I've pinched this from RAWK as I feel it goes a long way to explaining why we're not playing very well and gives more "technical" reasons for players taking time to gell. As it states at the start of the piece, it's written before the QPR game so if you relate it to what happened in that game, it kind of makes you go "oh yeah!" Or at least it did with me.
Given that the QPR game is just hours away, and we are still missing crucial pieces of our playing template to injury (Dan, Dejan, Flanno) and we have players with mixed fitness programs coming back from injury, previous knocks or fatigue (Allen, Can, Markovic, Skrtel, Glen & Sterling), we should be very realistic at this point in the season. High expectations are good and necessary, but can create unrealistic mentalities.
With disparate parts, players still trying to regain form/fitness, and new lineups, we might expect from the get-go for there to be some struggles with continuity, communication, and getting on the same page. This leads to the first suggestion.
Psychological Response - We need a mentality that ignores frustration
For perfectionists in football whose goal it is to press, dominate the ball, and to recognize/expose opportunities to circulate/penetrate the opposing team's final third, we set ourselves up for disappointment, especially as Greg/GrStv have pointed out that we were striker centric last year.
The fact that we do not have someone to stretch the defense, thus creating space underneath for a Coutinho/Sterling is an issue which is exacerbated by the typical movements of Balotelli (coming towards the play rather than drawing players away from it and getting into the box). Also, our combination play, cyclic runs by either one/two forward fronts has changed a great deal. We have become much more reliant in our first few games on the flanks. This has served us well when we press the ball and win it (as Moreno, Sterling and more recently Lallana) are finding dangerous spaces. But, our lack of continuity in the final third is an issue. We see this clearly, when we attempt hopeful service that is easily cleared or a cross with no runner or when we fail to really make defenders make choices.
The latter is the most crucial in our system. It has been relatively easy to play against us (recently) if you are a centreback. The number of decisions has not really been stressful, in turn we less effective pressing or and creating opponent turnovers from the back. In many ways against WBA, if not for our midfield Henderson/Gerrard, we would not have had the quality opportunities to score. I am sure this is a problem Rodgers is currently working on.
Nevertheless, when you combine our personnel issues, with a lack of practice time working on combination play in the final third, and our team's nature to dominate the ball and opponents, and our history of fast starts/last year's goals, we have a recipe for disappointment and frustration when not scoring which runs through the entire stadium all the way to the ball boys. We are still finding new ways to win games, and it is imperative that we overcome this frustration as an important part of this team's growth. We do not want to learn this in some European capital in the eliminations stages of the Champions League.
For the players and supporters, we need to overcome this tendency of immediate gratification in scoring type of mentality. While, it certainly would not hurt to score more, the potential frustration from not scoring as much needs to be ignored and fought through without wasting time, energy or perspective. This is a presumably temporary scenario (as RH cannot F**k up too much more in the following months I hope). As such, this should be treated as a learning opportunity -----> i.e. how do we stay positive, keep working and create chances. Some here might suggest this is what they are getting paid to do. Fair enough, but the way BR wants to play, pressing, movement and circulating the ball all over the pitch to probe and exploit weaknesses takes a toll on the players. And most invisibly, it takes a toll on their psyche. Already very mentally strong players (the lot), the first thing that goes when a team gets tired is their communication, field of vision, and their ability to control emotions.
*** We need to be sure to save our energy for the task at hand and worry about the outcomes later, especially during this period in our team's development - youth, injuries, form issues abound. This is how to get the best out of players mentally. Mistakes happen, move on and prevent them from growing into team errors.
Tactical Response - Set play desire
Teams have studied our tendencies and adjusted to us pretty well so far. In most games, our opponents have not been punished for sitting in and allowing us to circulate the balls on the periphery. It is here that I must say that I definitely do not have a template for future Liverpool tactical success.
However, what I have seen ratcheted up in our first few games is the importance of set plays to our future outcomes. By scoring less, we put more pressure on other areas of the game to score. And we seem to have periods where we turn off. This could be due a whole variety of issues --- tuning out a singular voice, lack of training time, new roles/position within the defending restart zones, or this group of players has not yet developed a restart identity yet. I tend to think it is all of the above.
As a result, another very important way to get the most tactically out of players is better execution on both sides of the restart battles. It has been my experience that this is an "isomorphic" process where the actions of one can affect (parallel) the actions of another. In other words, defending is contagious. What happens to one part of the zone, affects others as well as player movements into them. The culture of defending set plays is vitally important to avoiding mistakes, as it is so easy to tune out, or mirror a poor recovery decision. It is a building blocks type of process. There should be a mentality where they set goals. The next 30 corners, we give up nothing. Everyone is invested, knows their role, and knows their assignments/danger target. IMO, this would get the best out of us. Maybe, this is going on at present, and BR is working on individual/group video analysis to address these goals, but more attention needs to be paid.
On the other side of set plays, our offensive desire for the ball is fine, but we are either off on the service or fail to take our chances (besides Gerrard's brilliant Everton goal). This may be a case of goals tending to occur in bunches last year, when confidence is high or a certain tactic is repeatedly exploited. But we need to recapture some urgency in this area. If there is one thing that could give this entire a lift is getting a couple restart finishes. It leads to opening up the space in the run of play and serves as victory in the 1vs1 battles that occur in the game. New patterns, runner combinations or mixing up service angles might do the trick for corners. Skrtel to the near post might be a good idea, but could be overdone. Getting Lallana more involved should be a priority as well.
Technical & Fitness response - pace and decision-making
It seems to me that we have become too reliant upon Sterling and Henderson's work rate at times. If we look back at what worked well against Tottenham, we pressed as a team effectively, not just a few players but movement in unison with an appetite for the ball. In a few of our losses, we looked a step slow in reading the play, or pressing it late. Even the first 40 minutes of Man City away, we could see our collective defensive growth until the Moreno error (team). Defending in packs is what made us so effective in the initial stages of the counter last year, this is something we can replicate. However, for a variety of reasons, we have not embraced this weapon as much as we could have in the first part of the season. One excuse might be that this is a post-world cup year and fatigue/injuries increase. However, this is an excuses and rectums narrative --- everyone has one.
As time has progressed over the early part of the season, there has been more pressure on certain players to work harder without ball than others. Even though Henderson might appear immune, this type of mental wear and tear manifests itself in the decision-making of the player (see Stevie's G classic about Raheem going from Ricky Villa to Ricky Gervais). This too is contagious. Playing safe or the typical pass or trying to thread a pass that does not exist (Coutinho). It is a long season, and the way we play is well suited for the players we have, no doubt. However, one of the issues that gets the least amount of discussion (imo) is how fatigue is affecting our decision making with the ball as we penetrate into the final third.
Now, Brendan has talked about personnel adaptations, get Balo into the box more, and circulating the ball quicker to exploit spaces, but as Allen, Can and Lallana get re-integrated into the squad, I would expect to see a more consistent team defensive pressure without the ball leading to much quicker more adept decisions when we get the ball, amplifying our pace and stealth.
Kick the sh*t of the Rangers tomorrow! Avoid allowing restart goals, get on with finding flow in the offensive half (i.e. fight through frustration) and work together to create a more even team oriented work load!
