The praise just keeps on coming for Liverpool new-boy Lazar Markovic. Former Chelsea boss Avram Grant recently compared him to Messi and Ronaldo; Reds legend Mark Lawrenson claimed this week that the Serbian star will 'thrive' at Anfield, and now, ex-scout - and former CEO of Monaco - Tor-Kristian Karlsen has joined the chorus of appreciation, insisting that the 20-year old is one of Europe's top talents. That's a lot of hype for Markovic to live-up to (!), but Karlsen qualified his praise by outlining the areas in which the attacker will need to improve if he's to flourish in the Premier League.
In an interview with the Liverpool Echo, Karlsen described Markovic as a 'tactically smart forward' who likes to 'get involved in the build-up play', and hailed his technical proficiency, 'breathtaking' dribbling skills; and effortless ability to make 'defence splitting passes'.
That all sounds great, but Karlsen conceded that there's a 'slight concern' that Markovic might not settle in the Premier League, and outlined three areas of his game that need particular attention:
* Movement 'off the ball', both in terms of making himself available and to look for space.
* Defensive tracking-back, to a 'much higher degree that he’s used to'.
* Adapting to the 'overwhelming' pace and intensity of the English game.
The tracking-back issue is a bug-bear of mine. I appreciate that defending is a team-responsibility, but it irritates me that attacking players are basically forced to run themselves into the ground, arguably to the detriment of their creative productivity.
I personally don't want to see wide-attackers constantly in LFC's penalty area defending, or running more miles than any other player in the team. Their principle role is to score and create goals, and that should be the main focus.
Coutinho is a prime example here. In his first six months, he played superbly, and scored/assisted on a regular basis. Last season, the Brazilian did a lot more work defensively (probably after being coached to focus more on defensive duties), and his creative output (and overall influence) suffered.
This obsession with defending/tracking back is not so prevalent in La Liga. Ronaldo and Messi don't run themselves into the ground in every single game, and their respective teams don't seem to suffer that much. Their creative role is prioritised, and in my view, that's the way it should be.
Despite the physical challenges ahead, Karlsen insists that Markovic will not be fazed by the 'magnitude of the challenge', adding:
“If Markovic delivers on his potential, he’ll eventually be worth at least twice as much.”
Let's hope he's right.
Author: Jaimie K
In an interview with the Liverpool Echo, Karlsen described Markovic as a 'tactically smart forward' who likes to 'get involved in the build-up play', and hailed his technical proficiency, 'breathtaking' dribbling skills; and effortless ability to make 'defence splitting passes'.
That all sounds great, but Karlsen conceded that there's a 'slight concern' that Markovic might not settle in the Premier League, and outlined three areas of his game that need particular attention:
* Movement 'off the ball', both in terms of making himself available and to look for space.
* Defensive tracking-back, to a 'much higher degree that he’s used to'.
* Adapting to the 'overwhelming' pace and intensity of the English game.
The tracking-back issue is a bug-bear of mine. I appreciate that defending is a team-responsibility, but it irritates me that attacking players are basically forced to run themselves into the ground, arguably to the detriment of their creative productivity.
I personally don't want to see wide-attackers constantly in LFC's penalty area defending, or running more miles than any other player in the team. Their principle role is to score and create goals, and that should be the main focus.
Coutinho is a prime example here. In his first six months, he played superbly, and scored/assisted on a regular basis. Last season, the Brazilian did a lot more work defensively (probably after being coached to focus more on defensive duties), and his creative output (and overall influence) suffered.
This obsession with defending/tracking back is not so prevalent in La Liga. Ronaldo and Messi don't run themselves into the ground in every single game, and their respective teams don't seem to suffer that much. Their creative role is prioritised, and in my view, that's the way it should be.
Despite the physical challenges ahead, Karlsen insists that Markovic will not be fazed by the 'magnitude of the challenge', adding:
“If Markovic delivers on his potential, he’ll eventually be worth at least twice as much.”
Let's hope he's right.
Author: Jaimie K
Always negative on this website.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest those three points you make are applicable to any player joining the PL and to that extent every signing is a potential flop but you can't think like that!!
ReplyDeleteCoutinho was played further up the pitch in his first 6 months. A lot of last year he played as LCM meaning he had more defensive responsibilities.
I didn't see that as being a negative article. More about how in asking too much of certain players defensively, you risk restricting their attacking threat.
ReplyDeleteI didn't make those three points; Karlsen did.
ReplyDeleteAnd Coutinho did not play further up the field in his first six months. He mostly played on the left of the front three. Last season, he played higher up the pitch at times (number 10 role), but also played on the left again.
Well yeh the points Karlsen makes if I'm being technically correct... They are pretty much the 3 main things you worry about buying foreign players... Coping with the demands of English football.
ReplyDeleteWhen we started playing the diamond he was generally played further back with Sterling in the 10. In his first 6 months he was mostly used as one of the wide players in a 433. So if you look at it like that, the second half of last season, he was played deeper.
Sooo...to sum Karlson up: if you haven't played in the PL, you're not good enough to play in the PL.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't an insult or me belittling your article but it comes across like you haven't played 11 a side football Jaimie for a team where tactics are important, i say this because playing for a team since i was 8 and playing out wide is a job where you have defensive responsibility , in the case of Ronaldo or messi, if you watch Barcelona or real Madrid, you can see they have free roles and the team covers their defensive duties, as for coutinho, if you compare his first 6 months we weren't even close to the same team that we were last season and things like that make a massive difference like his attacking and defensive performance against city at the end of the season like tackling toure
ReplyDeleteYou have totally missed the point. Perhaps if you understood the actual point I'm making, you wouldn't need to make erroneous inferences about whether I play football.
ReplyDeleteI'm not claiming that wide players don't have defensive responsibility; I'm suggesting excessive tracking back restricts creative impact.
If Barca and Real Madrid can set-up to allow Ronaldo and Messi to have free roles, then Liverpool should be able to do something similar with the likes of Coutinho.
Instead, he is forced to run endlessly up and down the pitch, which (IMO) dulls his attacking edge.
And for the record, I do play 11-a-side, and have done for years. I am a wide player, so I know the defensive demands required; and I also know how tiring it is.
At the lower levels of English football, there's an obsession with defending, tackling etc, which hinders self-expression on the field. It's the same in the Premier League, but to a lesser degree.
No... if you haven't played in the PL you need time to adapt.
ReplyDeleteMessi has the same concerns too! As great as he is he got flaws. We are not looking for perfect players..YNWA
ReplyDeleteI agree that players like coutinho need free roles to flourish but at the same time like last season u effectively had Suarez and sturridge in free roles and having too many players roaming and not being disciplined can leave you open at the back, and it wasn't an erroneous inference, i understood the point and had an answer for it, it was merely an observation, its the same in Scottish amateur football and youth football, its all about running and not technique, that's where the kirk broadfoots of the world come in
ReplyDeleteJust to add to that, my observation is based on discussions with people about football that have never played in any capacity and seem to be experts on positional football
ReplyDeletePressure on the ball is a fundamental part of how we play. It creates possession which creates chances. It also starts our defensive work higher up the pitch, although it certainly can be argued that our defensive tactics have not proven themselves effective. However in terms of scoring goals I think it would be revealing to see just how many of our goals came from turnovers caused by high pressure on opposition players. That's our style it's how we play, it's how we end up with attacking players getting space and the opportunity to attack in the first place. This doesn't require attacking players to be hanging around back in their own penalty area, on that we're agreed, however there will be times when our wing backs will be caught out in a bad position and for those handful of times during the match I fully expect an attacking player to recognise when they need to make a defensive contribution and track back. In the simplest terms players need to be ABLE to do this, know when it's required and have both the willingness and the capability. Markovic will need to learn this, it's mandatory, and if he doesn't then it will hurt the team.
ReplyDeleteWhat needs to be recognised is that it's all part of how we play, how we played last season. Last season was brilliant. I challenge any fan to suggest our style or tactics were flawed, outside of the obvious defensive issues we had. Reducing the responsibility of attacking players won't help our defence and although you can point to Coutinho as one example the fact remains that we scored 100 goals last season and players like Sturridge, Suarez and Sterling all had defensive or pressing responsibilities to some extent. It didn't seem to hurt them so I don't think the evidence is there. The tactic has absolutely NO impact on our ability to score goals and be an effective attacking team. I think Coutinho was in fact being asked to play a deeper midfield role because Sterling was playing in that true 10 position and that more logically explains his lack of contribution further up the field. Sterling's output increased, Coutinho's decreased.
So he'll be a self obsessed narcissistic cu.nt this season, but next year he'll have a drug problem.
ReplyDeleteIsn't there a health medium, like being Lindsey Lohan or something?
If Coutinho's creative output is falling, then the tactics *are* flawed. The team should not be set-up for one of LFC's most creative forces to fail.
ReplyDeleteLiverpool got ridiculously lucky with both Suarez and Sturridge scoring 20+ goals each, and those two papered over the cracks a little. With Suarez gone, Coutinho will need to chip in more consistently, and he won't do that if he's restricted again next season.
And as for Coutinho playing deeper - there were only a handful of games where he played at the bottom of a diamond; you and others are trying to make out that he spend the majority of the season playing 'deeper', which is just not true.
But if Coutinho is playing deeper and someone else is contributing then it really doesn't matter about Coutinho's attacking output. Just because we know Coutinho can create opportunities doesn't mean he has to and can't be played in a deeper position if it is to the benefit of the overall team.
ReplyDeletePlus I think you must be watching different games to us... Coutinho missed the majority of the first few months more or less, came back in November, I think and then probably January onwards was played deeper so I'd say most of his season.
You call it luck, I call it brilliant football, and to me it's all set up from the tactics that we play. I suppose this coming season will be the acid test. I think Sturridge's creative output is totally predictable and, injuries aside, you won't disagree with me when I predict he'll score another 20 goals this year and probably have 5+ assists. Maybe Suarez getting 30 was above average but I don't agree at all that it was lucky they both played so well. The system was set up for them to score and they did. I think "ridiculously lucky" is very wide of the mark. Losing Suarez puts tremendous pressure on the rest of the team to prove themselves and maybe we just have to wait and see how it works out. I expect Liverpool to play the same kind of football and produce the same number of goals.
ReplyDeleteCoutinho is one example but I didn't hear you making this same explicit argument the last time you talked about his reduced creative output. You simply mentioned that he's not been as good this year. Maybe you've been thinking it all along, that he's being worked too hard, but this is the first time I recall you arguing it this way. I also don't actually agree that he's been that poor. He's been a big contributor in midfield no matter where he's played. He's still created chances and made good passes. No, I won't argue that he's been played deeper the whole season, but it's clear to me that the peak of Sterling's output came at a cost for Coutinho's role in the team. For Sterling to be playing that central 10 role means any possibility for Coutinho to have a good end of season run just didn't eventuate. It's just a part of the story, I'm not at all dismissing that what you're saying has had an impact, it probably has.
No, you just have inaccurate recall of Coutinho's positional play. At no point did he play 'deep' in the traditions sense. Irrespective of position (No 10; left of a front three; ahead of Gerrard/Henderson), he played as an attacker in advanced positions. However, due to increased defensive duties, his impact was muted.
ReplyDeleteYou seem hellbent on making it sound like Coutinho played as deep as Henderson and Gerrard, which isn't true in the slightest.
I think It dawn on Coutinho how much the fan's expected from him and the pressure got to him.
ReplyDeleteI remember at the start of the season a interviewer told him he's the player selling the most LFC shirts (with Suarez leaving rumours). His reply was something along the lines of I will do my utmost to repay their love. Hence his shooting on goal has a hint of Heskey and those sexy passes killer passes we saw when he first come are being over thought.
Saying that he improved near the tail end of the season.
I think he'll fair better this season though (touch wood), his shooting need a fair bit of tweaking though.
Coutinho and Hendo interchange positions through the game. But I think Hendo's starting position when we are defending seem to be him at the tip on the midfield, as he was the one more often than not pressing the opposisition centre backs. Plus Coutinho passing seemed more effective 10 yards off the halfway line, as he had space.
ReplyDeleteBut surely each player has an area of the pitch that they're supposed to defend so responsibility is shared. If you're playing on the flanks you're gonna have to do more defensive work. The players role in each match determines how much running he'll have to do. It certainly didn't seem to curtail our attacking last season
ReplyDeleteI'm not for one minute saying he played as deep as Gerrard but he definitely did do similar work to Hendo albeit Hendo has a better engine so naturally covers more ground.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that Sturridge is nailed on for 20-goals a season. That's the beauty of the player, and LFC are lucky to have him.
ReplyDeleteRe Coutinho - I haven't argued it this way before because I've only been thinking about it in this manner for a short while. I've re-watched quite a few games since the season ended (trying to figure out why Coutnho's form dropped) and his increased defensive duty sticks out as a contributing factor re his decreased impact on the team.
I don't think Coutinho was 'poor' last season, but he arguably didn't progress from his first six months. For me, he is one of those players who should have a (semi) free role in the team; if you just give Coutinho license to do his stuff (unhindered by excessive defensive expectation), he will do serious damage, and he'll probably enjoy playing a lot more.
I'm not suggesting he shouldn't defend, but there shouldn't be so much pressure on him to defend in the same manners as Henderson, Gerrard et al.
That's the point, though - a player like Coutinho should not be doing a similar job to Henderson. That kind of donkey work should be left the central midfielders; Coutinho should be further up the field with a license to inflict damage on the other team.
ReplyDeleteMaking a player like Coutinho work as hard as Henderson is a total waste of a prodigious talent.
Of course a free role would inevitably see the best out of Coutinho but getting the best out of Coutinho isn't necessarily the answer to getting the best out of the team right now. Maybe one day he will have developed into such a great player he demands to have a team setup for him, who knows, but at the moment I'm not convinced he has the consistency to do that so for the time being playing him where best suits the team is the right way IMO.
ReplyDeleteconsistency is the key word for any professional footballer around the world, in my opinion ......... because on that level, there will be not much differences in term of ability, if the big club like liverpool sign players then he should be good enough to play at their level.
ReplyDeleteRodgers commented the other day about how Suarez didn't bag enough goals under Dalglish. That's a very fair assessment. Rodgers continued, claiming we have a system and/or style in place where we will create plenty of opportunities, and you would expect Sturridge et al to put most of them away. Therefore, Suarez, albeit and extraordinary individual, was just part of a fantastic attacking system. I credit everything offensively to Rodgers, but his tactics have major defensive flaws so if you're looking to be challenged on that, it won't be hard for anyone to construct an argument against you.
ReplyDeleteCoutinho is not Messi/Ronaldo. Our Messi/Ronaldo last season was Suarez. Although naturally a hard worker, Suarez had plenty of creative freedom. Sturridge too. Besides, Messi/Ronaldo are exceptional circumstances. What about Messi in the false 9 role? That's a very deep role for the furthest and most central attacker in a system, didn't negatively effect his output. And, if you believe the furthest player forward in a midfield triangle should have little to no defensive responsibilities, and the defensive duties of wingers should be limited, I'd hate to be a player in your set up. It's just defending as a team. Is this non existent in La Liga?
ReplyDeleteIf you've gone to re watch some games, you would have surely noticed the narrow midfield diamond which paired Suarez-Sturridge, the two most creative and effective outlets for the team. If that means less emphasis on Coutinho then so be it. The only example I can think of regarding extra defensive duties is the City game at Anfield, where Coutinho was excellent in a wide-right midfielder role. Funnily enough he scored a goal that day. Coutinho was often benched in favour of SAS and Sterling. It could be different this season with the loss of Suarez, maybe Coutinho/Lallana will take up a free role to compensate.
Afters years of reading your content, the ideas you've presented here are intriguing. I've gathered that you're not favourable towards defensive midfielders, and now general defensive duties. If you want more creative freedom for some individuals, does that mean you will ease up the pressure on someone like Henderson, or Lucas?
The defensive frailties are what make it so interesting. We have these pressing tactics and attacking players doing all this work and yet our defence still falls to bits. I would guess it's actually part of the cause. Pressing is great, but it's not structured defence, it can be a bit random and unpredictable so it's not always going to lead to a good defensive result. For me the pressing and the hard work is about getting possession back, it's a completely offence-oriented tactic with defence as a helpful side effect. If we have most of the possession we ultimately don't need to defend properly. I do wonder if Rodgers has a big blind spot when it comes to defensive responsibilities. His notion of needing a vocal on-field leader to somehow make it all come together seems to reveal an underlying insecurity that tactics alone won't get it done.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that with Suarez gone Coutinho will be back in that free role and his defensive workload will decrease. Suarez did a tremendous amount of attacking work on the left side of the final third and Coutinho would slot into that kind of role pretty well. Given that we've brought in Can and Lallana who would both play deeper I would see far less need to employ Coutinho in those hard-working midfield positions.
ReplyDeleteI guess my take-home point is that players must be capable of doing this kind of work, not that they would dedicate themselves to it. We don't need another Kuyt, as much as I appreciated what he did at the time. Kuyt often took his defensive role too seriously and didn't allow himself those advanced positions because it meant he wouldn't be following Rafa's instructions perfectly. It's just that the player needs to be willing and, in the moments when it's required, be it for 30 seconds or an intense 10 minutes of desperate defence when we just can't get the ball back, has to have the mindset where they don't leave the rest of the team hanging because they decide to hang around waiting for a loose ball on the counter. Markovic must be capable and willing, he must show a good work ethic and if manager tells him to track back and do defensive work then he just goes and does it, no questions asked. It's still a team game and Liverpool's current success is because they play very much as a team, not just a collection of individuals.
When Rodgers first came in he promised relentless pressing and total domination with the ball. With the way he always spoke about Lucas, and the transfer of Allen, he tried to implement this as best he could. It didn't really turn out that way though. The pressing is still there from some players but IMO we place less emphasis on keeping the ball. We make the most of our attacking roster, we are direct, pacey, and very expressive, which leads to us being a deadly counter attacking outfit. On occasions it would be nice to hang on to the ball and be more disciplined, but no one is really complaining.
ReplyDeleteThis could be a bit far fetched, but my theory behind the defensive issues is that Rodgers doesn't actively coach it on the training pitch. I try to picture it and just can't see it. Of course there are individual errors and the odd wonder goal, or something like the Gerrard slip which you can't blame Rodgers for, but when it's been a sustained problem for 2 years, something in training isn't happening. I firmly believe it's possible to be just as good as we were last season without conceding so many goals.
u r really worried abt coutinho and other attackers falling back to defend. while we had such sloppy defense last year...if even 5 goals had been less we wud hac been champions
ReplyDeleteOr maybe Rodgers just has not made the back four his yet? Ilori, Toure and Sakho are the only defenders Rodgers has signed.
ReplyDeleteThe other things is that we had no player commanding our back four last season. If we sign Lovren then maybe that will be resolved. Johnson is past it, Agger cannot cope with the pace of the EPL anymore.
Rodgers has mainly concentrated on the attack and midfield. Once he has added more of his own players to the defence then things may improve.
I reject that notion. We've seen Rodgers sign his favourite players like Borini and Allen but it hasn't always worked out so there's no guarantee Rodgers will magically pinpoint the solution. Plus, Toure, Ilori and Sakho hardly inspire confidence if your backing Rodgers own targets.
ReplyDeleteLovren is one name, Hummels is another. But, I think this goes beyond any one individual. It's a holistic issue.
To you Sakho does not inspire confidence. To me and others he does.
ReplyDeleteIf Rodgers manages to add Lovren and hopefully a LB too then he will start building the defence with his own signings.
Except there is absolutey no evidence from last season to prove that Sakho 'inspires confidence', but plenty to suggest he doesn't. Next? You'll probably be arguing that Aspas is a 'vital striker' for LFC.
ReplyDeleteSent from Samsung Mobile
Naturally over time more and more members of the squad will be Rodgers signings. There's still no guarantee of success.
ReplyDeleteIf Liverpool sign Lovren, it will be Sakho sitting on the bench, not Skrtel.
Agreed. After his brilliant season last year, there's no chance Skrtel is warming the bench this season. What kind of man-management would that be?
ReplyDeleteBut I remember Suarez hitting the woodwork about 12 times that season...so it wasn't because of lack of opportunity...his aim was just a bit off that season as he adapted.
ReplyDeleteSkrtel is an accident waiting to happen, he really didn't inspire confidence last year at all - best of a bad bunch
ReplyDeleteTrue,Downing was great when 'left back', in the dressing room.
ReplyDeleteLimited squad last year mate..it was either coutinho or sterling to play left of Gerrard while Hendo played right of Gerrard in the 3 man midfield...the position was key in terms of spraying passes for the counterattack..see Coutinho's through 30 yrd through ball to Sturridge vs Arsenal. Also Rogers wanted Sterling at the tip to take advantage his pace at other end..it worked ..we scored a bunch of goals. Not sure why Coutinho's personal goals/assists so important here.
ReplyDeleteI get the feeling I'm going to be repeating this a lot, but: Markovic played central midfield for Benfica, was often the deepest midfielder orchestrating attacking movements even whilst his team were in possession and looking to apply his pace against the opposition from deep.
ReplyDeleteHe's not a winger, so he doesn't have to "track back"; rather he'll have to cover and press more like Sterling and Coutinho did in that position last season.
Coutinho's progression last year should be clear and heart warming to everyone. he basically came in as a young winger with great vision. last year he moved back into midfield (for obvious reasons, with SASAS up front he didnt need to be so attacking).
ReplyDeletewithin a year he developed from an immature forward to a pretty mature attacking midfielder (a far harder role to play) He was fantastic in the Man City game in CM: reading the game, getting stuck in while maintaining his vision and dribbling.
Id like to directly contradict your point Jamie: I think Coutinho's creative output per game dropped, but his overall influence clearly rose drastically. Im sick of the bias towards goals & assists stats in football, you can score a goal but actually have no contribution to the team's play. eg Rooney at the world cup. then you have the DM, barely any "output" but its well acknowledged that they control the game, and it just so happens that teams are more likely to score when on top.
ReplyDelete