Its only fair to say that Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool have endured a horrid start to their season. Stuttering in the league down in 8th place with 14 measly points from 10 games, struggling to qualify in the Champions League after having returned to Europe’s elite after a 5 year exile and having serious problems in almost every area of the pitch – Brendan Rodgers has his work cut out if he is to turn this faltering season around for the Reds.
The Defence
It’s something that Rodgers’ has had a problem with since taking over as Reds boss 3 seasons ago. The Northern Irishman refutes claims about being on the lookout for a defensive coach as he says he can look into it himself adequately. If he is, then its certainly not adequate as Liverpool continue to suffer the very same defensive problems that proved to be fatal in their quest for the title last year. The signing of Dejan Lovren was supposed to bring leadership and stability in the back-four. However, the former Southampton centre-back has been woefully out of form and looked out of depth on many occasions in his short Liverpool career. The Croatian is a proven top-class defender and the quality is there for all to see and Reds fans will be hoping that sooner rather than later, the former Lyon man will perform like the £20m defender they thought they were signing. While the young full-backs, Moreno and Manquillo will be afforded time to settle; their lapses in concentration have proven to be very expensive for Liverpool so far. With the form and quality of Glen Johnson and Jose Enrique – the senior full-backs at the club steadily going downhill, Rodgers has got some issues to deal with outside the pitch too.
The Diamond
Something that made Liverpool the all-action, goals-crazy, entertaining team of last season was the diamond Brendan Rodgers’ employed in midfield to accommodate the likes of Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez up-front. This season however with the influx of new faces in attacking midfield and the absence of Daniel Sturridge, Rodgers has tried to operate with a 5 man midfield or a familiar 4-2-3-1 formation to no effect. The midfield looks laboured and the qualities of Jordan Henderson which were so influential in taking Liverpool’s challenge to the helm are largely under-utilized in the new system. With misfiring forwards and a midfield that looks very disjointed, Rodgers’ ought to adopt a system and stick to that if he aims at getting the Reds to play in a particular way at all this season.
Signings
For all the good that Brendan Rodgers has done as Liverpool manager, his performance this summer in the transfer market has been very poor. Overpaying for players and taking risks on players has not paid off for the Ulsterman. The gigantic risk of signing Mario Balotelli has not yet paid off and Dejan Lovren looks more displeasing with every passing game. While the likes of Lazar Markovic and Alberto Moreno will be afforded time, its only Emre Can and Adam Lallana who have come close to playing like the amount of money they were bought for.