5 Issues Liverpool Need to Work on During International Break
As Jordan Henderson, Raheem Sterling and Adam Lallana all saw just 45 minutes of international action for England this week—after a public disagreement between Brendan Rodgers and Roy Hodgson over Daniel Sturridge's injury—the Liverpool manager has had a chance to work intensely with his players during the international break.
With Steven Gerrard having retired from the England scene and Mario Balotelli missing out on a call-up to Antonio Conte's Italy squad—as well as Sturridge's return to training—Rodgers will be relishing the opportunity to get some intense training work done to improve their unsteady start to the new 2014/15 season.
A Premier League win over West Bromwich Albion leading up to the international break allowed the Reds to temporarily end their club-football action on a high, but there is still plenty of room for improvement, especially when compared against their high-flying style of last season.
Here are five issues Liverpool need to work on during the international break. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Defending Set Pieces
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Even while Liverpool were obliterating most of their opponents in the second half of last season, their defence was never as watertight as Rodgers would've liked. With the exit of the highly influential Luis Suarez, suddenly the spotlight has been cast back on their defensive problems.
Sure, individual defensive mistakes by their defenders and goalkeeper Simon Mignolet are also glaring, but set-piece situations have become the major Achilles' heel as far as their defence is concerned—their Champions League loss at Basel last week showed yet again their weaknesses.
Reds fans will be hoping that Rodgers takes the international break as an opportunity to focus on shoring up his defence and not provide such an easy and predictable outlet for opponents to score—especially when they will have otherwise dominated the match without replicating their goal-scoring blitzes last season.
Attacking Set Pieces
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With just 10 goals scored in seven league outings this season, it's safe to say that the Reds haven't kicked back into attacking gear yet.
And one of the major factors that contributed to their prolific goal-scoring record last season was, ironically, attacking set pieces, with Martin Skrtel notching seven goals—a personal career high—at the other end of the pitch.
Liverpool's chief architect from set-piece opportunities, Steven Gerrard, has been off his game this season from dead balls, with only an excellent direct free kick in the Merseyside derby a memorable example of his set-piece ability.
Somewhere in the Liverpool squad is the submerged ability to score from free kicks and corners. Rodgers now needs to get his charges to rediscover their scoring touch—and get Gerrard back to his very best from such situations.
The Whole-Pitch Press
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Liverpool's decision to replace the effervescent Luis Suarez with the languid Mario Balotelli this summer might still be justified in the longer run, but in the short term the differences in their styles of play are there for all to see.
With Balotelli preferring to drop deep and not make penetrating runs beyond the opposition defence—and with Sturridge having been out for the best part of two months—the Reds have found it hard to get going.
Joe Allen and Emre Can's injuries have also affected Liverpool's high-intensity pressing game all over the pitch, and Rodgers' decision to move Gerrard further forward in support of Balotelli after the latter's introduction injected purpose to their game and further put West Brom back on the back foot.
While Balotelli's work rate has clearly improved, he still has a ways to go before he can replicate Suarez's intensity. Perhaps the Uruguayan's style was one of a kind, but if Rodgers wants to continue in last season's vein, the whole-pitch press needs to return to Anfield sharpish.
Midfield Rotations
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So far this season, Rodgers has not been able to make full use of a deep squad of midfielders. Adam Lallana has only recently returned to full fitness, while Allen and Can's injury troubles have deprived their manager of a complete set of options.
After experiments with a 4-2-3-1 system with Steven Gerrard sitting behind Jordan Henderson ended up badly exposing the captain's lack of pace and tactical discipline, Rodgers tried Philippe Coutinho in a more withdrawn role against West Brom, and more notably moved Gerrard into a No. 10 role in the second half.
For the best part of the past year, Rodgers has converted Gerrard into a deep-lying playmaker to much acclaim, but as opponents figure out how to counter this system, he will increasingly need to look at ways to get around man-marking tactics.
Making full use of Gerrard's versatility and trying out different formations with other midfielders rotating around the different slots—thereby prolonging Gerrard's career—might just result in a better answer over the coming months.
The Return of Kolo Toure
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When Daniel Agger made his high-profile return to Brondby this summer and Sebastian Coates completed a season-long loan move to Sunderland for the season, there was always the chance that they could be decisions that would come back and bite Liverpool.
With Mamadou Sakho having sustained a thigh injury—which Brendan Rodgers has said, via the Daily Mail, was the reason behind his exclusion from their traveling squad to Basel—and Dejan Lovren pulling out of the Croatia squad with an abdominal tear (per BBC Sport), suddenly the Reds look dangerously thin at the back.
Recent rumors linking West Ham United's Winston Reid with a move to Anfield (via the Metro) might be relevant in the longer run in the coming transfer windows (and in any case are a measure of their ongoing defensive problems), but Rodgers needs a short-term solution.
Step up Kolo Toure, who has been much maligned for his high-profile errors in a Liverpool shirt. Hardly an ideal time for him to return to the starting XI, but Rodgers needs all the experience he can offer.
Work must start now to ensure that Toure shows the best of his abilities, not his eccentric mistakes, upon his return.
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