Football Special Report: Back to the ‘Liverpool way’ under Kenny Dalglish (Part 2)
Kenny has different personnel to those Rafa had during 2008-09 season. Instead of Mascherano and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Alonso-c5254, he will have Lucas and Meireles, and with Gerrard returning to the squad, he will play this trio in that system.
Against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Lucas-c22528 covering an incredible amount of pitch. Lucas in particular has played in an old style, box to box midfield position – the position he played while at Gremio.
Against Wolves, Kenny played the ‘so far’ shambolic Poulsen, but he too put in his best performance of the season. He had the support of his two more mobile central midfielders, which allowed him to read the game better and not get caught out.
The key has been the return of pass and move football. If the players are given the confidence to keep the ball on the ground and pass it around until you find a way past opposition is essentially the route to success.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Dirk-Kuyt-c11348 echoed this in his statement when he talked about the new approach under King Kenny,
“It comes close to the Dutch style, playing with early pressure on the opponents and a passing game with the ball low on the ground. Not all those long balls anymore.”
He continued: “Under Clarke we now do totally different training sessions. We do a lot of positional play in small spaces.”
Liverpool’s third goal came as a result of such practise. A total of 31 passes were completed between 10 players including http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Pepe-Reina-c29672. None ever thought of booting it up to Torres. It signified the drastic change in approach under Kenny Dalglish.
The fact of the matter is that these are the same bunch of players, but are now playing in a totally different way. The way they enjoy playing, keeping it simple and passing it around, trusting team mates and rather than hitting it long. There is movement
rather than rigid positional play, and no hoofing from the goal keeper but it’s about passing from the back and building up attacks rather than hoping of winning second balls from knock downs.
Dirk Kuyt stated earlier in the season that Roy Hodgson had his own way of playing but it was clear from the attitude of the players that it wasn’t theirs. It surely wasn’t the way fans wanted their team to play. The likes of Gerrard and Torres looked frustrated
and failed to see any light in those tactics.
It has been far too easy for all pundits to jump the bandwagon of Torres being not 100% as the reason for his poor goal return this season. Looking back at his previous two seasons, where he has had a lot more injury problems, his goals per game ratio has
been up to the mark.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Fernando-Torres-c13707
Season
Matches
Goals
Goals per games
2007-08
46
33
0.72
2008-09
38
17
0.45
2009-10
32
22
0.69
2010-11*
21
6
0.29
In both his 2nd and 3rd season, Torres suffered constant niggling injuries and many of those appearances were from the bench. The table only shows the games played under Roy in 2010-11.
Under Kenny, Torres has 3 goals from 4 games to his name. Some of the pundits need to have a look at this trend and ask themselves, is it really all Torres’s fault? Who has started nearly all the games under Hodgson; so the injury and fitness excuse goes
out of the window; apart from the few early games of the season.
However, the main problem has been Roy Hodgson, who played Fernando Torres in the Bobby http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Zamora-c40983 mould. He played 4-4-2 with Zamora as the target man. Both of which only suited Fulham’s and Zamora’s playing style.
Continued in part 3..
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