We expect more!! From the attack?

BCR · Feb 27, 2014

http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/liverpool/id/2585?cc=5901

Thereâs probably something incredibly churlish about a person who watches this current Liverpool team, and one of his recurrent thoughts is that he wished they scored more goals. I suppose itâs in the nature of every fan to keep looking at how their team can do even better. Resting on your laurels is a sure-fire recipe for eventual failure, particularly if you havenât actually won anything yet.

Liverpool have always featured players who could crack in a goal from 20 or 25 yards out. Itâs one of the finest sights in football for me, and though this team has scored a few goals from the 18-yard line this season itâs not nearly enough. As I say, spoilt and demanding. Guilty as charged.

What began this ungrateful train of thought, you ask? I suppose it was Jonjo Shelveyâs brilliant strike for Swansea at Anfield last weekend. It had that intoxicating mix of accuracy and velocity. It doesnât necessarily have to hit the roof of the net, but that will always score extra points for artistic merit. The only thing wrong with it was that there wasnât a red sock attached to the boot that launched it.

No one is suggesting the Reds made a mistake in letting Jonjo, who turns 22 today, leave here. Most realised that the ball could easily have concussed a Kopite rather than bulged the net. While everyone spoke of the good-natured applause for an ex-player who didnât crow about scoring in his old backyard, many supporters would have applauded the goal anyway, despite the consequences of Liverpool yet again making an easy situation more difficult than it should be. Club ties are incredibly strong, but thereâs just something about that kind of goal that turns its nose up at allegiance.

I began to wonder why the Reds donât score goals like this on a regular basis. Perhaps the passing and creativity of ânormalâ chances is so effective they donât need them? You get the odd Luis Suarez and Steven Gerrard blast, but it has not been an important part of Liverpoolâs make-up for a while now. Weâre always a threat from free kicks when those two are around for sure, but from open play itâs becoming a rarity. Iâm not talking about slide-rule rollers into the corner either, just the full-on split-second explosion where the ballâs in the net before anyone realised, when commentators go beyond their usual screech and begin annoying all the dogs in the neighbourhood. THAT sort of goal.

In the age of tiki-taka, the Holy Grail for football coaches is the extraordinary passing football of Barcelona. In this country, fans also often looked jealously toward the Arsenal side earlier in the century as a template for everything thatâs good in the game. Perhaps itâs the philistine in me, but Iâm not an enthusiastic admirer of Barcelona. Sometimes, as older fans are wont to complain, they just want to âwalk the ball into the netâ. Thereâs something to be said for someone standing outside the box and just giving it a damn good whack occasionally. I admit itâs like popcorn versus caviar, and thereâs no earthly reason why you canât have both.

Brendan Rodgers once spoke of creating âdeath by footballâ, and when you watch Swansea or Liverpool, you can see where the intricate possession/passing game can wear other teams down. It is a million miles away from the pragmatic approach of Gerard Houllier for example, but though his brand of football also came to be known as death by football (usually for the people watching it) there was something to be said for one particular element.

Houllier was very fond of âcheapâ goals, ones that did not require the elaboration of previous sides, particular that of his predecessor Roy Evans. The Frenchmanâs team was certainly nothing like the current set-up. Free kicks and corners were very important, as was the long ball to fast strikers like Michael Owen, Emile Heskey and briefly Nicolas Anelka.

What he also favoured was instant shooting from outside the box and for a brief period Liverpool fans were reminded of a time when their greatest ever midfield could shoot from anywhere and bag an extra 20 goals per season. The 1978/1979 team is often cited as Liverpoolâs best-ever side by those who watched it regularly, and the midfield in particular gives you goose bumps just to think of it: Jimmy Case, Terry McDermott, Graeme Souness and Ray Kennedy all scored regularly from distance, which came in extremely handy at a time when visiting teams used to cower en masse around their own penalty area -- a situation that (thankfully) is beginning to return. They also managed to protect their defence too, to the tune of 16 goals conceded for the entire season, but thatâs for another article and I think Dave Usher has already written it.

Houllierâs reign harked back to that golden age of the Thunderbolt, with regular brilliant strikes from the likes of Steven Gerrard, Gary McAllister, Patrik Berger, Danny Murphy and later John Arne Riise. Dietmar Hamann could chip in as well, though he didnât do it nearly often enough for such a gifted individual.

Itâs worth noting that Brendan Rodgers can adopt older more pragmatic ploys to his current situation. Thereâs certainly been more exploitation of Daniel Sturridgeâs incredible pace and intelligent movement, like Houllier with Owenâs, and in recent weeks heâs been sent clean through by killer passes from Philippe Coutinho and Raheem Sterling, even by one speculative âpuntâ from Ali Cissokho against Everton.

Ironically, Liverpool fans have taken to using the old Berger song for Daniel Sturridge, and while the latter could never be accused of lacking confidence when a quarter-chance presents itself heâs got some way to go before he emulates the Czechâs amazing record from a long way out.

Whether Rodgers currently has the midfield personnel to encourage more strikes from distance is another matter. Coutinho does try occasionally but sometimes you wonder if theyâre going to reach the goalkeeper, never mind beat him. From the back, Daniel Agger has almost given up trying after years of being an additional threat while the odd shot from Glen Johnson stings the odd hand but nothing too prolific. Back in the golden era, full backs were encouraged to shoot. That 1979 team I mentioned before also featured Alan Kennedy and Phil Neal, the latter being half sarcastically christened âZicoâ by the Kop for a number of excellent strikes that emulated the Brazilian maestro.

What may also be missing at the moment is the willingness to speculate. As long as the attempt is good, crowds will always react positively but there is a good deal of groaning when such efforts fly feebly over the bar or nearly maim the photographers at the side of the goal. Lucas Leiva for example usually tries his luck about twice a season, and thatâs four times too many.

But itâs something that I wish would come back soon. You can always rely on Suarez to try the unexpected, as he did from the halfway line against Swansea last Sunday, and Gerrard also hit the post late on in that game. Itâs something you need primarily from the midfield, and Liverpool do not get enough from their current players.

The result at Olympiakos this week did not just trigger hubris-baiting chuckles at Manchester Unitedâs crimson-cheeked expense. It reminded everyone of the night Liverpool fans started to believe an impossible European Cup dream might not be so far-fetched after all. The crucial third goal from Gerrard against the same Greek club in late 2004 would probably have created mayhem on the terraces and orgasmic shrieks in the TV commentary box anyway, even if it had been poked in with his toe from one yard out. Something about the nature of that shot gave it an extra frisson and added impetus to the belief that the Liverpool side, as incomplete and inconsistent as it was back then, could achieve the impossible. And so it proved.

At the end of the following season, the captain was again saving his teamâs bacon by striking an even later thunderbolt in the 2006 FA Cup final against West Ham. It became known as the Gerrard Final because of his two goals, but especially his second. Itâs worth noting that Liverpool were losing that game thanks to an almost inevitably sliced cross from Paul Konchesky, who has the dubious âhonourâ of triggering more abuse from Liverpool fans for wearing their shirt than he did for wearing an opponentâs. Imagine life without Gerrardâs instinct to try and talent to execute: football fans around the world would now be talking about something called âThe Konchesky Finalâ. The horror, the horror â¦

I wonât be the first Red to be accused of never being satisfied, and I wonât be the last. Frankly I like that about Liverpool, and it has propelled the club onto new heights. Bob Paisley once showed an uncharacteristic lack of patience by accusing the fans of demanding blood, but deep down he understood thatâs how it had to be and that Greatness is often fueled by unreasonable demand. Ronnie Moran, the permanently irascible and unsatisfied coaching assistant during many a great triumph at Anfield, is my all-time hero.

I can also see that this current team has taken a lot of people by surprise, and it surely wonât be long now before thereâs a weekly bus parked right across whatever goal Liverpool are attacking. Thatâs when weâll see how patient the build-up play really is, or decide whether the occasional rocket should be launched from distance as an important counter-measure to such negativity.

There is no finer sound-bite in football than âpick that one out!â and I for one will be ecstatic when itâs heard more often at Anfield -- even if it has to be begrudgingly muttered for a baldy, apologetic ex-Red.
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timmy5x · Feb 27, 2014

they can all be from 1yd, if we win the PL, i dont care!!

We expect more!! From the attack?

BCR Well-Known Member

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We expect more!! From the attack?

BCR Well-Known Member

timmy5x Member

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