Broken or Wounded? Where to Next for Liverpool?
As grief compounds the world of most Liverpool supporters; the melancholic sense of a worthless season hangs in the rear-view mirror; only heightened by the departure of the one dependable thing Liverpool had left in Steven Gerrard. Gerrard symbolised everything Liverpool stood for; even in the toughest of adversity, even when everything looked bleak, he was the spark. He was the one to depend on. Without him, Liverpool look a shell, a discombobulated mess incapable of putting on a show …
The New Javier Mascherano
Since Javier Mascherano left Liverpool for pastures new in Spain there has been a gap in the midfield that hasn't really been addressed. We've had the misfortune of seeing the likes of Christian Poulsen, Charlie Adam, Jay Spearing and Lucas Leiva all play that role with varying degrees of influence but they still fell significantly short of what's required.
We've seen this season how a 'defensive midfielder' that breaks up play can benefit the team no matter what style you're …
The Case for the Liverpool Defence Part 2: ‘Midfield and Beyond’
In Part I, I looked at the individual members of the back ‘5’ (including the GK), and the most likely rotational or still to return individuals, each with their own pluses and minuses. In Part II, I want to look at the midfield options and striker responsibilities relative to defence, the overall strategy and tactics employed (the two are not the same) and how the gears of overall defence do – and often don’t – mesh.
Liverpool essentially have six …