Understanding Liverpool FC’s Tiki-Taka: Part 3

In this article, I cover the attackers and pick my best eleven to fit into Brendan Rodgers’ system come the start of the 2012/13 campaign. Check out Part 2 of the series.

I am a believer of answering questions the right way, and if we want the best answers, we need to find the best questions to ask of this Liverpool FC side. My question is quite simply, “Why can’t Andy Carroll fit into such a Tiki-Taka system?”. And it is one that will provoke almost instant response.

A comparison can most certainly be drawn here, and Ibrahimovic can be said to be almost like-to-like in terms of height, heading ability and in general, they have pretty similar attributes. Both aren’t the fastest of players, but know how to put the ball into the back of the net if they get good service from their team-mates.

Why did Zlatan Ibrahimovic fail at Barcelona? The statistics deceive, as with 21 goals and 13 assists in all competitions, the return is impressive given that he made 45 appearances in that particular campaign. But it wasn’t just conversion that Barcelona were looking for when they signed the Swede.

Following his departure, he was replaced by David Villa and subsequently by Lionel Messi in that position, although Messi has made it his own, by making himself play as a ‘false number 9?. So, what does this all mean?

Quite simply, whenever Ibrahimovic played for Barcelona, attacks were more disjointed. He isn’t the type of player that would run on to through balls very often, and this forced Barcelona to play with the long ball, something that is almost criminal to the ideologies of the Catalan outfit. When they are forced to play the longer ball, they aren’t able to keep the ball as much as they can, and they work harder getting the ball back.

Another thing that the Swedish international was criticized for was his reluctance to run, as he was branded a lazy player during his time with the Catalans. Barcelona need someone to get behind the defence when there is a gap and then finish incisively. This is exactly why Messi was brought in to fix their problem at the head of their attack.

Messi is able to finish very clinically, as taking chances at the right moment is very important to Barcelona. Furthermore, he is able to create space for himself and take the ball in with his feet very well.

This is precisely why Liverpool are contemplating cutting Carroll loose, as he doesn’t necessarily fit into Brendan Rodgers’ immediate plans.

In my opinion, someone who could really do the job for Liverpool at the head of the attack would be Luis Suarez. He is capable of creating lots of oppourtunities, while running all round the field in hope of creating an oppourtunity. However, his finishing does lack in some respect, so Rodgers might need to at least work on that before letting Suarez be his front man.

My Starting XI:

Reina Kelly-Agger-Skrtel-Enrique Gerrard-Lucas-Henderson Johnson-Suarez-Borini