A season of transition, but to what end?

Following Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at home to relegation fighting Wigan, many Liverpool fans have voiced their disapproval at the poor league form of Kenny Dalglish’s team in 2012.
However, rather than providing a knee-jerk reaction to Liverpool’s undoubtedly dismal league form, I’m going to attempt to analyse where the team and management have gone wrong over the season, identifying the most significant factors for where the Red’s currently find themselves.

Firstly Liverpool FC’s lack of consistency, in terms of the performances the team have put in during their league campaign, is nothing new.
Over the past 10 years it has been a continual source of irritation for Liverpool fans and a problem that none of their recent managers have managed to entirely solve. Even during Liverpool’s most successful EPL season in recent history, that of 2008/09, it was this lack of consistency and dropped points that caused Benitez’s men to agonisingly miss out on the title by only 4 points.

Fast forward to the current season and Dalglish’s team lie in 7th place and given the teams persistent failure to capitalise on the poor results of those around them and opportunities they provided, it is easy to understand their mid-table status.

A repeated claim from Liverpool’s manager is that many of the performances his players have put in this season have not been rewarded with the points they rightly deserved. This is undoubtedly true to some extent, with Liverpool often dominating games against a variety of opponents but failing to score the goals vital to a successful campaign.
Herein lies the first problem that needs to be addressed by those within in the club; why haven’t Liverpool scored more goals and what can be done to improve their dreadfully profligate conversion rate?

The antidote to LFC’s goal drought could well be remarkably obvious; the team simply doesn’t have a recognised (in-form) striker. The type of player whose job entails ensuring he is in the box to convert the chances created for him by those around him.
Creating chances is one area where those working at LFC can find themselves contented, with the club racking up an incredible number of shots, surpassing that of previous seasons. However, the shooting accuracy of 41% and appalling chance conversion rate of 9.1% clearly conveys the club’s main struggle this season, they just aren’t scoring enough.

When attempting to decipher the reasons behind this, only two factors must be accounted for: luck and profligacy.

Liverpool have hit the post more than any other team in the league – an incredible 26 times. Whilst a lack of luck is rightly to blame for many of these chances, such a large statistic also suggests a great profligacy from a team clearly devoid of confidence in front of goal.
Luis Suarez, undeniably one of Liverpool’s best players, has suffered from the overreliance his team have placed upon him this season, with him frequently being expected not only to create his own chances, but finish them as well. There are very few players in world football capable of such a task consistently and the only examples of such capable individuals are those currently vying to be named the greatest of all time.

{{ quote If Liverpool are to move forward, they need to decide upon what team they want to be and given the lack of success garnered from this season’s league campaign, it seems obvious that a return to their familiar pass and move would be the best decision.}}

When Dalglish returned as manager last season, he also brought with him a return to the pass-and-move philosophy that was pivotal in establishing so much of Liverpool’s illustrious history. With willing midfield runners such as Raul Meireles and Maxi Rodriguez (who many will agree are hardly world beaters) the team flourished, playing a fluid and exciting style of football.
Luis Suarez and Dirk Kuyt also benefitted greatly from such a system, with their intelligent movement enabling them to convert an array of goal scoring opportunities.

When analysing LFC’s style of football this season, it becomes quickly evident that Dalglish has struggled to decide whether to commit to such a fluid style or pursue a more direct approach to include Liverpool’s £35m elephant in the room, Andy Carroll.

With a fully-fit squad, LFC definitely play their best football utilising plenty of movement and quick passing, something that Andy Carroll’s style of play gets in the way of.
If you observe the way in which the club set about doing its business in last summer’s transfer window, once you get past the abundance of (net spend oblivious) articles stating that the club had spent an astronomical amount of money, a pattern emerges.

Whilst the club clearly adopted a ‘buy-British’ policy, believing that ‘proven Premier League’ players would help them to eliminate the inconsistency that has long plagued them, it is also clear to see that the club’s transfers were focussed around getting the best out of their new No. 9.

By purchasing Downing, Enrique and Adam, Dalglish injected the team with players who were particularly equipped to play direct football, a style that clashes with LFC’s more recognisable pass and move. Unfortunately, in part due to the relatively poor form of Andy Carroll, this policy has backfired greatly, with such players being unable to adapt to Liverpool’s favoured style of play and lacking the game intelligence to take part in such a philosophy.
The departure of both Meireles and Aquilani has meant that Liverpool’s midfield now lacks much of the creativity needed to fully recreate the successful pass-and-move from the end of last season.

Downing started the season brilliantly, only to fade after numerous excellent deliveries failed to be converted into goals and a number of fine shots hit the woodwork instead of the back of the net.

Likewise Enrique began the season, looking every bit the answer to Liverpool’s long standing problem at securing a strong left-back. However, as the campaign has progressed the Spaniard has revealed a few weaknesses; namely his obsession with grappling with an opponent rather than defending simply and often getting forward well only to linger on the ball, leading to the break down of attacks.

Charlie Adam’s success last season was largely down to Blackpool building their team around getting the best out of the Scot, with David Vaughan doing almost all of Adam’s defensive work in midfield, allowing him to roam forward without responsibility.
Early signs suggested that Lucas Leiva and Adam, would strike up a useful partnership, with Adam creating and Lucas defending. However, following the Brazilian’s serious knee injury, Adam’s reluctance to do his defensive duties has been brutally exposed and his performances have dipped dramatically. Without time and space Adam is largely ineffective, with his decision-making seemingly flawed. He often lingers too long on the ball, rather than electing to pass to a teammate in a more advantageous position.

Following his knee injury in the defeat to QPR, Adam is unlikely to feature for the rest of the season, and his absence may allow youngster Jonjo Shelvey to establish himself within the first team.Considering how greatly Charlie Adam’s deficiencies have been exposed due to Lucas’ absence, it would be foolish to not consider the larger impact the Brazilian’s absence has had on the team and LFC’s style of play.
Before his injury against Chelsea in the Carling Cup, Lucas was establishing himself as one of Liverpool’s most improved players and the most efficient defensive midfielder (DM) in the Premier League. Having put in a number of MOTM performances, including his emasculation of Manchester City’s influential Yaya Toure at Anfield earlier in the season, the Brazilian was often the first name on the team sheet.

Following his injury Liverpool’s frailty in midfield has been brutally exposed, with teams easily working their way through the team’s centre, due to the lack of a proper DM to oppose them. Though local youngster Jay Spearing has improved a great deal since last season, he is nowhere near the Brazilian’s level and thus Steven Gerrard has often been played in a deeper role to compensate for this lack of defensive protection.

Playing Gerrard in such a role is like asking Picasso to paint your boiler room and, as recent performances have shown, an attacking midfielder of the Liverpool captain’s class, should instead be as close as possible to Luis Suarez, encouraging the birth of another fruitful partnership.
Thus Lucas’ absence has not only revealed the shortcomings of Adam and forced the team’s most gifted player back into his own half, but it has also meant Liverpool have often been unable to control possession, thus struggling to close out games comfortably.

Another flaw in the team’s approach this season is the decision to play certain players out of their best positions, leading to inadequate performances and leaving them open to unjust criticism.
Jordan Henderson is captain of England’s U21 side and an extremely promising central midfielder; however, from the start of his Liverpool career, Dalglish has decided to play him on the right wing, where he’s consistently struggled to establish himself. As a result, he has suffered from unjust criticism and appeared to be a worse player than he actually is. Had he been given his chance to establish himself in his best position, perhaps his confidence wouldn’t have been as badly affected as it currently is.

Similarly Luis Suarez, Liverpool’s talented no.7 has often been played as a lone striker, when he in fact has functioned most effectively on the right wing, throughout his career in Holland and for Uruguay. The Uruguayan has struggled to replicate his previously prolific form this season, largely down to the over-reliance placed upon him by those around him and a continually changing ideology on the pitch.

If Liverpool are to move forward, they need to decide upon what team they want to be and given the lack of success garnered from this season’s league campaign, it seems obvious that a return to their familiar pass and move would be the best decision.
The decision to ‘buy British’ will almost certainly be abandoned this summer and the club could do well to emulate the work of Newcastle, whose scouts have proven that great quality can be found on the cheap in competitive leagues throughout Europe.
With what’s left of the current season, Kenny Dalglish should settle on what team he wants to play, what ideology he wants to stick with and what players (including new arrivals) are simply not up to the task at hand.

Given the Reds’ opportunity to win what would be only their second piece of silverware in 6 years, their season could still become a reasonable success. However everyone concerned with the club and especially their new American owners will know that true success will only come through improvement in the league, an aim that will certainly require more investment to be achieved.

_Follow Hari over on Twitter _**@Hari_sethi** : _He tweets about football,films and general news._