Last night was a night of football that I have rarely seen from Liverpool FC. We were hampered on the ball, lacklustre in defence, visionless in midfield and closed down too easy up front. With the flow of the game always in Manchester City FC's favour, we never looked like we got out of second gear.
We can't escape the news that emerged from Melwood, Mascherano would not only like to leave, he would like to be seated in the stands, unplayable due to a reason we know nothing about. We can only assume that he is aggrieved we haven't tried to sell him as much as he would like. Mascherano has a long history of discontent if nothing is going his way. The paltry offer from Barcelona, £13 million plus Hleb, is deemed by all of Liverpool to be a bit of an insult. This is a player who is captain of his country and one of the finest midfielders of his generation. Did this affect the player's ability to perform on the pitch? We will never know but it must have had some impact.
The game itself was full of frustration. Easily dominated in the midfield due to the powerful influence of Yaya Toure and the decent positioning of Barry, it was always going to be too much for Gerrard to comfortably leave Lucas alone. Micah Richards was a powerhouse and frequently bullied Torres off the ball, Ngog did not fare much better against an improved Kompany and Lescott. The wings constantly cut inside and made the play far too narrow which suited the five-man City midfield. Jovanovic did little but run around and created no link up play between Agger and Torres, for me the Jury is still out on him as I have seen little of the former Belgian player of the year to warrant the hype.
Manchester City's fluid lines and simple triangles put pressure on the rigidity of the straight 4-4-2 that Hodgson implemented. Before the match I was expectant of a creative partnership between Ngog and Torres. The reality was a lack of understanding between the two forwards, there was no spark nor one pass to get inspired by. Tevez on the other hand was much improved, providing the essential link between the midfield and the final third. He constantly dropped deep and built an attack by passing the ball into a heavy midfield then creating space behind Liverpool's defence. Toure provided the neccessary passing excellence when Tevez surged forward, frequently finding Milner or Adam Johnson who gave both our full backs a torrid night.
Glen Johnson provided much of the nights frustrations as he seemed to hesitate on the ball for too long, was caught in possession and failed to track Milner or Adam Johnson when they switched. He looked uninspired and nervous passing it forward. To be fair to him the person who should have been immediately infront of him was Kuyt, who ran much of the game from the middle of the park, ending up behind Johnson.
The only decent chances Liverpool had, shots by Gerrard out side the box, and a shot by Torres were either blocked by defenders or saved dramatically well by Hart. That was Liverpool's best spell and it included Gerrard getting into a decent space and servicing the players in the box, when we lost the ball though, we looked very fragile as we missed the reading of the game of a Mascherano style figure and were subject to a swift counter attack.
3-0 doesn't flatter Manchester City. The first goal, a Milner pull back for a Barry finesse finish, was simply poor positioning by Kuyt and Skrtel. The Micah Richards/Tevez header/faint touch was down to, dare I say it, poor goalkeeping by Reina! He looked like he was sucked into the arrival of Tevez. A penalty, finished off the scoring, in my opinion, the penalty was very soft to concede. Adam Johnson looked very unsteady on his feet and really, should have been left to it by Skrtel as he was unlikely to get a decent cross in.
The 4-4-2 that Hodgson tried, failed so utterly that I would be very surprised to ever see it erected again with the current squad. If Mascherano had played then Gerrard may have been more confortable surging forward, knowing that a decent general had anchored himself in the midfield. That loss of a clear link between midfield and attack led to both Torres and Ngog either coming deeper or being serviced by Jovanovic or Kuyt, who looked skittish and unprepared. Hodgson will no doubt resort to the much favourable 4-5-1 without Joe Cole or the 4-2-3-1 with him.
Well done Roy for experimenting and proving all those critics of Liverpool FC's formation wrong. Sky Sports and Newspaper pundits will no doubt be very silent on the idea of a strike partner for Torres now. He is best when supplied from the midfield by a roaming Gerrard style figure.
I know I have painted Manchester City in a very favourable light and, truth is, they were very good, especially on the wings, but Liverpool were so poor by their own standards that any team would have looked good. We need to solve the formation curiosity, buy a left back and sell Mascherano for a decent price.
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