Five Things Roy Hodgson Must Do For Liverpool Against Blackpool
Liverpool entertain Blackpool on Sunday at Anfield as they look to kick-start their faltering season.
With just one Premier League win to their name this season so far, a home 3 points would be an extremely welcome addition to the Reds' points tally. Lying in 16th position, one place and one point behind this weekend's opposition, Liverpool have looked a side in serious need of direction in recent weeks and as manager it is Hodgson's duty to provide it.
Over the past few games however Hodgson has looked as short of ideas as his team have on the pitch, and did not lead Liverpool to domestic victory in the whole of September, despite playing such teams as Northampton and Sunderland at home.
Blackpool then must surely be seen as a must-win game as the last fixture before the international break - after which Liverpool travel to Merseyside rivals Everton.
Lets look at what Roy Hodgson needs to do to get his team back on track before this key fixture....
Play Meireles in Central Midfield
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Against Utrecht in midweek, Meireles was stuck out on the right side of Liverpool's midfield. While he endeavoured to provide some width and get involved in the game, he was largely a periphial figure as the central midfield pairing of Lucas Leiva and Christian Poulsen failed to get a grip on the match and provide their more creative counterparts, Meireles and the left-sided Joe Cole, with enough ammunition to set up chances for forwards Kuyt and Torres.
Raul Meireles was Liverpool's most expensive summer signing at around £12 million and has played his entire career as a central midfielder, be it defensive, box-to-box or attacking.
Why then, is he now being utilised as a wide player, something which he is patently not suited to? Perhaps it would be more understandable if Liverpool had a central pairing of Gerrard and Xavi Hernandez or Gerrard and Cesc Fabregas, but Poulsen and Lucas? They cannot control a game playing together and Poulsen has yet to string five successive successful passes together since signing for Liverpool.
If Hodgson honestly intends to play a passing, attacking game then he needs his best passers at the heart of the team, and Raul Meireles is one of them. Meireles needs to be paired in the middle with Steven Gerrard and the sooner the better.
Decide on a Left Back
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No finger-pointing at Hodgson here - unless its because he didn't sign a better left back than Paul Konchesky and decided to re-sign the perpetually injured Fabio Aurelio.
Liverpool have fielded Aurelio, Konchesky, central defender Daniel Agger and youngster Martin Kelly at left back at various times this season.
As of this moment, all four are injured.
Jack Robinson, 17, has made 2 substitute appearances for Liverpool but is unlikely to be thrown into a Premiership game at this stage, so the options appear to be either the untried Chris Mavinga, a switch to left back for vice-captain Jamie Carragher, or, my preferred option, give a chance to backup full back Stephen Darby.
The local born defender is 21 years old and really needs to make an impression this season if he believes he can have a long-term future at Anfield.
With Martin Kelly ahead of him in the right-back area Darby may need to put in a brilliant performance to try to save his Liverpool career - if he even gets the nod.
Bring Jovanovic Back Into The Team
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After featuring in all Liverpool's first half-a-dozen matches or so this season after signing from Standard Liege, Milan Jovanovic quickly became something of a cult hero at Anfield.
His buccaneering, energetic style of play won him plaudits and it seemed that he was making the left-wing slot his own.
However in recent weeks, with Joe Cole pushed out onto the left - another player who shouldn't be playing in the position Hodgson has put him in - Milan has lost his place and has been warming the bench alongside the likes of Maxi Rodriguez and Ryan Babel.
Pushing Raul Meireles back into central midfield would free an attacking midfield slot, and out of Maxi, Babel and Jovanovic, the Serbian flyer would be my pick to start. Offering pace, hard work and having scored his first Reds goal recently, Jovanovic should be put back into the team to offer better service to Fernando Torres.
Instruct Liverpool to Attack Quicker
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Fernando Torres has had all the criticism in the world in the opening month or two of the season, despite scoring once in the Premier League (and by the way that's the same as Rooney and Pavlyuchenko and more than Defoe, Crouch and van Persie have got), and assisting four goals in the past two league matches.
Torres has been pilloried for his body language, lack of goals, lack of movement and even for changing his hair style - but his supposedly poor season can be put down to one thing - lack of service.
Having watched all bar one of Liverpool's matches this season it is plain to see the first thing the Reds need to do to help their star striker start firing again is attack quicker and in greater numbers.
Far, far too often this season a ball out of defence is hit towards Torres or Cole, and nobody else is within 30 metres. Nor do they attempt to get much closer with any rapidity. Liverpool need to start attacking as a unit and providing better passes to the front men. Again, for this, see Meireles playing central midfield.
MAKE SUBSTITUTIONS!
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Oh my.
Nothing quite like saying "we accept we can't win this game" to give your opposition confidence, is there?
Against Birmingham City, at 0-0, Ngog, Babel and Pacheco sat on the bench, patiently waiting their turn to be called upon to go and win the game for Liverpool.
But no. Hodgson made no substitutes, made no attempt to force the game and it petered out into a dull stalemate, Liverpool Football Club, that great bastion of the 70s and 80s, settling for not winning a league match. Unthinkable, and surely a mistake which wouldn't be repeated.
But wait.... Utrecht, Thursday night, 0-0, no less than four attacking subs on the bench this time in Ngog, Babel, Maxi and Jovanovic.... and the decision was to take off our most attacking player and probably Man of the Match on the night, Joe Cole, to be replaced by Maxi. That was it. No further attacking changes, no further changes of any kind in fact.
Now I'm not suggesting that in a game where Liverpool are attacking and creating threatening chances but haven't scored, that Hodgson make changes for the sake of it. But these were two turgid, flat, uninspired performances in which we barely came close to scoring.
One change made nine minutes from full time was the full extent of Liverpool's manager to try and win a European match and collect three points.
Maybe its just me, but I'm the kind of guy who prefers to win than not lose. Maybe its just me, but I thought that was what a club like Liverpool was built on.
Maybe its just me, but I thought the idea was to win trophies, not to attempt to not lose them.
If its not working, Roy, CHANGE IT.
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