Originally, a False 9 was a lone striker who, instead of staying high up the pitch like a traditional striker, would drop into midfield and look to drag the centre-back pairing into areas they weren't comfortable in to enable teammates to exploit the space they had created. Cesc Fabregas played it for Spain. Pep Guardiola...
Jurgen Klopp's Reds are enjoying an international break looking at all the teams in the Premier League being below them on the table. Liverpool are playing some irresistible attacking football at the moment. That has led to an unbeaten run that stretches back to August 20th, when the Reds were humbled at Turf Moor.
At...
Back in the summer, who really expected to be this happy about Liverpool by the time early November arrived? Come on, be honest.
We all saw that daunting run of early fixtures, and when the joy of beating Arsenal was soured by the woeful result at Burnley, even a top-four challenge felt a long way...
I think I’ve pointed out in the past that I love this man. Daniel Sturridge, in my opinion, is the most natural finisher England have got. Forget Harry Kane, forget Jamie Vardy, forget Marcus Rashford. Sturridge is the best finisher of the lot.
Those three all have their qualities but none can quite stick the...
Jurgen Klopp was right when he said Liverpool don't have a defensive issue. In the 12 months he's been with the club he's worked on making Liverpool, as a unit, much more resilient. For starters there are less holes centrally, you rarely see the backline exposed like you did under Brendan Rodgers. The team...
Nobody really grows up dreaming of being a right-back, do they? It is, quite possibly, the least glamorous position in football.
The likes Carlos Alberto, Cafu, Philipp Lahm and Dani Alves have done their utmost to make it fashionable, but it has invariably been a role that goes relatively unnoticed, in comparison to goalkeeper, centre-back,...
To my pleasant surprise, Daniel Sturridge was handed a start by Jürgen Klopp against Manchester United on Monday evening. Usually in the "big" games, Klopp opts for Firmino to play as a false 9, to spearhead the team's press, but instead, he chose Sturridge - a choice that unfortunately did not pay dividends.
But why...
Christ on a bike, have you ever seen one substitution change the tempo, style and atmosphere as much as when Adam Lallana entered the melee on Monday night? Like when the producers switch to the infrared cameras in the chopper on police interceptors, or during Planet Earth. Suddenly all became clear. Liverpool began to...
It was always going to happen. A combination of the pause for the international break combined with a perfect storm of players being injured and others being rusty from a period on the medical table was enough to disrupt the momentum that Liverpool were beginning to build.
In all honesty there were signs before the...
In hindsight it was probably definitely naive of me to write an article highlighting my concerns about Jordan Henderson's ability on the ball when the opposition press him. I was under the impression that you were allowed to point out a player's weakness and not simultaneously hate him. But alas, it was perhaps a quixotic...
