Dalglish Goes Into Defensive Mode and Stifles Liverpool's Ambition

Strolling into Anfield and being hit with the news that the manager had, in Agger’s absence, picked Carragher and Coates seemed to instil a level of foreboding around me. The realisation that a part from having a plethora of defensive players on the pitch, spearheading the attack was a forward who had failed to score in the league this season (which would come back to haunt us).

The formation placed Jordan Henderson in the pivotal role behind the striker with Gerrard and Adams the creative forces in the engine room and Stewart Downing to provide the width. If we had taken the lead earlier on, with Adam inexplicably missing when in front of the goal from a Gerrard corner, then we may well have been on our way.  But in a season full of ifs, the die was cast with the play becoming staid as if the players have become typecast from starring in the same production.

Downing as a winger has become a player seemingly trapped in the expectation to do well and is now not delivering on either the right or the left.  On the left, his crosses lack pace or penetration and on the right he invariably checks back to deliver a nothingness.  The quandary for Dalglish is that with Bellamy’s inability to start two consecutive games there is a propensity to pick him even though his form has now dipped to unacceptable levels where he fails to commit and attack full backs which is a crying shame in a game where Gerrard and Adam constantly delivered cross field balls of the highest quality which any top class winger would have run onto with abandon.  His failure was accentuated because of the failure of Enrique and Johnson, who both saw plenty of the ball, to deliver quality end product in the final third.

Today’s was chronic on many different levels.  That we picked Carragher and Coates sent out a message that we worried about Stoke’s physicality, but more worrying was that we were playing at home. Also, to say that his (Dalglish) hands were forced following Agger’s injury, intimates that Carragher cannot cut in alongside Skrtel or he doesn’t think Coates is ready.

For the manager to say at the end of game that we suffered with a lack of creativity is hard to take when it had it with his hands to change the formation at half time, by pushing Johnson forward and bringing on Kelly for a centre-half and pushing Gerarrd behind the striker and giving Bellamy on with time to change the game against Stoke side which offered nothing in attacking sense.

The last remaining opportunity, of a disappoint match, fell to Kuyt who failed to capitalise on a glorious chance, heading the ball wide when it seemed easier to score.  We failed to create too many chances in the final third without Carroll on the pitch – but I guess critics will still blame him.  Liverpool needs a clinical striker who is capable of eking out chances for himself if we continue to play in the same way with a lack of penetration and movement at home.

With the team playing so disappointingly and the lack of creativity for all to see and with some of the most talented youngsters in the country in the reserves why isn’t the manager at least finding a spot on the bench to offer something different and inject some energy?
No excuses.  We are throwing away an opportunity to finish in the top four which we may just find it harder to come by next season.  By the time we play our next game we may just being out of the top six.

Kop-Post Man of The Match: Charlie Adam – although offering relatively little in attack, some of his cross field passing was like a laser guided missile.