who the f*ck are liverpool?

pris sur un forum de newcastle.un fans de nufc passe au crible notre équipe.c'est très objectif et ça a mérite d'être lu.
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Who The F*** Are Liverpool?

Date: 26/12/2005
Ground: Anfield
Fixture: Premiership
Kick-Off: 3.00pm


F ollowing a slow start to the season the European Champions are now looking the business as we head into the New Year. With 7 straight successive League victories propelling them up into 3rd in the table, clean sheets galore and Peter Crouch now off the mark for the campaign, Liverpool are on the up and up.

Along with Chelsea they are the form team in the Premiership and after a transitional year in charge of the Reds, manager Rafa Benitez seems to be finally getting to grips with the demands of domestic football now.

While in Europe Liverpool are primed to reach the Quarter-Final stage once again. However on a wider stage, namely the dubious Club World Championship, they were recently beaten 1-0 by Brazilian side Sao Paulo over in Japan of all places.

Back to the bread and butter of the Premiership the Anfield side will be looking for their 8th straight League win and 8th straight clean sheet to boot.

Standing in their way will be former Liverpool men Graeme Souness and Michael Owen who returns to Anfield for the first time as an opposing player. Newcastle haven't won a League game in the red half of Merseyside since 1994 and for Souness, he is still to taste victory as an opposing manager on the pitch he once dominated as a Red.

As always, this one promises to be a cracker.

Here we take a look at Liverpool's manager, their team and key players, their tactics, strengths, weaknesses, form and stats ahead of the Boxing Day clash.


Appointed in the Summer of 2004 in place of the sacked Gerrard Houllier, the amiable Spaniard has been nothing short of a success at Liverpool - with the crowning glory that night in Istanbul. Yet one suspects there will be many more glory nights for Liverpool while this studious, deep thinking, calculated manager remains at the helm.

It's fair to say that Rafa struggled with the Premiership set-up in his first season in charge, although he still managed to guide his team to 5th, but this term we are now seeing the real Liverpool under his management and with the January transfer window soon upon us, he will be looking to strengthen an already strong side even further.

Record at Liverpool: Played 91; Won 48; Drew 19; Lost 24

The Team:
Defence


In defence right-back Steve Finnan, centre-backs Jamie Carragher (pictured) and Sami Hyypia and left-back John Arne Riise all make up the back-four that protects new goalkeeper Jose Reina. While local youngster Stephen Warnock, Gonzalez Josemi and Djimi Traore make up the reserves along with Jerzy Dudek and Scott Carson the back-up 'keepers.

With the second best defensive record in the League, Liverpool are very strong in defence and while the back-four lack pace and athleticism, they are well organised, disciplined, tactically astute, very experienced and they all know how to defend. They don't take risks, basically.

In goal they now also have a commanding 'keeper who acts as the sweeper, very much in the same way that Shay Given does for Newcastle. Reina is central to this well drilled defence, forcing his team-mates up field whenever they get too deep or launching the full-backs on their way with sweeping throws to the flanks. Equally he can launch it long up to the forwards as well.

The Spanish No.2 is proving to be a very astute signing by Benitez, and unlike a lot of foreign 'keeper's Reina knows how to catch a cross too. Ask most Liverpool fans and they will point to their Summer signing as one of the key reasons for all those clean sheets.

And speaking of clean sheets, Liverpool have amassed an incredible 21 of them in 31 games in all competitions. Breaking a longstanding club record of successive shut-outs in the process. If you go a goal down to them, it's game over as the stats prove; with 9 wins and 1 draw from the 10 games in which they have taken the lead in.

As a unit Liverpool tend to play a high line now, where as they would previously sit very deep. Despite a lack of pace at the back, they are quite comfortable playing this way as the experience at the back often gives them an advantage when up against less experienced attacks. Forwards can get trapped like flies in their off-side trap.

However against quicker, more experienced attackers, they can come unstuck. Hyypia is the weakest link in the back-four. He tends to stick to his man these days, getting too close and he can get caught flat-footed as a result.

Carragher on the other hand is the all-action man who covers mishaps and mistakes and he's very good at this. He can sense danger and bails his fellow defenders out a lot with last ditch tackling. He's an intelligent reader of the game, always staying on his feet until the very last minute.

Drag him into wide positions though and Hyypia is lost without his partner. The key is to isolate Hyypia, to separate him and Carragher. Together they are arguably one of the best central defensive partnership's in the Premiership and will mop up like a sponge all day long if everything is played in front of them.

Midfield


In midfield Liverpool usually line up with either one of Luis Garcia or Harry Kewell on the left, Steven Gerrard (pictured) on the right (or centre) and ex-Magpie Dietmar Hamann and Xabi Alonso in central midfield. In reserve they have a number of options in new signing Mohamed Sissoko, Florent Sinama Pongolle and Boudewijn Zenden (out for the rest of the season). Alternatively the trio of Riise, Carragher and Finnan can all move into midfield roles.

This is without a doubt Liverpool's strongest area of the pitch and is quite a fluid area of the field for them, despite a lack of natural balance and pace. Being technically gifted, the first-choice quartet can all play "out of position" or in withdrawn/restricted roles, giving the Reds lots of variation in their play from the middle of the park.

Hamann is the anchorman in the centre like Scott Parker is for Newcastle with Alonso the playmaker, while Gerrard is effectively the link between midfield and attack. On the flanks Garcia or Kewell provide the width and balance.

This is a defensively powerful, interchangeable midfield that looks to dominate, dictate the tempo and to keep possession. Alonso can double up as a defensive midfielder when Liverpool are not in possession while Gerrard can do both that and the attacking role quite capably.

Garcia tends to drift in field a lot to allow his full-back to overlap and to draw markers out of position while Kewell is more of a flank hugging traditional winger who likes to make darting diagonal runs around the back to get on the end of sweeping cross-field balls or to get into heading positions inside the box (the Aussie is very good in the air). As touched on, very interchangeable.

However without any real pace and natural width the midfield can get sucked into condensed areas of the field and can struggle to break down a tight opposition defence due to the lack of genuine box-to-box runners from midfield. This can see Liverpool playing "nothing football", lots of possession but not really heading anywhere and often this will result in long-balls towards the front men, borne out of frustration or pressure from the stands to "get forward".

One gets the impression that Rafa is quite happy to kill the game for spells, to wear out the opposition and on the continent this "nothing football" has served them well. In the Premiership however, it's a dangerous game to play. One loose square ball or back-pass...

Fortunately for Liverpool, as the team gels more and learns each other's position they don't get caught out very much and in Peter Crouch, they have a tangible target up front to hit. Which is why Rafa signed him. He's an outlet for the "nothing football" spells which Liverpool have a lot of these days.

Attack


In attack Rafa likes to rotate his strikers but of late Peter Crouch (pictured) and Fernando Morientes have featured a lot with Djibril Cisse left on the bench. Other options can see both Kewell and Garcia play just off the forward and of course, Liverpool can always drop to just the one up front, a system that served them so well in the Champions League last season.

Crouch, Cisse and Morientes have all struggled for Premiership goals this season, sharing 7 between them - the number of strikes Michael Owen has to his name. This has put extra pressure on the midfield to weigh in with a few of their own and to be fair to Gerard and Co. they have done just that. Scoring 12 from that area of the pitch.

And that's just how Rafa likes it. While at Valencia, not many of his strikers reached double figures and the Primera Liga outfit never did top any goalscoring charts. And neither will Liverpool.

Goals scored may win games, but midfield is the winning area of the pitch and the emphasis at Liverpool is to get the midfield as involved as possible in both halfs, defensively and attacking wise. Crouch and Morientes in particular have the attributes for this way of playing. An out and out striker like Cisse for example (or Owen), requires a more direct way of playing where game plan's have to be tailored to the "main man".

Tactics:
Formation: 4-4-2

In his first full season in charge Rafa preferred to use a 4-5-1 system, which is what Liverpool used at the start of the season. That was then however, today they play a more traditional 4-4-2 system which can alternate between 4-5-1 and 4-3-3 depending on game play.

The back-four is a flat one, with two full-backs either side of the central pairing in a pretty vertical line, while in midfield Hamann sits and Garcia/Kewell, Alonso and Gerrard operate in front of the German, often very narrow at times so that the full-back's can push forward.

Up front they play with two forwards, at some distance between one another. Crouch is the central figure with Morientes the floater, the player who doesn't operate in a strict area of the pitch like Crouch does.

Crouch's area is the central line from midfield to the opposition box with Morientes the spider, linking up with Garcia or Kewell and Gerrard to weave a pattern of play.

This system is designed to give Liverpool flexibility so they can adapt to individual game settings and it's a fairly simple system, although the roles of each player isn't so straight forward which is why Liverpool struggled earlier on in the campaign in certain areas of the pitch.

For example Gerrard operates on the right, yet his role is to come in from the right further up the field to support Crouch, to nit the midfield and attack together, to get into the opposition box himself for strikes on goal. Another role of his is to supply width down that flank.

This is the perfect role for the England man and one Sven-Goran Eriksson should look at as this role allows him to expend all that energy of his, to make full use of that drive and to keep him involved at all times. If he isn't defending, he's attacking. He basically has carte blanche down that right flank because in Hamann and Alonso the right-back has all the protection he needs and enough solidity in central areas.

Many will look quizzically at Gerrard on the right, but they needn't. Gerrard doesn't play as right winger, or a third central midfielder per se. If one looks at his attributes and weaknesses, this role is perfect for him. If Gerrard isn't involved in the game he becomes a passenger and that is a waste of an exceptional athlete. In this role at least, he is always involved, either defending or attacking or linking up with his team-mates during passages of play.

Stuck in the centre you have to be more disciplined, you can't just bomb forward even when your team are on the ball, you have to hold a position whether attacking or defensively and that's like putting the breaks on a player like Gerrard.

This system is also designed to protect that goal of theirs, with each player falling in line behind the ball when on the back-foot, even the strikers. As a result Liverpool play a high line, kind of with half a foot in defence and half a foot in attack so they are never caught on the hop at either end, that's the game plan anyway...

Strengths & Weaknesses:
Strengths

Liverpool's obvious strengths are of a defensive nature, 12 clean sheets in the Premiership (7 in a row to date) and no defeats from a winning position makes them very strong in that area. Despite the lack of goals from their strikers, at the other end they have only failed to score in 4 games so they do carry a goal threat and put plenty of balls into the box, both high and low.

They are also very organised, disciplined, have tremendous fitness levels and ability to recover ground despite a lack of pace throughout the team and they are tactically tuned in. They can adapt to different types of games, like a Chameleon they just blend right in and mould themselves to the environment.

They can soak up pressure, play on the counter, hit it long, keep possession or attack in numbers. And while man for man they are not the greatest of sides, they are a very very good team all over the park and mask their deficiencies as if they don't exist at times.

However their biggest strength is the man in the dugout, Benitez's ability to spot things, change them and instruct his players from the touchline has seen Liverpool pick up 7 wins from second-half performances alone.

Weaknesses

Liverpool's weaknesses are pretty obvious to the eye, their main flaws that is. They lack pace, natural width and a degree of balance. They also lack punch up front but these weaknesses very rarely get exposed which is the sign of a very good team and I emphasize the use of the word team here.

With Liverpool, it's not so much what they will do, can't do or won't do, they won't change their own game plan because it works, no, it's all about the opposition and what they do, can't do, or won't do that is the key to exposing Liverpool's weaknesses.

For example, Newcastle don't need the opposition to expose our own weaknesses, we do that ourselves. Liverpool do not so it is literally up to the opposition to figure out a way how to first combat them and then defeat them.

They won't shoot themselves in the foot and their lack of pace at the back and lack of punch up front won't hinder them, or stop them from winning either. 7 League wins in succession prove this.

So it's down to Newcastle United to expose their weaknesses for them and to then capitalise. It's all about how we play on the day, how certain individuals deal with the way Liverpool themselves play.

To expose Liverpool's weaknesses we first have to look at their strengths which is organisation and discipline first and foremost. The only way to unsettle an organised and disciplined team is to press them hard and quick, to force them back and on top of themselves. Fortunately we have pace in abundance at the back while they lack it up top so we can play a high line ourselves. This is imperative.

In midfield we have to force Gerrard inside which will cause a chink in their chain. By forcing Gerrard infield there will be congestion in the centre but that's the plan. This will suffocate Liverpool's engine room which is their strongest area of the pitch and up there with the best in Europe.

By forcing Gerrard infield from his right-flank position you expose Liverpool's full-back and you cut off the link-up further up the field that Gerrard is meant to be knitting, meaning we will have a spare man in defence giving our own right-back and right-winger licence to get forward.

And this is how you get at their defence. With an overload on the right, one of Hyypia or Carragher will be drawn out from their central line to help our their fellow team-mate (the full-back).

Leaving space in that central pocket for either Alan Shearer or Owen to exploit or one of our own midfield runners. In football, the central defensive pairing of any team mustn't be broken up, separated from the joint if you like, this is what we have to do to Liverpool all over the park. To break down that organisation and discipline.

This is how you attack them and defend against them. By forcing Gerrard infield you cut off the right-sided width which will mean a lack of crosses to deal with from that side and you're also forcing Liverpool to play to their weaknesses.

Up front they lack pace so that congested midfield will need precision timing from their forwards if they are to play balls over the top or through the middle. With a high back-line however, even if one of the front two do escape the clutches of United's back-four, it's still a long way to goal and Shay Given is an expert at sweeping up and reading the danger quickly.

You have to force them narrow, isolate their central defensive pairing and squeeze their attackers into condensed areas of the pitch.

By forcing them deep into their own half from front to back you give the back-four a lack of options to play the ball to in midfield who will be congested, which in turn will pressure Hyypia and Co. into looking long just to get rid of the ball. Despite Crouch's height he is no Shearer in the air.

This is how Chelsea dealt with them, in the end beating them quite comfortably 4-1. In the first-half at Anfield the score was 1-1 and Gerrard was causing havoc down that right flank, but after the break Chelsea pushed him infield, exposed Liverpool's right-flank and smashed that central defence by putting Didier Drogba on Hyypia.

This is the only way to beat them. You can't play through them because of Hamann and Alonso. You can't rough them up like we did with Arsenal either because they are very physical themselves. You have to attack their white cells, to chip away at their immune system. You attack their strengths not their weaknesses.

Of course, it's easy to sit here and write all this. Doing it is another matter altogether...

Form & Stats:

After a slow start, Liverpool have picked up 31 points from 15 games and have 3 matches in hand. Of their 8 home games to date, they have won 6, drew one and lost the other. Only Chelsea have managed to find the net against them at Anfield giving the Reds the 3rd best home record in the League.

In front of goal at home they have scored 13 goals so they are almost guaranteed to score, not even Chelsea could keep them out. Indeed, only one team has shut them out.

In total they have kept 12 League clean sheets this season, scored 20 goals and only conceded 8. They haven't lost a single game in which they have took the lead in either so they are a formidably efficient side.

Newcastle on the other hand haven't lost a game on the road from which we have taken the lead in but we haven't picked up a single point after going behind in a match.

Their record against the bottom half of the table is equally impressive, losing just the once in the 9 games they have played, winning 6 of them and drawing the other 2 which ranks them 4th in the League.

They have conceded 2 goals in the first 45 minutes of a match and 6 in the second 45. At the other end they they have a pretty even scoring record, 9 in the first 45, 11 in the second 45.

They score most of their goals between the 75th and 90th minute while they concede most between the 25 and 45 minute mark.

Belle analyse. Intéressante, en tous cas.

Bon, qui de nous se charge de faire pareil sur notre prochain adversaire ?

Never mind "nothing football" this is nothing short of nothing analysis dressed up to sound good. Whoever wrote this crap probably writes for Tony Blair as well.

We will see how well they cope with our nothing football and if they can take advantage of just one square ball or a missed back pass. Who do they think they are going to play ? Themselves?