Liverpool Implosion

Filed in archive Premier League on October 21, 2009

Liverpool yet again this season find themselves in a position which, this time last year, could not have even been imagined. With the loss at home to Lyon and a match coming up against Premier League Manchester United, is the club facing an implosion, and why?

Enough has been said about the loss of Xabi Alonso and the playmaking abilities at the back of midfield which he so effortlessly brought to the team, but does one man matter that much? Manchester United are going from strength to strength, having lost the “best player in the world”. Surely that should be worse?



So it brings into question Rafa Benitez’ tactics. With a team shape that was built around his first signing for the club in 2005, now that Alonso is gone surely a rethink is needed? And yet he continues to give Torres no help up front, and plays Lucas Leiva in Alonso’s old position. Fans and pundits will, of course, lay the blame at Benitez’ door, especially as injuries keep forcing a necessary squad rotation (a tactic which he was much maligned for two seasons ago).

But the manager is never fully to blame. “Mr Liverpool”, Jamie Carragher, has severely raised the question of his place in the first squad, with at least 4 of the many goals so far scored against his side in all competitions being specifically down to his wrongdoing. For a man who seemed to blame Arbeloa at the end of last season for yet another failed campaign, he isn’t exactly justifying his place now that Daniel Agger is back to full fitness. The 24 year old Dane, alongside long suffering Pepe Reina, who is probably the best keeper in the League, is the only reason Liverpool weren’t trounced last night.

Steven Gerrard has been off form and has only shown his normal dominance in the centre of the park against Bolton, where Liverpool did indeed carry out a characteristic come-back to win the match 3-2 away from home. Without new-comer Aquilani, who remains out for at least a month, the play needs to come from somewhere in the midfield, but Torres isn’t getting any help. Benayoun has again been a pivotal player in every match he has played in, playing for ninety as if it were the last ten, but while the centre-forward is forever marked out of the game it is almost impossible for him to do anything except try and score himself.

So it seems that the manager, who has proved himself to be one of the most tactically-minded bosses in the game, needs to rethink his personnel and his tactics. While he faces what some are calling the “worst injury crisis” of his already blighted reign at Liverpool, and is currently stuck in the worst string of losses the club has seen in 22 years, Benitez looks under fire, once again. Time for drastic action.