Liverpool succumbed to their second defeat of the season
with an abysmal showing against Arsenal at Anfield. Goals from Lukas Podolski
and Santi Cazorla either side of half time sent a lack-luster Liverpool back to
the drawing board.
Both sets of fans were left frustrated and disappointed
over their clubs lack of activity on transfer deadline day, and this game was
always going to show which team had more glaring gaps in their squad.
Unfortunately it was Liverpool who were found wanting as
they produced another performance on-par with their opening day defeat to West Brom.
The first half was relatively even, with both teams
showing flashes of excellent play but were generally sloppy in possession. Powerful
midfielder Abou Diaby caused the most problems for the Liverpool defense as he
broke through the midfield with ease time and time again.
On the other side of
the field it was youngster Raheem Sterling – given another start after his
hugely impressive showing against Manchester City – looked most threatening,
cutting inside and causing Carl Jenkinson and Per Mertesacker all sorts of
problems.
Eventually it was Arsenal who took the lead after a
sloppy pass from the extremely poor Steven Gerrard let Cazorla break forward
before slipping the ball into the path of Podolski who finished clinically
across Pepe Reina.
Similar to the West Brom game, Liverpool went into the
break 1-0 down despite playing reasonably well and probably shading the first
half.
Also similar to the West Brom game, the second half was
an entirely different affair. Liverpool struggled to find any kind of
penetration as the ball never stuck with Luis Suarez up front.
Instead it was Arsenal who took the game to Liverpool
with some neat passing moves and they eventually got their reward when Cazorla
was played in on the left hand side of the penalty area and fired powerfully
across Reina. The goalkeeper could only parry the ball into the back of the
net, but it was really a shot the Spaniard should have saved, and it was
another blunder in what is becoming a long string of high-profile mistakes over
the last two years.
The goal knocked the stuffing out of Liverpool and heads
immediately began to drop and the pace of the game slowed down. The players
essentially gave up on the game with 15 minutes to go, which was the most
disappointing aspect of the performance.
The back-line was actually pretty solid despite being
left exposed by the midfield on countless occasions. Reina made yet another
error and it is something that must be becoming a cause for concern for
Rodgers, but Glen Johnson, Martin Skrtel, Daniel Agger and Jose Enrique played
decently, especially in the first half.
Johnson got forward well all game while Skrtel and Agger
held down the fort and did so well. Enrique started off well but tired quickly
in the second half and became incredibly sloppy. The left-back still looks
slightly short of match-fitness.
The midfield severely missed the defensive presence of
Lucas as they were torn to shreds by the power of Diaby and the guile of
Cazorla the whole way through the game. Joe Allen was tasked with playing the
holding position in the absence of the Brazilian Lucas, and he struggled
defensively and was outnumbered numerous times. Allen’s composure on the ball
and his passing quality was absolutely top notch yet again, but without the
support of Steven Gerrard and debutant Nuri Sahin he struggled to stem the
Arsenal attacks.
Liverpool Captain Gerrard had yet another shocking game,
misplacing pass after pass and generally looking disinterested and lazy when
things weren’t going his way. It is something Rodgers will have to think about
seeing as it is the second time in three league games that Gerrard has been
desperately poor. Sahin had a decent debut before being replaced by Jonjo
Shelvey early in the second half. He kept things simple and looked very
tactically aware. He also looked very sensible on the ball and rarely wasted a
pass.
Shelvey was a bright spark in a dark performance from the
Reds as the youngster drove forward and tested Arsenal keeper Vito Mannone on
several occasions with long-range efforts. He was one of only a few players
that were still trying the whole way to the final whistle.
Rodgers went with the same front line he started with
against Manchester City a week ago, with Fabio Borini on the right, Sterling on
the left and Suarez through the middle. Borini struggled to make his mark on
the game again and he does not look like a winger whatsoever. The Italian
should be pushed into the middle with Suarez coming wide if Rodgers wants to
see better results.
Borini works extremely hard down the flank but doesn’t
get close enough to the goal which is a problem seeing as he is a penalty-box
striker. He was replaced by Downing in the second half who – despite one
impressive piece of skill which took him passed two players at once – looked clueless
yet again and didn’t make much of an impact.
Suarez had flashes of brilliance but overall he had a
frustrating game. He missed some decent chances and lost the ball far too much
for his own liking and for the teams benefit. Sterling on the other hand had
yet another impressive outing, running circles around the Arsenal defense at
times. He delivered some dangerous crosses and even hit the outside of the post
after a sharp turn and shot in the first half.
With Liverpool’s lack of activity on transfer deadline
day, youngsters such as Sterling will surely be forced to be more involved this
season than Rodgers had intended. Fans can expect to see a lot more of the
exciting winger in the coming weeks along with other academy graduates such as
Adam Morgan, Suso and hopefully Michael N’Goo.
Against Manchester City the attitude was right and only
individual errors deprived Liverpool of the three points. Against Arsenal the
attitude was horrible, the tactics weren’t correct, and over half the team had
extremely poor games. Not difficult to see where it all went wrong.
No comments:
Post a Comment