Liverpool FC Forum

bigmick wrote:I personally don't think you need to be a master tactician to spot what is wrong with our team at the moment and with the greatest respect, while Gerrard and Alonso not playing to their very best maybe a symptom, it's certainly not the cause of our woes.
I'm not going to be particularly original here but our problems stem from the fact that we can't score goals. That, and only that is the problem. All the other component parts of the team which are beginning to creak are as a direct result of the fact that we don't score when we should.
Crouch's header today was a poor attempt at a fairly basic skill. The whole motion cloaked in anxiety, no timing at all as he flexed his neck muscles an age before the ball arrived. Misses in a manner such as that spur on the opposition and deflate our team. It's hard to work the ball into a wide area and pick out a cross. It takes effort, imagination and skill. Crouch's circular movement away from the ball and then back in towards the penalty spot was good, and almost certainly practised regularly. That he made such a poor attempt at the final action is bound to make the players say "FFS" under heir breath. It's the most natural reaction. Similarly the Arsenal players can't help but think "this games won as they aint gonna score". It was an awful attempt from the big man.
Gradually our confidence and belief has slipped away like sand through the fingers, to be replaced by hurried passes and snatched first touches. Where once the defence looked calm and assured there is an air of desperation, a knowledge that one mistake probably means game over as we won't be able to pull the game back. Similarly teams are able to defend against us with ease and confidence, the litany of long punts and lack of pace and/or channel balls to turn the defence around allowing them to predict where the ball will land and cover accordingly. Not for the opposition the anxiety of mistakes, they know they will rarely be punished even if a Liverpool striker gets free.
Sorry mate in a nutshell that is the problem for me, nothing else. Solve that and you solve the other problems. My suspicion is that if we had Thierry Henri, we would defend better and pass it better. Also, steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso would play better too. We'd probably be an absolutely cracking side aswell.