One of the most enjoyable games from last season was Liverpool’s 5-2 victory over Fulham at Craven Cottage in May. It was characterised by winger Maxi Rodriguez scoring his second hat-trick in three games, and for me it was no coincidence that the Argentine was hitting a rich vein of form.
As against Brighton on Wednesday, the Reds started with two holding midfield players in Jay Spearing and Lucas Leiva at Fulham, allowing Maxi, Raul Meireles, Dirk Kuyt and Luis Suarez to play with a lot of freedom in front of them. Although I talked about in some length in an article yesterday, I only touched on why Maxi specifically seems to excel when this formation is played.
For the most part for Liverpool, especially under Kenny Dalglish, Maxi has played wide on the left, but it must be said he never sticks to his position; something which troubles the opposition defence. Rather than sticking to the touchline with chalk on his boots as they say, Maxi invariably pops up in positions in the middle of the pitch or sometimes wide on the right.
The fluidity of the formation allows Maxi to play to his strengths by not playing as an out and out winger, but as a player who arrives late in the box to either play one-twos with the likes of Suarez or Kuyt, or to get off a shot of his own. As I have already said, it is not coincidence he scored so many goals at the end of last season in such a role, as he is very difficult to mark and pick up, especially when the front 4 players are interchanging positions so regularly, and passing and moving the ball so quickly.
Again, against Brighton on Wednesday, his movement and link up play with Suarez, Kuyt and Bellamy was very good, and he contributed to many of the opportunities created by the Reds in the first half. He possesses the right technical skills, vision and adaptability to move into different positions and make the right passes to similar style players such as Suarez and Bellamy.
This is why I feel Maxi deserves greater game time than he is currently getting. At the moment he is only getting starts in the Carling Cup, but his link up play and ability to play in such a fluid system demonstrate he would really benefit the team if he was given more chances to start in the league.
It is good dilemma for King Kenny to have as he also has Stewart Downing in the squad. The England winger has had a good start to the season and this is probably the main reason why Maxi hasn’t started more matches. Still I don’t see why both Maxi and Downing can’t play, as either can play wide right or left, and the fact they could easily swap positions is tremendously beneficial to the system which seems to work so well for the Reds. Will Kenny decide to give the Argentine more playing time? We will have to wait and see but I certainly hope so.
Written by David Tully for Live4Liverpool.com.
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Agreed with the article. Instead, Maxi can replace Lucas to create more spark in the midfield. Liverpool has no creativity whenever Lucas is playing.
I would say that the only thing that I’m not a fan of is that he drifts too far off position. Defensively, it’s hard to keep the team as a unit with Rodriguez in the team, because the leftback (assuming it’s Enrique) will have to pretty much take on two players (rightback and right midfielder) of the opposition when Liverpool are defending, but otherwise, I’m a huge fan of Maxi
i agree hes best suited when play with three defenders and two holding midfielders behind him because of his best performances being in a free role, the problem is with gerrard back who would you put in a freerole up front
The madman most people call KK will never listen to you. He has been given too much power which he doesn’t deserve. can anybody compare maxi and meireless, to henderson and downing in terms of goal scoring. This is what he (KD) does, he bought downing and henderson to provide assist for carol so he is trying to force maxi out as he forced meireless out. I pray that God should stop him before he ruine our dearest club. Now it is apparent that carol cannot play pass and move style of liverpool hence downing and henderson ‘s assists are waste. Lastly football has move past a time when the team will depend on a single player for goals as one player is easy to mark out compare to ten.
The problem with Henderson: I am unsure if he is a man or woman. He is built like a woman, behaves like a woman, runs as if he wears a skirt, waves his hands like a woman and nags his team mates like a woman. He is incredibly lazy and should not be playing in a man’s league.
Kenny going british at the detriment of the club. We are not present week in week out to phantom his selection criteria but even to a blind man it is surely flawed. Kenny please change before your obsession with English players who at the moment do not merit their positions kill our dear club (yours also)