Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is rightly renowned for his progressive football philosophy, and since arriving at Anfield, the club's performances on the field have become more attractive to watch. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the Reds defensive performance, which is pretty atrocious so far this season. This should not come as any surprise though, since Rodgers' teams have always struggled defensively.
I think it's clear to most Liverpool fans that the club is defensively lacking so far this season. Indeed, the stats back this up, and the team's record in competitive games under Rodgers is pretty poor so far:
* Conceded 20 goals in 14 games overall.
* Average of 1.4 goals conceded per game.
* League only: 12 goals conceded in 7 games.
* League average: 1.7 goals conceded per game.
If Liverpool continue to concede 1.7 goals per game in the league for the rest of the season, the club will end this year with over 60 goals conceded, which is mid-table form. Goals conceded in the league last season:
* Swansea - 61 (11th place finish)
* Norwich City - 66 (12 place finish)
Soon after Liverpool appointed Rodgers, I wrote an article presenting his entire career stats.
I've reproduced the stats table below, and as you can see, defensive issues are a consistent theme throughout Rodgers' career:
Brendan Rodgers: Total Career Stats
* Every one of Rodgers' teams has a history of leaking goals. His teams concede an average of 1.3 goals per game (GPG), and Swansea ended last season with a negative goal difference and an average of 1.4 Goals conceded per game.
* Overall, the stats suggest that Rodgers' teams are not the greatest defensively. Alongside the high goals conceded ratio, there is only a 4 game differential between games won overall (61) and games lost (57).
At Liverpool, Rodgers theoretically has higher quality defenders at his disposal, yet this has made no real difference to defensive solidity:
* Last season, Swansea conceded an average of 1.4 goals per league game.
* This season so far, LFC have conceded 1.7 league goals per game, which is a massive regression from last season, when the club ended the year with only 1.05 league goals conceded per game.
Liverpool's senior players have made the majority of defensive mistakes this season. with Glen Johnson, Martin Skrtel and Pepe Reina responsible for at least 9 goals between them.
Liverpool have issues scoring goals, but the bigger priority is (arguably) plugging the leaks at the back. Hopefully, the team will build on the clean sheet achieved at Stoke and become a lean, mean, goal-deflecting machine.
Jaimie Kanwar
I think it's clear to most Liverpool fans that the club is defensively lacking so far this season. Indeed, the stats back this up, and the team's record in competitive games under Rodgers is pretty poor so far:
* Conceded 20 goals in 14 games overall.
* Average of 1.4 goals conceded per game.
* League only: 12 goals conceded in 7 games.
* League average: 1.7 goals conceded per game.
If Liverpool continue to concede 1.7 goals per game in the league for the rest of the season, the club will end this year with over 60 goals conceded, which is mid-table form. Goals conceded in the league last season:
* Swansea - 61 (11th place finish)
* Norwich City - 66 (12 place finish)
Soon after Liverpool appointed Rodgers, I wrote an article presenting his entire career stats.
I've reproduced the stats table below, and as you can see, defensive issues are a consistent theme throughout Rodgers' career:
Brendan Rodgers: Total Career Stats
* Every one of Rodgers' teams has a history of leaking goals. His teams concede an average of 1.3 goals per game (GPG), and Swansea ended last season with a negative goal difference and an average of 1.4 Goals conceded per game.
* Overall, the stats suggest that Rodgers' teams are not the greatest defensively. Alongside the high goals conceded ratio, there is only a 4 game differential between games won overall (61) and games lost (57).
At Liverpool, Rodgers theoretically has higher quality defenders at his disposal, yet this has made no real difference to defensive solidity:
* Last season, Swansea conceded an average of 1.4 goals per league game.
* This season so far, LFC have conceded 1.7 league goals per game, which is a massive regression from last season, when the club ended the year with only 1.05 league goals conceded per game.
Liverpool's senior players have made the majority of defensive mistakes this season. with Glen Johnson, Martin Skrtel and Pepe Reina responsible for at least 9 goals between them.
Liverpool have issues scoring goals, but the bigger priority is (arguably) plugging the leaks at the back. Hopefully, the team will build on the clean sheet achieved at Stoke and become a lean, mean, goal-deflecting machine.
Jaimie Kanwar
Jaimie...you continue to write crap!
ReplyDeleteYes without our defensive lapses we would be up the table, especially against Norwich we looked bad, they could have scored 4 or 5, but it went largely unnoticed because we scored so many.
ReplyDeleteA lot of the goals against us were directly the result of mistakes by our players, in midfield and defence,
If BR told the defenders to hoof the ball upfield we would have conceded a lot less, but at the expense of our new Football in all areas philosophy, I think it will sort itself out as the players gradually find themselves comfortable with BR's way of playing.
But it is our Achilles heel at the moment.
Jaimie, A very timely and succint analysis. No one wins trophies by leaking goals at Rodgers' team's rate.
ReplyDeleteI have been banging on to anyone who will listen that last season the foundations of a winning team were laid to arrrive at the third best defensive record in the league behind the two Manchester teams.
Two cup finals were evidence of that too.
That defensive fortress has all but been demolished this season under BR. Jmac
Maybe get in a new defensive coach or come up with innovative ways to defend under the new style... With a solid defense and possession football, we could become unstoppable... *could*
ReplyDeleteBit Harsh, hes only analysed Rodgers statistics, no real opinion applied. Brian maybe you should enlighten everyone with your own article??
ReplyDeleteGet rid of Johnson , Enrique and Skertle and get better players in there. The defensive problem will be solved immediately.
ReplyDeleteIndividual errors..
ReplyDeleteNot a lot BR can do about that maybe we should get mark lawrenson and alan hansen in for defensive coaching duties, afterall they know everything about everything...
Brian...you're banned :-)
ReplyDeleteGood article highlighting a glaring defensive problem , whats crap about that ?
ReplyDeleteMy main criticism of Swansea last season was they weren't able to vary from their plan A or at least they were reluctant to, which I thought ended up costing them points and they were a more settled team than us. Now with us in this adapting phase of sorts which makes possibly more prone in some ways, I think this lack of variation may well occur here and it could cost us considerably in the short term. That weakness could subside considerably in the long term. Just got to hope we got enough in the tank for the short term as well as foresight/patience/faith, to ride it out for Rodgers to continue this playing style. It is a very different system defensively (e.g. the high and quick pressing) to last season for the team, which will take time to adapt. Though that doesn't necessarily absolve some of the individual mistakes.
ReplyDeleteThe problem in our defence revolves around Skrtel and Johnson.
ReplyDeleteI just have not seen any hope for Skrtel in this new style of play. He is not a ball playing CB so why not give Coates a run who has looked much more comfortable when he has featured.
Glen Johnson might be great at going forward but unfortunately for him he is horrible at defending. How Rodgers cannot see that is beyond me.
Enrique has only played 115 minutes of EPL football this season so why all of a sudden is there this talk of having to get rid of him considering the following:
1. One of our best defenders last season before he got injured
2. Still struggling with injuries ever since he got injured last season
3. Only played 115 minutes of EPL football so far this season
How can Enrique be one of our problems in defence when he has been injured and hardly kicked a ball this season?
unfortunatly brian is no longer with us
ReplyDeletewith what we are struggling for money also if you want rid of all 3 of these players you cannot be happy with many lfc players
ReplyDeletegettin on to another subjet .why the hell are we gettin into 150 million in debt for the refurb of anfield .when this could done will the naming rites being sold to cover the cost. who cares if its called eg the ryanair anfield staium as long as anfield is included in the name. and the money spent on players
ReplyDeleteiam glad were not going to rename anfield the money would not find its way down to transfers anyway anfield will always be our home
ReplyDeleteprobably your best analysis ive read jamie. However i dont get why a lot of people are saying were playing more attractive football - because our football was excellent last year just we couldnt score. And rodgers only really needed to buy a striker to rectify the big problem area.
ReplyDeleteIn his favour, he has bought much better than KK. Sahin in particular looks to be an excellent player.
because kd bought him and rodgers is determind to get rid of anything to do with kenny the man has the biggest ego i have ever seen god help us if hes succesful his head will not get in the ground
ReplyDeleteleft reply above didnt post right
ReplyDeletenot to be outdone everton have announced a revamp of woodison and have ordered 5000 litres ofcreosote from b&Q !!!!!
ReplyDeletemaybe you could fix lfc for me jimmy
ReplyDeleteall pretty football from rodgers. No plan B. What happens when teams come to anfield and mark up are back 4. Big boot to no one that can hold up the ball and let the midfield get forward. So the ball comes straight back at us and keeps are defence under pressure. Sorry, Rodgers is inexperienced, nieve, no CV. on a big ego trip. If he lasts the season i`ll be suprised.
ReplyDeletejaimie ive noticed the little cracks are starting to appear in your love affair with rodgers come xmas you will want his head if things dont improve rapidly
ReplyDeleteI was not referring to Rodgers wanting to get rid of Enrique.
ReplyDeleteI am referring to our fans who want to see Enrique sent packing when he is far from the actual problem regarding our defence seeing that Enrique has only played 115 EPL minutes this season and been in and out of injuries since last season. Mind boggling.
hes a goner rodgers has named him along with downing in the press personally i dont mind him
ReplyDeletetotally agree with everything you say m8
ReplyDeleteIt's more attracting than Rafa eh Jamie
ReplyDeletePlayers individual mistakes?? players not being able to score?? the team only having one tactical plan??
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like people are starting to make the same excuses as last year to defend KD like 'we have hit the bar so many times', 'we missed lots of penalties'. Fact is and i said it at the start of the season and will say it again:
Hodgson was brought in to do better than Benitez, he did'nt and was sacked. KD was brought in to do better than Hodgson, he did but it was not good enough as the board and many fans wanted 4th. BR has now been brought in as he is the man to do wonders and be better than KD. If at the end of the season, we are languishing in mid table, he will be sacked. People go on about time, time is a reason people who need more of it use as an excuse when things are not going to plan, ask steve clarke if he needs time, he is almost halfway to completing his objective 7 games in. I would also like to add it was the same guy that was bringing the defence back into line, but we sacked him anyway.
If BR fails by the end of the season FSG should go to spain offer Mourinho 200 million and a quality contract and say win the league, i would guarantee, he would be at a least title contender. they could do it as they have just saved on the stadium, especially if they sell the name of anfield for a profit!!!!!
Obviously there is a slight problem with our defence but when it comes to possession and attack we are well on our way to becoming a force to be reckoned with.
ReplyDeleteIf we had a prolific goalscorer i.e. Fowler or Owen then "Sorry, Rodgers is inexperienced" would not even be mentioned by you.
http://www.tribalfootball.com/articles/liverpool-boss-rodgers-insists-enrique-his-plans-3583081?utm_source=main_feed
ReplyDeletedoesn`t matter how good your football is if you can`t pass the ball out your forced into a big boot. Dont like the big boot, but sometimes your forced into it. If you dont have someone to hold it up your going nowhere.
ReplyDeleteIt is my understanding that Swansea conceded 51 goals in the EPL last season. Notwithstanding, it is absolutely correct to state that Rodger's teams have never been great defensively. Considering how good our defence was last season, it is obvious that the problem this term is the system/coach/manager and not necessarily the players.
ReplyDeleteLiverpool have always built their teams from the back, so defensively, they've always been quite strong. Unfortunately, BR does not understand this. He has been happy to blame the team's defensive frailties on individual mistakes but refuses to attribute them to his so-called 'progressive football philosophy'. He may get it right, ultimately. But surely the best coaches know when to adapt, rather than arrogantly insisting that the team must persist with a failing approach. Is there no half-way house?
in we had a Fowler or Owen last season we would be in the champions league this seaso9 and no rodgers
ReplyDeletehaunting stats to be honest, i hope Rodgers live up to Liverpool standards
ReplyDeleteI agree - although from a financial standpoint it would make more sense to call the place Budweiser Park, Lloyds Stadium, or whatever and bring in the 150M in advertising, I think this is a smart move by the owners to prove that they are not just in it for the dollar bill, and that they are interested in preserving the traditions that LFC upholds; such as not moving away from Anfield, and not renaming Anfield. If for some unseen reason the club ends up going into financial difficulty then there is always that option to rebrand the stadium in order to inject some equity but for now I think it's a good statement.
ReplyDeleteGranted they would be putting us in debt which in this business is not always a good thing, but they'll be doing it solely for the purpose of generating additional ticket sales that are pretty much guaranteed (as opposed to . By my very rough calculation the increased revenue would be:
15,000 seats X 35/seat X (19 league games + roughly 8 League Cup/FA Cup/Europe home games) = 14M additional revenues/season with negligible addidional operating costs (obviously many assumptions, but you get the drift). At 8% interest it would take 25 years to pay back 150M, which sounds like a long time but this is an investment that will last 50, 75 years and help us compete with Arsenal and Man U in terms of gate revenues.
Agreed - a good post that highlights an area that we have to work on under Rodgers; I do believe that some of our defenders are just not playing well, as mentioned Johnson and Skrtl with some glaring mistakes. But whether or not this is the fault of Rodgers' philosophy or not I guess time will tell, but stats don't lie (albeit they are with lesser clubs).
ReplyDeleteInteresting.
ReplyDeleteIf you can recall, when Benitez signed he always said that he first built the defensive part of the team, and then the other parts.
"It always starts at the back".
As much as I'm not one of Benitez's fans, it actually feels like he might have gotten it right. If you look at the year we were challenging our defensive stats were superb, and our attacking force was very good as well.
I know his last season was awful in terms of achievments and quality of football, but he might have done a better job than I have given him credit for..!
To be fair, it is hardly a pioneering thought or Einstein-like moment by Rafa, to build/start from the back. A good but somewhat obvious point to make, even if some don't realise it. Clean sheets are the norm for most successful teams, which stems from the importance on a solid back five and protecting the back five by the rest doing their bit. Teams that are lazy/inept defensively rarely are successful over a long period.
ReplyDeleteYou'd need a bit more work on your first touch, bill....................
ReplyDelete;)
Skrtel was arguably our most consistent player last season. Unfortunately he's being asked by the manager to play a role unsuited to him, ie: think he's some sort of libero who can spray passes all round the field. Until Rodgers realises that he should just let his defenders concentrate on, erm, DEFENDING, then we will continue to ship sloppy goals.
ReplyDeleteBecause he's got them p!ssing about playing triangles at the back (even bloody Reina gets to join in!!!).
ReplyDeleteDefend first, then play your football. I admire Rodgers for sticking by his principles, but when it's to the detriment of the team then it becomes pig-headedness, something that Rafa and Kenny were vilified for..............
Should have kept Steve Clarke as he would have worked on the defence.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope so. Turn the poison pen on BR and maybe give Suarez a rest?!!!
ReplyDeleteMost teams try to build a strong 'spine' : Good Goalie, Strong Centre Backs, Water Carrier/ Midfield 'general', striker.
ReplyDeleteOther than a striker, we had all that already.
its no big deal as long as anfield is included for 150 million id even change my name to jimmy saville!!
ReplyDeleteif rodgers wasn`t so nieve he would have bought a striker who could put the ball in the net. instead he bought 2 midfield players ????.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.crazycastlesliverpool.co.uk/handlers/imagehandler-original.ashx?maxWidth=85&maxHeight=85&filename=/product_images/243.jpg
ReplyDeleteI kinda like it.....
Nice one Billy .
ReplyDeleteThis passing the ball slowly between , G/K , back 4 , & D/M . is
ReplyDeletedisastrous . Also the huge gaps in midfield , and our poor first
touch all this adds up to a hi goals against stat. When we play
teams that move & pass quickly, as against Arsenal we will
struggle big time . But lets see where we are in January ,
and what we do in the market then comment further.
One last thing apart from back 4 we are far too liteweight.
Nice to see unbiased report about BR. He deserves some stick for spoiling third best defence in the league.
ReplyDeletefor the first time i agree with you jamie. i think the reason why we are so bad at the back, its because of our new style which is to keep possession at all cost (smone already pointed it out) i thought that maybe they wud stop doing these mistakes the moment they are used to the new style, but nw after reading ur article i really dont think so. br doesnt really hav any knwoledge of hw to do the defensive wrk. we've seen yesterday even the great spainish team cannot defend properly when the opponent press them.. they will just lose the ball in middle of the park. mist of the goals conceded by barca is also due to the same fact- losing the ball in the middle of the park because they do not want to kick it long and high. but barca is barca, they are successful playing this system because theyve been doing it for years. they are taught about since they were kids.. and also because they have some of the greatest players on the planet in their team. no matter how many goals they conceded they will just score more and win the match.. they create loads and loads of chances in the match and they dont just keep the ball but play it quick and fast and and the opponent players do nt even hav the time to think what they going to do. they always seem to have at least 2 choice to where to play the ball. on the other hand, outpr liverpool just keeps possession without making any damage to the opponent team. its so slow, and most of the time the ball is passed backwards coz they do not knw what to do with it. they are not quick enough, and they lose the ball. hw many chances do we create per match with this system? last season we were indeed unlucky with dalglish.. we created many chances. but this season we cant even create that number of chances. what we doing is just passing the ball for the sake of passing the ball.
ReplyDeleteJust goes to show how much a different system can impact all that. As this is a different system to the one used last season, especially the team's defending. To a lesser extent, there is the absence of Lucas but he hardly played last season anyway. Most successful teams are reluctant to rely on the "we'll simply score more than the opponent" excuse/route as its a dangerous game to play. So you definitely need a unit at the back which most successful teams place importance on in PL (Chelsea, Arsenal (whether Wenger likes to admit it or not, he wouldn't have done it without two sets of quality back fives ) Mancs, etc, hence Mancini and Ferguson moaning about their lack of clean sheets this season) on as well as getting the team's defending as a whole sorted, the latter being very important for a high pressing team as its tactically a different test to your usual set ups.
ReplyDeleteThat has been what cost Dortmund in recent seasons in CL because beyond their high press, they kept on getting caught out once their opposition got beyond the pressing and weren't used to sacrificing the high press. Instead of for e.g. sitting deep to defend as a unit when needed. But slowly, they are learning their lessons. Klopp, like Rodgers, only really has one way of playing and defending but slowly, he has tried to tailor it for some games in CL now. Balance between forcing your way of playing on the game and tailoring your way of playing to the changing circumstances. That is what he possibly got wrong at Swansea last season but than again, it is a smaller club, so maybe being somewhat harsh.
Agreed. And it annoys me how many people have been beguiled by the 'talk' of the new manager.
ReplyDeleteThe fact is, we are not "more attractive to watch" this season. Some of the performances under Kenny were great to watch, quick incisive passing, speedy counter-attack, solid defending. And we were creating goalscoring opportunities.
Just because we play pretty triangles along the back-4 doesn't mean we are more attractive to watch, because we go to hopefully see us score a few goals, but at the minute you can't see where the next goal is coming from.
Oh, silly me. He's going to get a striker in from Chelsea. Pity it's the wrong one....
he will have to borrow one of the club that the other managers won lol
ReplyDeletesuarez not for long he always keeps him in reserve for a quite day
ReplyDeleteBR is following the same pattern of Tony Mowbray and all other managers who try to emulate Barca without the thirty year infrastructure in place - Plan A is the only thing they see - however even Ferguson and Guardiola state you play the style and formation with the players you have available and while Barca play pretty football - they defend by keeping the ball but they're not afraid to punt it - the issue they have is the injuries to defenders mean midfielders are playing in there and they want to pass the ball. BR I think will be another manager who has had a single good season and got the 'big' job but isn't up to the task. Ferguson struggled at first and he had 10 years of success before that.
ReplyDelete