Another match, another hair puller

Well, as they have tended to do this season, the Liverpool Football Club provided flashes to give the supporters hope only to have it dashed by the same mistakes.  As will ever be the case with professional sports, the vocal minority will seek to put the blame all on one person.  Several will seek the head of the manager, Brendan Rodgers.  Many will heap blame on the lightning rod, Mario Balotelli.  Some may even look to place fault on recalls such as Glen Johnson or Dejan Lovren.  None are right and none are completely wrong.

Some readers will accuse me of sitting on the fence, but the truth is seeing with a clear head is the only way to look at these situations.  It is a main reason that my blogs are not usually finished for several hours after a match.  You have to let the blood cool and think clearly, without the passion of a supporter, which is very difficult at the time.  The truth is, this is a team-wide problem.  Blame lays from the owners down to the players.  Some may stick out more than others, but all deserve credit for the failings of this team.

As much as I love Brendan Rodgers and his overall philosophies regarding the importance of supporters, he has to shoulder the blame along with his squad.  Many of his signings are either just not good enough or not coming along at the pace needed for Liverpool to contend for top four and silverware consistently.  His strange reliance on a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, when it has produced next to no goals has proven another undoing.  Unless he plans to play Balotelli as a winder with a top three of Balotelli, Raheem Sterling and Daniel Sturridge, then it becomes more and more unclear why he would not want the team to be more accustomed to two strikers.  Many are also upset with his choice of words during pre and post-match press conferences, but I could write an entirely different blog about the silliness in worrying about that.

The entire team of players needs to shoulder the blame as well.  While several players had decent to good matches, the bottom line is the entire team is just not getting it done.  This team is such a conundrum, that even supporters have no clear clue about who should be in the starting 11.  While talent wise, Balotelli is still the best scoring option for a striker, some want him out of the team even though Rickie Lambert and Fabrio Borini have given little actual evidence they will produce anything more than Mario other than work rate.  Though Sterling and Coutinho had good matches, causing several problems with their pace and attacking style, they too did not produce anything substantial.  Sterling seems to lack that final touch this season, almost always dribbling too close to an opponent or putting too much touch on a ball thus allowing a defender the opportunity to claim it.

The same can be said of Coutinho, though he has more claim to reigning in his mistakes in recent matches.  You can go player to player, man to man and pick faults with every single one that have either not benefited the club or hindered it.  Kolo Toure had a good performance against Real Madrid, midweek, but if you look within yourself does he really instill more confidence or any less cringe-worthy moments than Lovren or Martin Skrtel?  Skrtel did an excellent job containing Diego Costa on this day, but there were many articles calling for his head to be the one Toure replaced instead of Lovren for the Chelsea match.  Glen Johnson had a very good match against the Blues as well, but still made his usual Glen Johnson mistakes.  They were simply not as damaging as they have been in matches past.

The clear question moving forward is what can each man do to improve the team and how can Brendan Rodgers make improvements either by squad changes, changes in the transfer window or simply by trying a new formation.  Fans and supporters and pundits can cry for change in the squad, but until a player gives BR absolutely no possible opportunity for them to not play, then the starting 11 will always be a contentious spot.  Toure and Borini had good matches in Champions League, but other than personal bias' against their potential replacements, would they really instill that much more confidence in a supporter for a different result?

There is no clear reason, especially with the money spent, why Glen Johnson continues to gain a starting spot.  However, can we really say that Javier Manquillo has performed so well that he should be given the nod ever single time?  The answer to all of these is no.  Say what you will about Rodgers, but I still believe he knows talent on his own pitch very well.  His ability to judge what talent to bring in remains to be seen.  But if that is true, then he sees who is training well and who gives his squad the best opportunity on each day.  So yes it is Rodgers' fault for picking the squads who are not performing up to snuff, but it is also each players fault for not performing up to the quality that put them in the squad or for not performing well enough in training to replace the players that so many question.

The supporters dissatisfaction is palpable and understandably so.  There is simply no consistency for this club, even in the way they lose matches.  While I was one who argued that a 1-0 loss to Madrid was a decent result and the team should be proud of the way they played, I feel the complete opposite for the result against Chelsea.  Let no man say I am taking credit away from the Blues.  They played an excellent match.  They minimized mistakes and were only made to pay for one cruel deflection early in the game.  Liverpool, on the other hand, had several decent performances individually but were just so inept at times that I'm sure several people lost beverages and gained gray hairs.  The stretch from the 30th minute to the 35th had so many mistakes it looked like a youth squad taking on Chelsea.

Liverpool must play better, plain and simple.  They have to return to basics.  It does not matter they were taking on the team at the top of the table.  It does not matter if they were playing the team at the bottom.  Their own form is lacking right now and has to be changed.  There are too many cute passes or cheeky plays and when you are not in good form those plays do not come off.  Liverpool needs to be more direct and forceful.  You cannot have passes that barely hit their target or do not hit the target at all.  It is not even a problem with through balls, it is passes to players feet that do not have the pace on them to not be intercepted.  The Reds need to be sure of every ball and every clearance for a time.  If they do that then the skill plays will come.  There is so much skill in this team, but at the moment it is not upstairs and that is a huge issue.

As a personal opinion, other than the attacking players, there are few Chelsea players that are just far and away better skill-wise than what Liverpool has right now.  The difference is in the brain.  Chelsea is so sure of what they are doing that their skill is allowed to shine.  Liverpool doubts so much of what they do, at the moment, that their skill makes them look like bumblers due to indecision.  Luckily for Liverpool, it is a league-wide problem at the moment.  With all the blunders and poor matches Liverpool have had, they are currently only 8th with several squads above them that most would doubt can hold their position an entire season.  Manchester City's results, given all their money spent, put them in the same boat of having lots of skill or potential talent but just not having the mental stability to keep it all in step.  The Reds just have to play smarter.  You can have all the skill in the world, but if you don't have the mental capacity to clear balls at the right time or be aware of your defensive markings then you're not helping the club.  You can have all the skill and pace in the world, but if you cannot link up with your fellow midfielders or attackers and constantly put balls into the opposition then you're doing no good.  You can have all the technical ability and strike wonder goals all day in training, but if you do not have the mental ability to play with your team and see the runs they make or work hard in the box, then it is all for naught.

As the supporters do, I still have faith in this squad to finish in the top four.  I still believe the inclusion of Daniel Sturridge up top will open up a lot of space.  The thing that worries most is, even if Sturridge is a missing link, is this team really set up for long term success if their success is based on one man.  No matter how good he is or can be, Liverpool have to find ways to be successful even if Sturridge is not playing or not playing at his best.  That was shown in today's match when no matter how much skill anyone showed in flashes, it just wasn't there the entire time and mental mistakes were the huge gap between the Reds and Blues.  Liverpool has many questions still and have to find the answers now before the gap between 8th and 4th is too much to climb.  The international break may be a good thing for the club this time.  The player's poor form may mean more club practice time than international action.  Perhaps it will reset focus as well.  Three matches remain in November and Liverpool needs three points in each.  Crystal Palace, Ludogorets and Stoke won't be easy, but if Liverpool is to be Liverpool once more then it has to be three points from each.  It seems tough my friends, but we and the club must Walk On.