Former Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez knows what it feels like to miss out on the title by a few precious points, and after the Crystal Palace disaster on Monday, it looks increasingly like Brendan Rodgers will soon experience the same crushing disappointment. Benitez is still revered on Merseyside, and last night, he gave his view on LFC's collapse at Selhurst Park.
When asked about the Crystal Palace capitulation, Benitez told reporters:
“Liverpool are a team who are very focused on the attack.
"I think they expected to score more goals in order to improve the goal difference with Manchester City.
“This happens in English football, as it is never over until the final whistle, you just need to throw a couple of balls into the box and it can all change."
I'm sure many fans share Benitez's view: the players were seemed obsessed with racking up the goals, and didn't focus on closing out the game. I personally don't think that was the biggest mistake, though. Irrespective of the attacking approach, the players needed to defend properly, and as usual, that just didn't happen.
During his time at Anfield, Benitez didn't have much luck at Selhurst Park, either. Liverpool lost both away games against Palace in 2005, and overall, Liverpool haven't won there since December 1997.
If Benitez was still in charge, it's probable he would've taken a very different approach to Monday's game. In all probability, the open, expansive approach would've been replaced with a more cautious, counter-attacking game-plan, and once the Reds were 3-0 up, Benitez would've closed the game down/
Perhaps Rodgers should've taken the same approach against Palace? That's not his style, though, and hopefully, he won't change his philosophy. Defending is the issue, both individually, and as a team, and fixing this will hopefully be prioritised this summer.
Author: Jaimie K
When asked about the Crystal Palace capitulation, Benitez told reporters:
“Liverpool are a team who are very focused on the attack.
"I think they expected to score more goals in order to improve the goal difference with Manchester City.
“This happens in English football, as it is never over until the final whistle, you just need to throw a couple of balls into the box and it can all change."
I'm sure many fans share Benitez's view: the players were seemed obsessed with racking up the goals, and didn't focus on closing out the game. I personally don't think that was the biggest mistake, though. Irrespective of the attacking approach, the players needed to defend properly, and as usual, that just didn't happen.
During his time at Anfield, Benitez didn't have much luck at Selhurst Park, either. Liverpool lost both away games against Palace in 2005, and overall, Liverpool haven't won there since December 1997.
If Benitez was still in charge, it's probable he would've taken a very different approach to Monday's game. In all probability, the open, expansive approach would've been replaced with a more cautious, counter-attacking game-plan, and once the Reds were 3-0 up, Benitez would've closed the game down/
Perhaps Rodgers should've taken the same approach against Palace? That's not his style, though, and hopefully, he won't change his philosophy. Defending is the issue, both individually, and as a team, and fixing this will hopefully be prioritised this summer.
Author: Jaimie K
We simply do not have a defence.
ReplyDeleteAgree totally. We are talking quite fine margins here and a couple of changes in defence might be all that is required .
ReplyDeleteI would really like them to win the league and still thinks it is possible but the way they play is even more important to me and I love the attacking approach under BR.
The challenge might be to learn how to control a game in the latter stages when the pressing game we play has perhaps started to tire the players. This might be with a few substitutions for which we need better players on the bench and/or a slighly more compact and defensive formation but only for the latter stages.
Even though we drew the game, I liked what I saw.
ReplyDeleteif anybody talks about this game anytime, he will talk as the game Liverpool came to palace to score about 6 or 7 and had total and utter dominance of the match in a place where usually you'll be happy to run away with a 1-0 win. That shows our CLASS
I don't see sakho,glen,flanagan has the consistency of good defending nor attacking and gerrard as a DM is not covering or breaking up play in front of our center back either.This is the key area we have to improved.
ReplyDeleteRodgers needs to realise there's a time and a place for attacking football. If he had realised this against Chelsea, got his tactics right and played for the draw we needed, we wouldn't have needed to go all out for goal difference against Palace.
ReplyDeletePeople say he won't change his philosophy, but this isn't even the same philosophy he had when he arrived at LFC. It was all about possession and wearing the opposition down, not direct attacking. He is adapting and learning.
Hopefully he'll learn that seeing the odd game out and picking up trophies is better that being able to say, we attacked 100% of the time in every single game and won absolutely nothing.
What we really need is for Rafa to come back as Rodger's defensive assistant.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that was the problem at all. We had been attacking all game long and hand been defensively solid. What happened that after we had been warned by a long distance shot that flew off target, we still gave them the opportunity to shoot from distance and they got their 3-1. They then went gung-ho on us and rather than throwing on Agger or Touré we brought on Coutinho and Moses. So with no threat on their own end, Palace threw everything at us and our defenders could not handle the attacks and were not supported enough by our midfielders and attackers. I am convinced that had we subbed Sterling for Agger or Touré we would have hung on to the lead.
ReplyDeleteCan you predict the odds of that happening?:-)
ReplyDeleteRafa as an assistant... I am sure you were joking right?
ReplyDelete1st goal conceded = Johnson not closing down the player. Goal scored from right hand side of our defence.
ReplyDelete2nd goal conceded = Our defence was nowhere to be found. Goal scored from the right hand side of our defence.
Third goal conceded = Right hand side of our defence = Skrtel and Johnson = taking a nap again.
Poor defending was definitely the reason why we conceded goals.
I have posted the goal highlights but they have gone for moderartion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXow3RyTiqw
ReplyDeletePerhaps Sami could do that. He is free now.
ReplyDeleteHoullier, rafa and rodgers all losers( title talk).
ReplyDeleteDefender not the problem .We need defensive midfielder. If you analize closely
ReplyDeleteST weakling
If "Benitez was in charge" Liverpool wouldn't be sitting at the top of the table with one game left! How the tide turns after a poor result or two! Shame on you. Plastic Fans!!
ReplyDeleteYeh. And your a winner no doubt? Trolling Muppet!
ReplyDeletei dont think the defence is that bad ,but there number 7 was to good for johnson
ReplyDeleteWe need a quick CB? Oh I forgot, we already have one. Hoping Ilori is part of the squad next season.
ReplyDeleteYes but that was not the point Benitez made. He said we opened up too much because we put too many players forward looking to score more goals. But we didn't put even more bodies forward. We just kept doing at 3-0 what had been working for 75 minutes already. So in that situation Palace had nothing to lose and threw everything but the kitchen sink at us. Had we brought on a CB then rather than an AM, they would not have had the space to score another two.
ReplyDeleteWe only conceded one goal due to committing to many forward which was the second goal.
ReplyDeleteThe other two goals purely down to rubbish defending. Go watch the goals we conceded on youtube and see for yourself.
Refa is on The Flag. Bringing him as defensive coordinator will be an insult.
ReplyDeleteexactly
ReplyDeleteIsn't that what I'm saying? Had we had Agger at the back in stead of Coutinho up on top somewhere there would have been one more defender clogging up the box so mistakes would have less impac
ReplyDeleteOur team looks like naive in terms of changing the pace of a game, when they scored the 1-3, someone should "do the Dzeko" and fake an injury and waste some time to cool things down, not to mention that when their counter-attack started in the 2nd goal, someone should stopped that play with a foul, nevermind a yellow if you're avoiding a goal.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'm proud of my team, they scored for fun all the season, but sometimes dirty old tricks makes the difference that allows u to win titles.
Having an extra defender there would have covered for Johnson's mistake. Actually, playing five at the back would have had someone else in that position all together.
ReplyDeleteThere are no guarantees that an extra defender would have avoided goal 1 & 3.
ReplyDeleteNo offence to Rafa but if he was in charge we would of started the game with 1 striker and 4 defensive mids...
ReplyDeleteDidn't realise it was BR tactics that caused Gerrard to let the ball run under his feet and then slip.
ReplyDeleteYes it was all BR's fault.
Logan is right. An extra defender is no guarantee. What we needed in the last 10 - 15 mins was for our defenders calm down and to defend. Instead they panicked and totally lost their heads.
ReplyDelete