Game was ill-fated from the line-up.Starting Allen,Lucas and Henderson at the same time was a defensive call.Playing defense to "Ludogorets"?And when you need a hard win?Bizarre.Lallana can´t apparently be trusted to perform against even this team,neither Can or Coutinho...Ominous...
And so the obvious and expected happens;we strain to attack and only manage 2 goals,1 a gift.But what was honestly shocking was how
defense-minded the team was.Deploy all the DM´s you want,but have them scoop up the ball and press,have them create attack.What we saw was the whole team dropping back,the entire 11 behind the midline,inside the box defending.It was like we were playing Real Madrid but if we were leading 1-0 with 5 minutes to go.Jamie Carragher sharply pointed out Coutinho´s movements vs Crystal Palace,showing a generalised defensive behaviour,such as dropping back to receive the ball instead of standing your ground or pressing forward.Seeing these exact same patterns for 2 games in a row against Crystal Palace and then Ludogorets is inmensly worrying.
About justifying being more defensive in midfield to make up for a leaky defense...well last season we had an offensive approach which almost got us the prize by compensating for a hole of a defense.So now dropping back and turning our midfield into defense with an absurdly lessened strikeforce...Don´t see it working.We still concede and goals will be difficult to come by like this...Only way out is through.
Attack.Have Lallana,Can,Coutinho,Gerrard up front (even if it means having to play Lucas to compensate for back 4) feeding Lambert,Borini,Sturridge...This is the only way out.Sitting these players out while continually fielding the unbelievably irrelevant Allen is inadmissible.We´re doing ourselves in with this lineup but more than anything with the mentality.Watching Liverpool being pressed by a horribly misfiring Bulgarian team that had desire and nothing else,after watching Crystal Palace do the same...
We need to get our spirit back.The way we were playing last season we could have arranged Lambert in there I´m sure,probably Borini.But dipping in form and reverting to defending?Not fielding attack-minded players?Is it a form problem or is it tactical to have these players benched?Why are they there if we´re not subbing them in?Why does BR insist on late 80 min changes?Why is Joe Allen still playing?
Positives:
Sterling was attack minded and was the most energetic on the pitch.Lost the ball and was out-manned throughout,could be overplayed.Anyhow,his mindset should be template for the team.The only acceptable reason to not start him next game would be to rest him,kid runs his socks off,always.
Again Lambert scoring at the slightest oportunity.A specialist at scoring early and with first touches.This man is the antithesis of Balotelli (#If they had told me 3 months earlier...),we must play to him.
Manquillo was lively,good pressure when defending.Still we can´t have only the really young ones show energy,hunger.What we´re going through is also psychological,they must all wake up or nothing will change.