Liverpool: 5 Things the Reds Will Change Tactically Under Brendan Rodgers

Liverpool's search for a new manager is almost over after Brendan Rodgers of Swansea City reportedly agreed to take over for the Reds, who sacked previous manager Kenny Dalglish at the end of last season.

Despite winning the League Cup final and reaching the FA Cup final as well (where they were beaten 2-1 by Chelsea) Liverpool failed to progress sufficiently in the Premier League, as they finished a lowly eighth place, well outside the race for the Champions League spots.

FSG, the owners of Liverpool, moved swiftly to remove Dalglish from his position as a result, though the managerial search has taken rather longer than some fans had anticipated.

While the Reds played some good football under Dalglish, they ultimately dropped too many points, especially at home, where they recorded just six league victories during the whole of the 2011-12 campaign.

Rodgers will be expected to implement a more effective style of play on the Reds squad and lead the team back up the league standings.

Here are five ways that Liverpool's tactics will change under Brendan Rodgers.

Press Higher Up the Pitch

Swansea won acclaim for their on-the-ball approach last season. But every bit as important and core to Brendan Rodgers' values is their off-the-ball work rate and pressure on the opposition.

The entire front line of Liverpool will be expected to work extremely hard to aid winning back the ball in the opposition's half of the pitch whenever possible.

The Reds did do this at times last season, but there were far too many occasions when either only one player pressed and the rest did not, or they let the opposition play their way into Liverpool's half of the pitch.

This will be far less seen under Rodgers, especially at home.

Pass and Move (It's the Liverpool Groove)

Two thousand one hundred and eleven, and 2,177.

That is the number of passes made over the Premier League season by Swansea City's two first-choice central midfielders, Leon Britton and Joe Allen respectively.

Both players completed over 90 percent of their passes successfully (Britton 93 percent, Allen 91 percent)—an astonishing rate to maintain over an entire campaign.

Liverpool's two midfielders who started the campaign in the centre, Lucas Leiva and Charlie Adam, both missed considerable portions of the season through injury, as did Steven Gerrard, who played most of the time that he was fit in that role, but none of the three managed a better than 86 percent rate.

Brendan Rodgers asks his team to pass, and pass again and pass again.

Control the ball, control the game is his philosophy, and Liverpool will look to dominate matches next season by maintaining long spells of possession as they seek to wear teams down and create goal-scoring chances.

Pace on the Flanks

From Jimmy Kebe and Joby McAnuff at Reading to Scott Sinclair, Nathan Dyer and Wayne Routledge at Swansea City, Brendan Rodgers certainly likes a pacey winger or two to operate on the flanks.

Liverpool have struggled to find true pace on the wings in recent seasons, with the likes of Maxi Rodriguez and Dirk Kuyt, Albert Riera and Joe Cole relying more on clever movement and positioning themselves high up the field to be effective rather than being able to burst into space after a turnover of possession.

With Rodgers set to be able to bring in a few transfer targets over the summer, expect the flanks to be one area of dramatic improvement on this score.

Liverpool have had pace on the wings, of course; Jermaine Pennant and Mark Gonzalez were two of the quicker wingers in their day.

The key now will be to find players with both pace and match-winning ability.

Less Reliance on Counter-Attacks with Emphasis on Building from the Back

Liverpool were by no means a counter-attacking side last season. On the other hand, they were at times a little lost as to how to proceed to break teams down.

While the counter-attack should not be disregarded entirely as a method of surprising teams after a turnover, it is clear that the Reds will not be looking to utilise it as the primary method of attack next season.

Swansea totaled just four shots off the end of a counter attack over the entire campaign.

In itself that doesn't mean that Swansea rarely used it, of course, merely that they didn't often get to shoot at the end of them.

However, it is highly indicative, when placed in context alongside other statistics such as a 71 percent pass completion rate in the final third of the pitch, that they did not look to utilise the counter-attack at the expense of a methodical, planned and comfortable build-up.

More Players Will Be Encouraged—or Signed—to Run with Ball in the Final Third

It is no secret that last season, pretty much the only Liverpool player capable of causing danger on a regular basis by running with the ball at his feet was Luis Suarez.

The talented Uruguayan is never shy in dribbling toward goal and was far and away Liverpool's most prolific dribbler, with 189 successful ones.

Despite around 2,500 minutes of Premier League time apiece—of which all for Stewart Downing and most for Jordan Henderson were spent in the wide areas of the pitch—neither managed to find the confidence, room or ability to muster up any more than around a quarter of that number.

After Suarez, the only players who regularly were able to attempt dribbles for the Reds were the full-backs, Jose Enrique (79) and Glen Johnson (71).

Swansea looked far more often to their wide players to commit defenders and probe the attacking areas of the pitch by dribbling, with Scott Sinclair (139) and Nathan Dyer (121) both actually managing a better successful dribble percentage than Suarez.

Neither of the Swansea fullbacks ventured forward in the same manner as their Liverpool counterparts.

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