Liverpool: Why Their Tactics Are Perfect

Liverpool is back again after an emphatic victory over a strong Bolton team.  Although Liverpool's success may be overshadowed this weekend by all things Manchester, it looks like it's set to continue that way for a while.

Liverpool seems to be playing what I refer to as zonal positioning. In other words the players don't have set positions in the team.

Of course some positions, like defence, are set in stone.  Liverpool had four at the back against Bolton.  Kelly, Carragher, Agger and Enrique, with Reina in goal. That's fine, I'd expect it no other way.

Lucas is just ahead of them in a position he's played probably since birth, and again all fine. This is where things get a little trickier.

Something I noticed against Bolton was that Adam was the sole central midfielder and Henderson Downing, Kuyt and Suarez, at some point in the match, were on both wings, center midfielder and striker.

Take Liverpool's first goal for example: Suarez (left wing) crosses the ball to Downing (striker) who shoots.  The ball then rebounds to Kuyt (right wing) and he passes it to Henderson (attacking mid) to score.

This happened continuously throughout the match and it completely threw Bolton off.  In other words, it was perfect.

Gary Cahill was marking Suarez during the game.  On many occasions was he dragged out of position to deal with Suarez, leaving massive gaps in the Bolton defence, giving Liverpool yet another chance to score. 

Liverpool is a team with players who could run all day if needed, and they did. Unfortunately Stewart Downing is yet to get the goal he deserves, but it will come sooner or later.

It may be tougher with Andy Carroll, but if Liverpool continues this, I can see them playing as well throughout the season.

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment or add me on Twitter, where I'll be doing my best to keep up with the end of the transfer window whilst pretending to do work, most likely unsuccessfully so apologies in advance.

@NeilHarp