deciding goal looks like a one-off. It actually symbolises an integral, and intentional, ingredient of Liverpool’s recent successes masterminded by Brendan Rodgers.

Liverpool Long-Ball Passes vs Swansea – PL 2013/14

Liverpool’s back-line is now stationed more deeply and compactly, something arisen because those available to occupy Rodgers’ ever-changing central defence are anything but robust, physically or psychologically.

In essence, neither Martin Skrtel, Daniel Agger nor Kolo Toure can bear gaping expanses behind them because too often while attempting to play out from the back have they been muscled off the ball by high-pressing opponents, or have they seen back-passes sell their keeper embarrassingly short. Should something go wrong, Rodgers prefers his back-line to be tight-knit so errors are quickly mopped up by nearby team-mates.

What’s more, his only serviceable holding midfielder has been Gerrard, who is miles past peak mobility, so tracking opponents charging from deep within midfield becomes a less viable solution.

To counter this type of scenario, runners are often instead met by a rigid wall of Liverpool defenders camped on the edge of their own area, unwilling to commit themselves forward or be pulled away by the opposition’s movement.

Liverpool Heat Map vs Everton

Because Gerrard himself also operates so deeply, though, midfield areas become peopled by fewer Liverpool shirts, something conveyed by the clearer areas around the centre circle in the Action Heat Map visualising on-the-ball touches and actions performed. To put this another way, where most sophisticated teams play around the middle to expose openings and angles in their opponent’s lines, the Reds tend to limit their central involvement. Ultimately, they bypass these areas through long over-the-top balls or quick counter-attacking combinations.

So far, applauding critics have flocked to the latter and Liverpool’s long-ball propensities are yet to be picked over in the same way as their counter-attacking manoeuvres. Perhaps because, at a cursory glance, the long-ball approach puts people in mind of the type of negative football less talented teams sometimes employ in view of grinding out relegation-defying results.

Yet, Liverpool are presently touted as the League’s ‘great entertainers’ and are demonstrably anything but negative in how they choose to play.

The vital component it appears, then, is personnel and intent. Over-the-top or far-flung passes can be beautiful, too. Technique alone, the way the player strikes ball, is enough to transform perceptions.

They also facilitate split-second chances in that they represent the quickest route between defence and attack, a major part of the shock-and-awe displays which have recently helped generate Liverpool’s neutral appeal.

The statistics do, in some ways, suggest an increased tendency toward long-ranged passing in Liverpool’s style of play. Their average passing distance over the entire season so far stands at 19.08 metres, the 15th longest distance of any team in the division. Following the reintroduction of the captain, though, the average rises to around 20 metres and during the seven games played since Gerrard returned against Stoke, Liverpool have attempted 354 long-balls, which amounts to an average just shy of 51 per match and a figure surpassed only by four other teams of the 20 in the League. Long-balls, incidentally, are here defined as any pass which travels over 35 yards before finding a team-mate.

In terms of completion figures, Liverpool rank even higher. Of those 354 passes mentioned above, the Reds completed 215, placing them third where they trail, by only relatively narrow margins, behind Everton (221) and Southampton (239).

During the eight-goal thriller at Britannia Road and for the first half of Liverpool’s 2 – 2 draw with Aston Villa, Gerrard drew criticism for over-indulging in raking – often inaccurate – long-balls over the pitch. Yet, the effectiveness of this quarter-back style of attack has largely vindicated the England skipper’s commitment to the system. Throughout their last seven games, the Reds have scored on seven occasions where a long-ball played a significant role during the build-up.

Gerrard Heat Map vs Swansea

This season, we have witnessed Rodgers go from an ideological manager with an unfaltering belief in the passing game to one who knows where the players he has excel and fall short, and adapts accordingly. In Daniel Sturridge, he has a player with bags of pace as well as a calmness and technique which have seen him thrive in one-on-one situations.

The ex-Chelsea forward is also able to maintain alarming presence of mind when it comes to beating offside traps. The innovation and audacity exhibited through his lob against Everton recently was impressive, but Toure’s over-the-top ball and the astounding level of understanding between defender and striker mustn’t go unmentioned.

In Luis Suarez, you have the striker perhaps most receptive to long-ball passing in the league. Instances of hardcore resilience and tenacity abound during the Uruguayan’s performances week in, week out and his reluctance to give up on lost causes so often occasions errors and confusion among defensive back-lines. This means that even unsuccessful long-balls can sometimes pay-off, as was the case for Suarez’s first against Stoke.

It may be a slightly lateral point to end on, but the fact Rodgers chose to target two wide-attackers – Mohamed Salah and Yevhen Konoplyanka – during the January transfer window indicates that the central area, typically the engine-room in a side, doesn’t top his priority list. Probably because he’d rather see balls flying over and around it, than actually putting players there.