Looking at the league table you could be forgiven for thinking that Liverpool are a team in crisis. Six games played with only 5 points to show for their efforts, and having only just recorded their first win of the season. A humble fourteenth in the table, below the West Ham’s, Stoke’s and Sunderland’s of the world. Indeed, before the games on Saturday there had even been some cheeky graffiti posted at John Lennon airport adding a concluding coda to the ‘Imagine’ lyrics, “Above us only sky”, with “Below us only QPR and Reading”. Well worth a moment of anyone’s time when searching online.
For a team used to being one of the big guns in the Premier League, three successive finishes outside of the Champions League spots and three managers since Rafa Benitez’s departure in 2010 doesn’t paint the picture of a club in rude health. Yet there is cause for optimism at Anfield this season, and it comes in the shape of a new managerial strategy and a sharp injection of youth, which leaves you wondering whether the future looks very bright indeed in the red half of Merseyside.
Brendan Rodgers made his name last season at Swansea, with a playing style that was arguably the most single minded vision in the Premier League. Swansea passed the ball, almost compulsively, and as a solution to all problems. If you’re in trouble, pass your way out. If you want to score, passing your way there is the best route. Crucially, if you have the ball then you can’t concede a goal, and imposing your strategy on a team forces them to react to you and not the other way round. However, imposing such a plan on a new club is not an easy task and requires time. Take Martin Skrtel against Manchester City, trying to retain possession and instead committing himself to a terrible backpass that allowed Carlos Tevez to finish.
But the green shoots have been there to witness. A decent performance against City in a game which they should arguably have won, and then another great performance against United where they dominated before the Jonjo Shelvey sending off. And sandwiched in between that was a 5-3 victory against Young Boys of Bern, made more remarkable for the youthful side that Rodger sent out. And such a young line-up hasn’t been a one off. Traditionally the League Cup is a playground for the bigger clubs to give some experience to squad players and up and coming youngsters, but Liverpool have also carried that forward into the league games as well.
Against Norwich, Liverpool fielded their youngest side in 9 years, and recorded a very impressive, dominant 5-2 win. Featuring in that team were Raheem Sterling (17 years old), Andre Wisdom (19), Joe Allen (22), and Suso (18). All players being blooded by Brendan Rodgers as he moulds his vision on the squad. In the League Cup, 16 year old Jerome Sinclair came on for his first appearance, making him the youngest Liverpool player to ever feature in a first team game. These are all players who aren’t weighed down by previous managerial schools of thought, players that Rodgers can develop as his own. Of the existing team, it’s the old guard that people worry about more. Can Gerrard fit into such a system when he focuses more on an all action, all over the pitch performance? Is Carragher too limited and just too old to play a retention style from the back? These are questions that we will discover answers to over the course of the season, and whether the new brigade truly represent the future at Anfield.
So the reds are a team in transition, and (let’s not forget) a team trying to shake of the shackles of a very emotional period in the club’s history with the publishing of the independent panel’s report into the Hillsborough disaster. If they can keep playing in the fashion that they have then they might be about to write a fresh exciting chapter in Liverpool history.
More from Nick Bell @tracking_back.
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If it wasn’t for the arrival of BR, we’d have played Andy Carroll up front with Dirk Kuyt coming off the bench on Saturday. Flanagan would have played instead of Wisdom. Downing would have been a starter and Spearing a strong possibility. Joe Allen would still be at Swansea, flourishing under BR. Suso would be sulking, wanting to go back to Spain and Sterling would be playing for Spurs. Also, we would never have heard of Sahin.
Thank God things have changed. Onwards and upwards.