Seven Changes And Liverpool Don't Get Hammered, But Brendan Rodgers Does.

 There is a word that has come into football over the last ten or fifteen years that didn’t previously exist – ‘rested’. Last night Brendan Rodgers took plenty of stick from well respected journalists and pundits for ‘resting’ a number of ‘big name players’. We’ve been desperately poor lately and it could easily be argued that we don’t have a single in form player. Does anybody remember the days when players played badly and were dropped? Can anybody honestly say Rodgers left out a single player who has made a positive difference in any of our recent matches? I've never before seen a manager get so much criticism for leaving out under performing players.

  So, who was left out?

 In defence it was Glen Johnson and Dejan Lovren. Johnson has been targeted by most fans and journalists as a poor performer for LFC and England for a couple of years now. Lovren, it’s widely acknowledged, hasn’t yet played particularly well for Liverpool. There’s a very good case for both to be left out of the side based on performance.

 Midfield – Steven Gerrard and Jordan Henderson. Questions have been raised about Gerrard’s performance levels this season (admittedly judged against his own high standards) and his ability, at his age, to consistently play three matches in a week. So he was left on the bench for the midweek game in a period where we have three games in eight days. Should we really be overly shocked? Henderson is young, in good fitness, vice captain and playing reasonably well, his omission was something of a surprise.

 Attack – Mario Balotelli, Raheem Sterling and Philippe Coutinho. Five goals between them all season and none of them are in form. Rodgers is attacked for sticking with Balotelli and now he’s questioned for leaving him out. Surely on current form there’s not even an argument that he was the wrong player to lead the line on his own in the Bernabeu? Sterling started the season well but, like the rest of our attack, has faded lately. Coutinho has had his moments but hasn’t yet this season reached the levels of consistent good performances he showed last term. It’s not possible to see how impotent we’ve been of late and think the attack didn’t need changing.

 Much was made of the fact there were seven changes to our starting XI, but had Gerrard and Sterling started would there have been much comment? I doubt it. The players who came in, especially Lucas Leiva, Kolo Toure, Emre Can, Adam Lallana and Fabio Borini performed at least as well as the players they replaced have done lately, if not better. We’ve only really played well in one match so far this season (away vs Spurs) and it has to be said last night we didn’t play badly. Which is a big improvement on recent displays.

 There is no doubt that in leaving out, for whatever reason, some of or bigger names Rodgers has increased the pressure on himself for the visit of Chelsea on Saturday. Our ‘first XI’ were soundly beaten at home by Real Madrid and we trudged into our next league game at home to Hull with confidence very low. In fact we haven’t scored a league goal since we were blown away so convincingly by Real. Last night’s performance actually gives me more hope of a decent display and, hopefully, a result against Chelsea than if the same eleven had been bettered in every department again by an excellent Real side.

 It’s been said that the team selection for the Champions League last night was not ‘the Liverpool way’ and there is some justification for this. But picking players on name, reputation and price tag is also not ‘the Liverpool way’. Accepting a string of sub standard displays is not 'the Liverpool way'. All eleven who started last night worked hard and played their part in a performance that, while it was far from vintage, was an improvement on all of our recent games. And that is very much the first step to getting back on ‘the Liverpool way'.