Arsenal 2-0 Liverpool: In game and Post Match Analysis

How many midfielders in our team right now move faster than Gerrard?

Therein lies part of the problem. No one is faster than a 33 year old. Is it any wonder we got caught on the break every time?

I wonder if this guy is psychic.  Some interesting points, a snippet below:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1833351-liverpools-midfield-faces-its-toughest-test-as-the-3-5-2-heads-to-arsenal

Whilst the impact on possession of Liverpool's formation has been exaggerated, the system represents a big defensive change for the side.
There is the potential for Arsenal to exploit the spaces behind Liverpool's wing backs and to subsequently draw the wide centre-backs out of position.
Liverpool have yet to play 3-5-2 against a team with the ability on the ball of Arsenal, and if the Gunners midfield can shift the ball quickly, then they could drag the defence out of position. Alternatively, if Liverpool are under the cosh, then the formation could resemble more of a 5-3-2 and lose its ability to counter in numbers.
Arsenal's full backs can also help to exploit the Liverpool wing backs, who are afforded less protection in the current formation.

Reality check, no bad thing with the window round the corner.

Arsenal are a good team and we came second best. As many have stated on here midfield needs a good hard luck at, but to be fair the manager did try and recruit in the summer, just didn't get the players we were tracking.

Onwards and upwards, get the cheque book out FSG...

I think this game was more of a problem of personnel as opposed to a tactical/formation problem.  The combination of Flano, Cissokho, and Hendo all let us down in this game.  However, this loss does present BR with 2 opportunities.  First, he can now bring Agger back into the starting lineup.  Second, he can make the switch back to a 4-3-3 which I think is his preferred formation moving forward.  I don't think this will be the last time we see a 3 CB formation played this season, but I do think next week we will see a more familiar 4-3-3 with Coutinho at LW and Studge at RW.  I also have a feeling that we may well see Allen reinstated to the starting lineup in order to allow us to start dominating the possession more than we have been recently. 

At the end of the day, it was a poor result but it is not a terrible result.  We are still 3rd in the league and have another winnable run of games coming up.  It is not away days at the Emirates that will determine if we crack the top 4, it is taking maximum points from the games against teams like Fulham, Hull, Norwich, and West Ham.  If we can take 12 points from those 4 games and another 4 points from the upcoming games against Everton, City, Chelsea, and Spuds then we will be on track to continue to push towards a top 4 finish. 

Well, that was yet another sobering - if entirely expected - Emirates result. We were outclassed in all areas of the pitch and looked very much second-best. Arsenal's midfeild ran rings around us, and only the removal of the hapless Cissokho saved us from a far worse defeat.
 
Mignolet. Couple of good stops, some dodgy distrbution and kicking. Pretty standard. 6/10
Skrtel. Left to play in central defence on his won at times, as Sakho and Cissokho were all over the F***ing place. 6/10
Toure. Not his best game, he struggled to keep track of the midfield runners. 5/10
Sakho. We paid £18m for him, which is a very bad joke. Looks like a mistake in him every game and Agger needs to come back. 5/10
Cissokho. An embarrasment. Clueless, brainless defending. Should be nowhere near our team. 2/10
Flanagan. A surprise inclusion (what has happened to Kelly?) and did.....OK. 5/10
Lucas. Arsenal took the piss out of him. Glacially slow, passing abysmal, looked shot. Bench. 3/10
Gerrard. As usual was the best creative force in the midfield, but given no support and looked tired. 5/10
Henderson. Seems to think that running about a lot is enough to play in central midfield for Liverpool. It isn't. 4/10
Suarez. Arsenal handled him about as well as possible, but he's too good to keep entirely quiet. He's too good for this Liverpool team too. 6/10
Sturridge. Had no supply at all, and was anonymous. 5/10.

Certainly would not agree with Gerrard being the most creative force in midfield - that was easily Coutinho when he came on in the second half.
Stevie just seemed to give the ball away continually or was chasing the arsenal players shadows most of the match.

Sakho. We paid £18m for him, which is a very bad joke. Looks like a mistake in him every game and Agger needs to come back. 5/10

Could not disagree more, he already looks a steal at £18m. He's going to be a brilliant signing for us

Cissokho. An embarrasment. Clueless, brainless defending. Should be nowhere near our team. 2/10

On that we do agree

You know what?

When we get fairy beaten I can walk into work or the pub and say "The best team won" and not feel any anger at all.

Some days, we just get schooled.  There's no shame in it when it's away from home to the league leaders.

My goal is 40+ points by the end of December.  We can reach that target

I wonder if this guy is psychic.  Some interesting points, a snippet below:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1833351-liverpools-midfield-faces-its-toughest-test-as-the-3-5-2-heads-to-arsenal

Whilst the impact on possession of Liverpool's formation has been exaggerated, the system represents a big defensive change for the side.
There is the potential for Arsenal to exploit the spaces behind Liverpool's wing backs and to subsequently draw the wide centre-backs out of position.
Liverpool have yet to play 3-5-2 against a team with the ability on the ball of Arsenal, and if the Gunners midfield can shift the ball quickly, then they could drag the defence out of position. Alternatively, if Liverpool are under the cosh, then the formation could resemble more of a 5-3-2 and lose its ability to counter in numbers.
Arsenal's full backs can also help to exploit the Liverpool wing backs, who are afforded less protection in the current formation.

hardly nostradamus though, we saw the weakness of the 3-5-2 plus the weakness of our midfield, hardly came as a surprise though, second half was much better when Couthinho came on

Sat didn't really tell us much that we didn't really know already...


We can play some really entertaining football v the also rans. Sturr and Suarez will look terrific. Even Lucas, Henderson and the ageing Stevie will look plausible.


But put us against a decent team, and we are either too far behind, or lack the bottle/class to seriously compete on a consistent basis.


In truth we are clearly the 6th team in the PL. Fighting on a single front, there's supposedly the chance we could get higher. But what are TWO of the top 5 going to do so wrongly to let us in? Henderson, Gerrard and Lucas proved today that they are simply not of the level of the top 5. There are serious question marks about our cover wingbacks too. And the defence is not yet settled, even tho we have some top class defenders.  Upfront, we have Luis and Sturridge... or Luis and Sturridge. We can see what Chelsea think of us by the fact they are happy loaning us their players - or even selling us them.


Some of the top 5, I think their SECOND eleven would beat us. Even Arsenal had some in juries on Sat.
Look at the quality we've lost in the past few years. Look how our rivals have gained. 1st it was win the title, then challenge for it, now its challenge(weakly) for 4th.


I'm not gonna criticise Rodgers. But we know he isn't a Wenger or a Mourinho. So its unlikely in the extreme that this squad can "overachieve". OK we did well pts wise in the 1st games, but it was an easy-ish run. The next 9 games is a very tough run.


I wouldn't say it was the fact we lost v Arsenal, it was the perfomance of our midfield. We've overrated certain players over the years. This reminds me of how many fans would overrated Shelvey, Murphy and Co. And in earlier years, players like Lee, Wark and Whelan struggled when Souness left.


If clubs like Cardiff can have Medel, and clubs like Soton can have Wanyama, why should WE be struggling with what we have in midfield? Too much button counting, wage bill crap and Fenway politics. Instead of buying upper midtable players, for upper mid aspirations, we should buy top quality players, for top aspiriations.


I mean Henderson and Allen weren't cheap. They werent even that bad value(overpriced by some way, yes)But we KNEW what we were getting. For every Sturridge, there are 3 players that will perform like Allen and Hendo.

Clearly we a re atleast 2 top class players short of atop 4 challenge. 4 players needed to really challenge the top 4.  That might sound a lot. BUT, we do have plenty that could be shifted out to 60 or even 70% fund those fees.

The whole Summer most of us were thinking "Christ aren't we a bit short of quality in midfield". But nothing was done about it... I wonder how people assess that.

There would possibly be a way of putting one of Lucas, Gerr and Henderson in a successful team. Putting 2 in would be much harder. 3? That is basically impossible.

All 3 look like supporting cast players in deep midfield. Gerrard prob still has it in a free lying role only. Lucas, I am concerned about his ground covering ability/injuries. Henderson, I just dont think he can compete against a good midfield. I wonder how much time he will be given, bearing in mind Rodgers tried to sell him in the Summer.

I dont think theres a big debate about what is wrong. The big question is hwat will be done to resolve it.


Whilst many arent fans of a 3-5-2, it does reduce some of the problems our midfield causes. So perhaps its an interrim solution. But I hope it will not be the solution in January.

Disappointing result and performance. Sometimes you just gotta hold your hands up and say "we lost to the better team."


On the day itself Arsenal were undoubtedly the better team. And in general they are, too. But not, in my opinion, to the extent we saw for much of the match on Saturday. There's little in between the goalkeepers and defences. We have the superior strikeforce. Their midfield is on a whole other level though, and that's what won them the game. Unfortunately big matches often are won and lost in middle of the park, and worrying as it is to say our central midfield is probably a notch or two below most of the other members of the top 7/8 teams:


Arsenal - a whole wealth of options in the centre; Ramsey, Wilshere, Flamini, Arteta etc. The best in the league in that area.
Chelsea - not overly strong here. Mikel is about Lucas' level, Lampard similar to Gerrard. Ramires is a better version of Henderson.
Everton - not much between their one and ours. I think McCarthy is a potentially very good player. Barry still offers a fair bit.
Man City - Yaya Toure is the best in the league. Their other options are good (Fernandinho, Milner and a couple others).
Man Utd - to be honest, not that great in the middle. Carrick's very good, but Fellaini is overrated and Cleverley doesn't offer much more than Hendo.
Southampton - superb midfield. Schneiderlin is right up there with the best CMs in the league. Their other ones are good players too.
Tottenham - got a very good quartet to choose from; Paulinho, Dembele, Sandro, Capoue. Second or third strongest in the league in midfield.


So yeah, our problems well documented there. If you want to be positive you can say that Man Utd managed to comfortably win the title last year despite largely being very average in centre mid. But that was down to a number of things: world class strikeforce, mentality, depth. We have a strikeforce to rival theirs, but are far off their winning mentality of last season and we all know that our depth is lacking.


We're not aiming for the title of the course, and 4th place is still very much achievable for us if SaS stay fit. Those two and Coutinho are a match for any attack in the league, so we will win many games. Defence is good, and we haven't had a settled one all season due to injuries and new signings. Once BR- hopefully- chooses one and sticks with it, we should become stronger there. Gerrard, we all love the guy. Legend of the club. But he relied so much on his phenomenal physical prowess at his peak, and age/injuries have taken their toll on him. We absolutely must have three in the middle for him to perform even slightly well thesedays, the problem is his seemingly guaranteed partner is Lucas. Now, in the past this would have been fine. But, as well as Gerrard's physical decline, Lucas has had his own due to two horrific injuries. Hence why Arsenal found it easy to play the ball around us. We were crying out for a Wanyama or someone with equally good energy to chase them down. Henderson tried first-half, but struggled against their quality. Second half he was out wide, so it was even easier for Arsenal to maintain possession in the central areas.


Like I said, I'm not too worried about us. We will win the vast majority of our games against teams outside the top eight due to our phenomenal firepower. In those games the midfield tends to be less important. Their midfields are of a similar level or inferior, and our attack does the talking. Coming up against the top eight teams will be worrying, though. We've already seen what Southampton did to us due to their midfield's relentless pressing, and Arsenal were able to run rings around us with their technically talented players. The games against Man Utd and Everton are more of a lottery, not just because they are derbies but also the fact their midfields are around the same level as our own. Against the other five teams though we will be lucky to win a couple of games in my opinion, because they are either stronger in midfield or have excellent attacking midfields who will love playing against Lucas and Gerrard going forward.


With regards the match against Arsenal, not a lot can be said except well played to them, deserved winners. Kolo had his worst game for us yet, but I'd stick with him. Skrtel and Sakho dealt well with Giroud. Cissokho confirmed my fears I had when we signed him- the guy isn't very good at football. He had a brilliant six month spell at Porto, before they cashed in when realising it was a purple patch. He's been average since, and that doesn't look like changing with us. Shame, we needed someone to really push Enrique, but I expect Jose to, rightly, get his place back once he's fit. Flanagan put in plenty of effort. Obviously lacking in ability, but we couldn't ask for more. I've already mentioned how poor I thought the midfield trio were. If I was to give them one defence, it is that Arsenal played with five players who specialize in midfield/attacking midfield centrally, so they were all drifting in there hence, at times, it being 5 on 3 in there. Still, it doesn't excuse their sloppiness on and off the ball. Coutinho improved us going forward, providing a link to the front two but was obviously rusty, else I expected one or two of his through balls would have come off. Suarez my man of the match for us, he got in good positions and never stopped working hard. Should probably have squared the one at the end for Sturridge, however, who looked good on the ball but didn't have a single chance all game. In fairness to those two, they were devoid of service for much of the game. Mignolet made a couple of really good saves, but he definitely gets nervous when it comes to distribution and that harms us at times when looking to keep the ball/build up attacks.


Only one way to bounce back- destroy Fulham next week. They are in abysmal form, we should be smashing them for four or five. Looking forward to it.

Something which was evident during the match, probably the main difference between the sides, and I mean apart from Ozil and Henderson.
When Arsenal had the ball, all the midfield and forwards moved away from the Liverpool players into areas of space. They were confident that their team mate would keep the ball or find a pass.  When we had the ball, we never moved too far away from the Arsenal players, probably worrying about keeping in touch, so we could get behind them when we lost the ball. Just that difference in having shed loads of confidence in your team mates. Think we had a lesson in pass and move, which used to be our trademark.
I seem to remember Henderson putting in loads of running at the opposition, but like a 10 year old, chasing the ball. he never really got close to anyone before the ball was inevitably laid off. Yet he didn't seem to change his tactic all game. I can't for the life of me, see how he is good enough to wear a Liverpool shirt. As for Sissoko, I can only put that down to a massive attack of the nerves, because he was just awful. Think we need Agger, Johnson and Enrique back.  Bit of controlled football at the back, and a bit more threat going down the wings. They are decent players, may be not world beaters but we always look better with them than without them.

Tactically Naive.

Nothing we could do about Cazola's goal; but we could have prevented the second goal.

Nothing we could do about Cazola's goal; but we could have prevented the second goal.

Yes, there was.
If Gerrard had stayed in position (to the right of Lucas) then he would have been in the perfect position to help out the CB's.

Not pointing the finger at Gerrard, because sh*t happens, but it was a positional mistake from him.

Gerrard is doing the work of 2 men - Lucas is stealing a living. Gerrard has to cover for him and is then expected to get forward and be creative. Lucas got rinsed by Arsenal CM's - there was no midfield battle, they were smoking cigars.

Gerrard is doing the work of 2 men - Lucas is stealing a living. Gerrard has to cover for him and is then expected to get forward and be creative. Lucas got rinsed by Arsenal CM's - there was no midfield battle, they were smoking cigars.

Couldn't disagree more.

Gerrard doesn't have to cover for Lucas and if anything Gerrard is playing too much in Lucas space and we have two doing the same job.

Couldn't disagree more.

Gerrard doesn't have to cover for Lucas and if anything Gerrard is playing too much in Lucas space and we have two doing the same job.

Stevies big weakness has always been his lack of discipline in holding position he cant help himself.Rafa didn't like him in there and played him out wide with good effect. If you take his impulsiveness out of his game you haven't got the same Stevie its like we have a Veggie version of him at the moment as apposed to a raw sirloin.

Stevie's more like a over cooked rump at the moment all stiff and rigid.

Gerrard is doing the work of 2 men - Lucas is stealing a living. Gerrard has to cover for him and is then expected to get forward and be creative. Lucas got rinsed by Arsenal CM's - there was no midfield battle, they were smoking cigars.

Totally agree, well said.

Totally agree, well said.

Bullshit.

Gerrard is doing the work of 2 men - Lucas is stealing a living. Gerrard has to cover for him and is then expected to get forward and be creative. Lucas got rinsed by Arsenal CM's - there was no midfield battle, they were smoking cigars.

If he's doing the work of two men, then those men are the laziest fuckers ever, considering the 'work' Gerrard's been doing.

Gerrard is doing the work of 2 men - Lucas is stealing a living. Gerrard has to cover for him and is then expected to get forward and be creative. Lucas got rinsed by Arsenal CM's - there was no midfield battle, they were smoking cigars.

Congratulations on a bullshit first post, well done.

Lucas stealing a living?! If they are smoking cigars then I think you've been smoking something a lot worse.