In January Brendan Rodgers invested significantly in Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge, both brought in for high fees but both are young with long futures ahead of them. So far the records of the two players are as follows, Sturridge - seven appearances, five goals, two assists, Coutinho - three appearances, one goal, two assists. In short both men are at least partly responsible for at least one goal for the team per game they play, can't ask much more than that really can we?
It's the sign of a manager who knows the game and can read how his team plays that he brings in players who fit in immediately, we've seen over the years how hard it can be for new men, especially attackers, to fit in. I doubt either man will be able to keep up their prolific contributions at the rate they have started but they don't have to, we have other players like Suarez, Steven Gerrard, Stuart Downing and Jordan Henderson effectively scoring and making goals for us too.
The fact that our two new signings have settled in so quickly is good for two reasons. Firstly it shows they are decent players who can cut it in the Premier League, and secondly it shows our manager can identify players who will fit into the style he wants to play. It always makes it easier for a manager to persuade an owner to part with cash for new signings if he can point to previous successful acquisitions and prove he knows what he's on about when it comes to spending money. At the time we signed both players I felt we'd slightly overpaid in both cases but I think if we were to sell on either man right now we'd get back more than we spent.
It's only the beginning of March and it's definitely too early to get carried away with the impact of our January arrivals but the signs are all promising and their performances so far will gain the manager a good deal of credit with the Liverpool supporters.
The match itself against Wigan was slightly odd, take a look at these two sets of statistics :
Possession LFC 57% Opposition 43%
Attempts LFC 23 Opposition 4
On Target LFC 14 Opposition 3
Compared to :
Possession LFC 50% Opposition 50%
Attempts LFC 8 Opposition 15
On Target LFC 7 Opposition 11
One of these games we won 4-0 (yesterday) and the other we lost 2-0 (West Brom at home last month) but the match we won is the one that statistically you would have thought we would have lost, and vice versa. This clearly highlights a couple of key factors that you could see while watching the game.
Firstly Pepe Reina played well. He made plenty of saves, three or four of them top drawer and that will always enhance your chances of winning. And secondly we were clinical in front of goal. Downing scored only his second league goal for us, he's a player with a proven record of missing a whole lot more than he scores for Liverpool. Suarez took his first and third goals brilliantly, sometimes it takes him four or five good chances to get a goal, other times he's surgical in his precision and when he is we don't tend to lose the game. I also really enjoyed the fact we scored a deflected goal, I don't know if it's accurate or not but it feels like we concede a lot more 'lucky' goals than we score, I'm sure most fans feel like that about their teams though.
I wasn't overly looking forward to our trip to Wigan but our clinical finishing and intelligent attacking play was a joy to watch and it gives us great confidence going into next weekend's massive fixture at home to Spurs. It will be a real test of our improvement but twelve goals in our last three outings means it will also be a big test for Spurs as well.
YNWA
For once after a long long while, we have a manager who buys players to fit into his playing style. This is how it should be rather than just buying good players and find a system to fit them all in. Brendan's acquisitions has performed reasonably well so far except for the dip in form of Joe Allen.
ReplyDeleteI am still surprised at the regular omission of Assaidi. When he does come on, I thought he looked good and with a run of games he could do better.
Still, the defensive side of our game looks suspect and fragile. We are trying to pass out from the defensive area and if the opposition presses strongly, we could lose games here. I thought it might be better if the defenders and one midfielder play closer to pass the ball out instead of defenders making long passes across the field.
If our defense become stronger and more solid, then we can finish closer to the top 4 this season and sets us up nicely next season.
Finding the right balance between defence and attack is probably the hardest thing in football and there's no doubt our defensive play has weakened while our attack has improved, but with 12 goals scored and only 1 conceded in the last 3 games we seem to be on the right track.
ReplyDeleteI think Assaidi has looked ok too, but I'm not sure he'll ever be a world beater. For me Downing offers more than Assaidi right now and Coutinho and Sterling look like more promising players for the future. So despite him looking decent in his cameo roles I think he'll never be more than a squad player.
I reckon we're setting ourselves up nicely for next season amd could challenge the top four, I'll write a piece later in the week with a bit more detail on my observations and predictions.
It's good to see games like the one at Wigan and such scorelines do help alleviate my worries, but I'm still not convinced. We still haven't shown this kind of display against top class opposition. We had great phases of play against City and Arsenal, but did not manage to get results from them.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I also hope that the new signings might remedy any such shortcomings in the coming fixtures, but until I've seen the team actually get a result off a top 4 contender, I can't really join in on the cheers wholeheartedly.
That being said, I came in a few weeks back and commented on how the site didn't look like much and wanted to let you know that I'm happy to see you've switched things up a little. Looks much better.
Beating a top side is definitely still something we need to achieve this season, Spurs next weekend will be tough but should be a good atmosphere and that will hopefully give us an edge. I think in terms of general play we've deserved to beat Man City twice, Arsenal away and Man Utd at Anfield but on none of these occasions did we have the belief to see the job through. It might be one of those things where one win like that breeds the confidence for it to happen again and again but I'm convinced our failure to beat a top four side yet is as much mental as anything else.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the positive feedback on the site appearance, it was about time for an overhaul and I agree it looks better, I've simplified it and have to say less is more!
Both Courtinho and Sturridge have made such a difference to not just the first team but the squad in general. The competition in the squad is decent now and we have some genuine options in attack. For the first time in ages we have quality to come off the bench.
ReplyDeleteThe thing I like best about the new lads is there positive attitude to the game, both look to score or create at every opportunity. Both are young and clearly have lots of confidence in their own ability.
I am really optimistic about this group of players, mainly in their early 20's, mainly British and with lots of talent.
Agree we need to get some results against top sides but believe it will happen soon. Brendan is taking us in the right direction and with a bit more time to work and a couple of new players we will be a genuine top 4 side again next year. Champions 2015!