It wasnāt the result anyone wanted, but I think itās a bit hasty to say the team looked poor, or that the match represents the same problems theyāve had all season. I thought they were moving the ball around fairly well, and certainly keeping possession well, but the biggest influences on the scoreline were West Hamās defense-- credit where itās due, they were pretty tight, and Collins, in particular, played well, had Suarezās number, and it hurt-- and Suarezās poor form (which may be in part due to the aforementioned Collins). When Suarez is great, heās THE greatest; when heās off, like he was for most of today (and as in his past couple games, including those with Uruguay), heās just immensely frustrating. I thought the rest of the team was feeding him well enough, at least prior to Hendersonās removal, and itās silly to ever put all the blame for any result on one player, but it seemed like play after play fell apart due to an awful touch or misplaced pass or overly ambitious move from Suarez.
The problem Rodgers had today wasn't just finding a āplan B,ā (because again, I donāt think the team was fundamentally doing a bad job of implementing the āplan Aā style of play), but figuring out what to do when his best player is squandering every opportunity the team creates for him (which is maybe what is meant by plan B?). If wasnāt Suarez playing as center forward, thereād be no questioning the decision to replace the player in that position for a poor performance. Is Suarez so infallible, and so good, that heās immune to the same approach we, as fans, or the manager, would take to almost every other player? We donāt have a ton of options up front, but maybe it wouldāve been better to replace Suarez with Assaidi, rather than Henderson, and move Sturridge up top. Of course, Suarez wouldnāt have reacted well to that, and heās also the type of player who would recognize his own errors, and want to improve upon them, so perhaps Rodgers felt he had to give Suarez chances to make up for his mistakes, or maybe he feels Suarez still offers more on a bad day than the rest of team does without him on a good day. Is it worth it to protect a key playerās ego or attitude towards the team, at the expense of the potential match outcome?
I wasnāt too disappointed with anyone else, and thought a few players-- Agger, Reina, Henderson, Enrique-- looked particularly sharp, but maybe my standards have fallen.
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