West Brom 3 Liverpool 0 (BPL 2012/13): Four Reasons Why Liverpool Lost
With a new manager aiming to instill a vastly different style of play, expectation on Liverpool was not high for this season. Even then, a 3-0 loss to West Brom still came as a shock for all Liverpool fans. There are four reasons why Liverpool lost this match:
Lack of High Pressing
Brendan Rodgers believes in patient passing to dominate possession. Whenever a Liverpool player has the ball, his teammates should provide him at least two passing options by making the relevant movements. To achieve this fluid style, attack-midfield-defence need to stay close to each other. This presents vulnerability to counter-attack.
Whenever possession is lost, pressing needs to be activated instantly to recover the possession, hence the alleged 7-second rule (to win back possession). Its aim is not to restart attack, but to protect the defence.
In this match, the pressing from the front was not intense, resulting in frequent breaks by West Brom.
Position of Borini and Suarez
Suarez played as the centre forward, and Borini played as the left-sided forward in the first half, and right-sided forward in the second half. Though the fact that Suarez was the most dangerous attacker of the night may seem to justify his centre forward role, he didn't convert any of his chances that he created himself. Rarely in world football that we see a forward that regularly creates chances on his own and finishes them off, unless your name is Messi. Chances are by the time one twists and turns to create the chance, he may not have the balance and clarity of mind to convert anymore.
Suarez created many chances by coming in from the left in the last season. May be better off playing Borini in the middle and Suarez on the left.
The clip does not show many chances Suarez created on his own but didn't finish
Gerrard and Downing
Borini's nervous performance can be excused for the position he was asked to play. Gerrard and Downing had no such excuse. They were poor throughout the match. Downing was predictable in his movement. Gerrard needed to adapt better to the new style of play. He should only try risky passes in an area where we are covered. Frequently, he tried to create chances in tight situation with 'hollywood' ball, and left us vulnerable again and again to counter attack. Joe Allen is familiar with the system, and it showed. He was much better than Gerrard and Downing.
Poor Refereeing
I will be seen as biased by lambasting referee for the loss, but one can't deny that the sending-off changed the game. If the first penalty was adjudged to be a foul, then we can officially declare football as a no-contact sports! If the incident happens anywhere else outside the box, no one will scream for a foul. It was a shocking decision.
Second penalty was another refereeing joke. It means in future any defender that's about to clear a ball from the box, the opponent just needs to put his foot to block and if there is any contact, it's a penalty! It doesn't matter that the ball is under the control of the 'fouled' player.
Very very poor refereeing.
Summary
Overall a very bad day for Liverpool. With Agger suspended in the next match, and Carragher as the replacement, and Rodgers' insistence on playing the possession style (instead of sitting deep to counter), expect Man City (next match) to tear our defence apart again and again, especially on Carragher.
Looking at Liverpool's fixture list, I will be happy if Liverpool are not in bottom three after 5 matches.
