All the good will that Liverpool’s summer of free spending bought Brendan Rodgers seems to have disappeared in one game. The Reds 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa was disappointing on numerous levels.
The Reds were relatively toothless moving forward (despite having Mario Balotelli leading their line) and they looked brittle at the back. You get the sense that if you apply too much pressure to this Liverpool back-line, it will bend and break according to your will.
We’ve already seen Manchester City pull Brendan Rodgers’ side apart. Who would bet against the same thing happening when they come up against Chelsea? Are they going to be able to deal with the much improved attacks of Arsenal and Manchester United? There’s certainly plenty of reason for concern.
Liverpool’s £20m new defensive addition, Dejan Lovren, recently spoke out about the club’s defensive issues. Check out these comments:
“We need to improve defensively, but I am not worried about this because we are practically a new team with a lot of new players. Everything will settle down in next few games. No one wants to concede goals but it is football and anything can happen. We need to move on.”
“I think it is good for me and good for the team that we have a lot of games because you can get better and better. I am not worried. The problem is we have injured players.”
Whilst Lovren makes a few good points about Liverpool being a new team that needs time to gel, I’m not sure it’s entirely that simple. Let’s not forget that The Reds conceded 50 Premier League goals last season. There were no issues with the team gelling back then.
I can’t help but feel that Brendan Rodgers’ attacking philosophy is part-way to blame. It leaves The Reds wide open to the counter-attack, or to conceding the odd easy goal. In that sense, Liverpool are like Arsenal: they’re a club where it’s not easy to be a defender.
Unless Brendan Rodgers changes his coaching style, we’re going to have to hope that The Reds can keep scoring more than they concede. On the basis of last weekend’s display, I won’t hold my breath.
What’s your take? Are Liverpool weak at the back?
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