http://anfieldindex.com/12235/attack-isnt-best-form-defence-liverpool-fc.html Attack isn’t the best form of Defence. The shambles known as the Liverpool defence has been a, if not THE, topic of conversation amongst Liverpool fans ever since Brendan Rodgers took over at the club. With the goals against column worsening with each season Rodgers’ is at the helm, its little surprise the defensive signings are put under the microscope. Yet, surprisingly, a number of fans want to strengthen the attack in the January transfer window. After the success of last season, when Suarez and Sturridge did their very best to paper over the cracks with goals, there are fans out there who think same tactic will save our season once again. The constant shouts for ‘Goals!’ makes me think of a Spandau Ballet song. You might have grown up during the 80’s but times have changed. A few factors prevent last season being repeated, there’s of course the obvious reasons; No Luis, and an injury plagued Sturridge. Then we also have to take into consideration the fact we no longer have the element of surprise, and of course, teams can nullify that breathtaking counter attacking style of play by sitting deep. Many teams won’t be as effective as Chelsea were last season when they visited Anfield but it’s safe to assume teams won’t be as naive enough to be so open. You also have to think about the in game tactical battles. If the game is 0-0 after 75 minutes it’s not too absurd to think the opposition would consider it a winnable game and open up for the last 15 minutes, allowing Liverpool’s talented attackers to exploit that space and get a win themselves. As much as all fans want 4-0 home wins I think 99% of us would take a 1-0 win if the alternative was a 0-0 draw reminiscent of the Hull game this season. Over the past 14 Premier League seasons, the team that’s won the league has been either first or second in conceding the least amount of goals a staggering 13 times. The only exception to that was Manchester Utd in 2012/2013 when they conceded more goals than 4 other teams in the league. This shows you simply can’t score your way to a title win, it’s based on a solid defence. The below table shows the least goals scored to get into the top 4, and the team that conceded the most goals within that top 4 per season over the past 5 seasons. please log in to view this image I excluded Liverpool from last season to see what the most goals conceded would have been amongst the rest. I found the average for the least amount of goals amongst those finishing within the top 4 was 64. The average for most goals conceded was 41. These numbers show on paper to qualify for the top 4 you’re looking at scoring 64 or over and conceding 41 or less. Those numbers don’t look that scary. A squad containing Sturridge, Sterling, Balotelli, Markovic, Lallana and Coutinho should be able to help Liverpool score that magic number of goals needed, but where this falls down is the team needing to concede so few, 41 or less to be exact. Team being the key word here, every part of the starting XI has to help out defensively. What is it that Arsenal don’t have? A quality defensive midfielder. They’re the team that celebrate 4thspot as if they’ve won a Champions League. It’s never entirely comfortable for them as they don’t have the balanced squad that others do. This is where I think Liverpool should be looking to strengthen. The clubs main aim is Champions League football. The gung ho approach of last season was fun, it was enjoyable and it was memorable and it did the job; we got Champions League Football. We destroyed Everton and Arsenal at home, had a field day at Old Trafford, scored over 100 goals in the league but in the one game we needed to really shut up shop we showed our naivety and a lack of experience coupled with the fact many of our defensive players, at the time, couldn’t do their job. Whether that is a personnel problem or a coaching issue, you can’t overlook that fact. Yet in the summer that’s exactly what the club did. We got top 4 and this summer should have been the time we spent big defensively and cemented our place in that top 4. Suarez and the goals left, instead of trying to replace that we should have been strengthening the defensive aspect of the squad. Primarily because that’s the weakness but secondly, you can’t replace Luis. I hear people saying Utd have taken a similar approach to Liverpool of last season. Utd spent over £50 million in the summer on defensive players alone, and despite Rooney finding the net on a regular basis they wouldn’t be where they are now without David De Gea. I think this again shows how having a couple of goal scorers doesn’t automatically mean you finish top 4, you either need a good defensive unit or one of the elite ‘Keepers. If I was building a house I wouldn’t start with the roof, Id start at the foundations. That’s how a team should be built. If I had a flat back tyre I wouldn’t just chuck a new engine in and truck along in the hope it goes ok. Liverpool could go out and buy Benzema, Higuain, Lacazette and yes they’d probably score loads of goals but we’d also lose loads of games. Many people on social media say it’s easier to buy a proven goalscorer than it is a defensive midfielder. The three strikers mentioned above would all cost more than what Chelsea paid for Nemanja Matic, and he’s the best of the best in his position. I’ve written about Maxime Gonalons in the past as an option for Liverpool, again he’d cost less than any of the strikers mentioned. It’s easier, and cheaper, to find a defensive midfielder than it is a guaranteed 30 goal a season striker. Not only would a DM, or even a general midfielder, shore up the defence it would also allow other midfielders to chip in with a more goals as they don’t have as much defensive work to think about. It make the core of the team a lot stronger and harder to break down, which then allows Liverpool to get a foothold in games. It’s also of my opinion that with a defensive midfielder we would have seen the Red’s put in a better performance in the Champions League as Rodgers could have played a more tactical game knowing he had a strong midfield unit. Football is a rather simple game all things considered, if you don’t concede a goal then you can’t lose a game.
or just appoint tony pulis.... ffs theres more to football than just buying a donkey who destroys the game. it'd be nice if lfc did the basics properly and out out 11 men who can actually run for 90mins. My view is if you outwork the opposition, want it more and don't make stupid errors then yuo won't need a donkey to make the difference at times i've concluded lfc were playing with 9 men this year... be it balotelli or gerrard or jonhson... theres no coincidene our uptrun coincides with inclusion of can, sahko, markovic, moreno, putting sterling up top with coutinho and lallana we've had 11 men out there. now if we'd put the work in to have intensity for 90mins and be able to defend a set peice we'd be a decent side on average defensively. scarily if we just do simply maths 21 game splay, 27 goals conceeded = 1.2857 goals per game and will be 48.85 goals so call it 49 by seasons end I see that number up there i nthe tbale and thats without any form of improvement from lfc. BUT... by the same thoughts... 29 goals scored in 21.... = 1.38 goals per game x 38 = 52.47 so say 52 goals nobody in top 4 has got that low in the tbale above. therefore the thought that adding a DM to LFC now would make us top 4 is utter rot. LFC played with abandon last year due to masses of goals... fine but this year its a total lack of goals thats stopping us not a rotten defense! again we are so far only 2 goals worse than arsenals awful record and amazingly only 6 worse than utds.... SURE... jsut work on the defense... thatll work
so????? whats that got to do with the price of tea in china. You have to admit the figures i put out show a lack of goals is whats gone and cost us this year not throwing in too many really.... inability to score v basel, inability to beat several weak teams in the league... right now thats improved a bit with having 11 men working on the pitch not cos lucas is in there. the front 3 working hard and two of them moving to defensive wide positions when he have not got it is also contributing.
There are many phrases bandied about in football that occasionally need challenging,- "paper over the cracks" is one used in this article. We blew people away with our attacking football last season - yes the defence was, and still is, shaky- but 5-3 or 1-0 you still only get 3 points. If it had to be one or the other, I would still prefer we had the firepower to do that this season rather than have a more solid defence and bore everyone to death with a series of low scoring games. No matter how much I want us to win by any means, football is still about entertainment for me., and all I can say is I enjoyed watching us more last season than for as long as I can remember. Imo, a tight defence is what you need when you don't have a good attack, not something preferable to it. Sadly, I imagine the writer thinks this is humorous.
Sometimes attack is the best form of defence. Look at Barca, teams are scared to attack them because they know it leaves space for them to exploit. The same became true of us as the season went on, teams were scared of us as an attacking threat so would try n sit back and we had the players to break them down with the SASAS. When teams did try and have a go it also suited us as the attacked allowed us to break quickly and exploit it. This season, teams are looking at us and know we aren't as much of a threat going forward (or at least haven't been until the last month or so) so are happy to attack us more which puts even more pressure on our defence which although isn't the best, also isn't the worse.
I used to be the same - I rather we scored goals for fun. But the issue is, teams who cannot defend, control/dictate a midfield and hold a lead do not win titles (or at least on a consistent basis). It's fact - proven by all of the greatest teams in the history of the game, by the majority of league winners. I know we got close last year but we would have won the league had we signed a proper DM to prevent the stupid goals we conceded. Some refer to Barca - they had an excellent structure in place - Pep is a genius and he ensured the team defended as a unit. He had the worlds best DM in Busquets, in form Pique and Puyol, and balanced full backs in Alves and Abidal. They were very good defensively - if they were poor defensively, then more teams would have simply pushed the team 10-15 yards further up the pitch and press their midfield and defence.
I fully agree that the best thing is to have a potent attack and a solid defence, but my only point was that if it has to be one or the other I'd go for the great attack. Scoring the most in a high scoring game is, for me, a perfectly legitimate way to win a game- a free scoring attack is not simply a way of covering a poor defence. Unless you're Alan Hansen.
I think it's because part of the issue is that a. We haven't had a settled back 3/4 until recently b. A lot of us feel that the dire defending is down to poor dicipline and lack of organisation rather than player inability (well, except for in the case of Johnson). This is why I'm more concerned about making our attack more potent rather than being too worried about signing defenders
Well, today's game has just reinforced my original opinion that the article in the OP is a load of bollocks. When Lambert slotted home I took my first breath for about 30 minutes. If we had a more potent attack we'd have been out of sight well before Villa thought about a comeback. For years now my old shredded nerves have been put through the mincer with us having a precarious lead with 10 or 15 minutes to go, I don't know if I can stand much more. Last season was different and, bloody hell, it was so much better. Any defence, no matter how solid, can slip up and throw a game it should have won, the trick is to be in a position of dominance so that it is not crucial. So, sod defending, guys- score more goals! Please. Just for me.
But a better defence means we wouldn't have lost leads against Chelsea, Arsenal and Leicester ... You're right about the attack though but bear in mind that our best striker isn't playing, so once he comes back, I have a lot more faith that our attack will score more goals. At the moment, we're playing our best defence and midfield, but still look shaky
Look in the second half lfc lost intensity That's nothing to do with defence... We were lucky no villa set piece was converted though too We dropped off deeper and deeper, our wide forwards sat off two deep and too timidly as they needed to be higher and run more to help that The whole team sat off and we were 5-4-1 actually... That's not defence that's being timid and running out of steam You gave to have the balls to hold your line and that's Skertl and Mingolets job as the defense must stay up and push the midfield and also... A cm captain should also be bollocking the back 3 and those wide men Finally I did not see Rodgers once tell them to get the f out It's a whole team thing cos honestly it could've been 4-0 but we were lucky it wasn't 1-1 before lambert got one
If your attack is **** then opposition have no reservations about having a go at you. Attack is more important than defence by a mile.
yes i was... we were decent first half, frankly let them at us and then when we had wickie score they just got the stuffing knocked out of them and we had it easy from there. how many set pieces and crosses did they get in in that 15/20 min period... how many did they miss.... cos mingolet did well to save a couple but the rest went wide! you can't tell me sterling and coutinho didn't just sit off immediately rather than hold up a bit and that borini looked very isolated in that period. we were 5-4-1 in effect. my point is the whole team needed to be higher up basically. it'd start with keeper and CBs to make that happen. the need to keep out and force the cms up
Nothing to do with the fact that if Liverpool of last season were included it completely pisses on the entire article
The simple trend numbers I calculated based on lfcs goals scored and conceded shows we are around the crappy 4th place defences but nowhere near crapiy 4th place attacks Frankly this whole thing is not a holistic view of a team. It isolates one aspect of the game and ignores the other For example these teams with bad attacks, does the table give how good or bad their defences were in that season? No... And not vice versa either Defending is an 11 man effort and so is attacking so it's rather pointless in my view to say just one dm would make us top 4 just like just having Suarez didn't either... Rodgers proved that in season 1 If the entire package is lfc 2013/14 and that's what it takes fine If the entire package has to be arsenal under George graham fine! Unfortunately no matter what our personal philosophies are it's Rodgers job to make the best if his approach and his players and for 5 months he made a dogs dinner of it Right now he has for about 2 months has found an approach that is working better. That's the best we've got til may it seems so I think for one I'll just be getting on with that and what it brings it brings. Rodgers will be assessed I'm sure in May and this transfer committee I think we should be hearing about in February. On the pitch all 11 selected have to work all together and the weaknesses I see are still lack of a finish and tendency to sit further and further off as halves go on I'd love a cup this year so I'm hoping we can improve in the next while and not run into a shredder of a Chelsea outfit...
