Rafa must risk journalistic scorn
To get Liverpool's stuttering season back on track Rafa must do one of two things on Sunday guaranteed to get the press pack spluttering: either drop Steven Gerrard or play him "out of position" on the right. Of course this will necessitate that dreaded word rotation but the team should be above one individual or the sensibilities of journalists.
The team's form has dipped dramatically since the last international break. Gerrard and Finnan came back shot to pieces through injury/tiredness and and have struggled to find any semblance of form. Agger and Alonso then both picked up metatarsal injuries in that first game back, the Portsmouth draw. Their absence is sorely missed as they're our metronomes in defence and midfield, the players who dictate the flow and pace of play.
One way of getting some of that back would be to move Gerrard out of central midfield in favour of Lucas Leiva, the Brazilian U20 captain who in his few appearances seems to have Alonso's happy knack of always being available to receive the ball and then finding a free man. He could be the sort of oil to get the engine running smoothly again. Gerrard could then either play right allowing him freedom to roam forward or sit in the stands allowing him the rest he desperately seems to need. Mind you such an action by Rafa would be deemed heretic these days outside the core LFC support, who don't see our captain as the superhuman saviour of all mankind he's often portrayed.
The other problem with the team at the moment is the lack of pace at the back caused by Agger's injury. We're playing a deeper backline with Sami Hyypia stepping in and it's stretching play to such an extent that the easy pass isn't often on, resulting in Carragher et al launching it and gifting away possession. Missing out on Gabriel Heinze, or an alternative centreback, now looks a costly misjudgement.
So what will happen Sunday? Well thankfully it's kamikaze Spurs so it'll no doubt be a crazily open end-to-end game and all I've written above will prove redundant with Gerrard scoring a couple from central midfield in a high scoring win. And then all the talk of rotation and a crisis will be out to bed for another irritating week of internationals.
Much as I hate to say it, you came remarkably close to consecutive home defeats. Whatever happened to Fortress Anfield?
Posted by: Rob | October 08, 2007 at 01:48 PM