The next three games could well define Liverpool’s season. Lose or draw the Bolton game and suddenly Newcastle who had in been in our rear view mirror just a few weeks ago and who will be trying to break our tow from their slip stream in their earlier game at Fulham. Then with the Manchester clubs on the horizon in the Carling and FA Cups respectively, the season titters on the precipice of relative success or failure.
Obviously goals have been in short supply all season. Why? We’ve created more chances than an other Premier League club but we misfire constantly when chances present themselves. Charlie Adam is a prime example of Liverpool’s continuing problems. From 2009 to 2011, Adam scored 32 goals in 78 games for Blackpool which is a ratio of just over a goal every two games and for a midfield player to be scoring at 41 per cent is prolific even if the seasons was were divided into the top two leagues in England. He scored almost one in every three games for Blackpool last season (12 goals in 35 games) which at 34 per cent in a side which was relegated is impressive. Is Adam being used to his best advantage in a more deep lying role where he sits in the middle hitting diagonal balls to a winger who has gone from most prolific crosser in the Premiership to a player whose lack of confidence seems more evident in every game he starts for the Reds?
Downing’s hasn’t just disappeared from the crossing and assists columns, but the 7 goals he scored in 38 Premiership goals is what made him such a viable option on top of being the obvious source in the supply chain for Andy Carroll. If King Kenny persist with Downing he needs him to start firing immediately as in terms of experience widemen at the club with the ability to play on a regular basis he is the only option. With Dirk Kuyt having his least successful season in the league since he entered the fray in 2006/07, his 13 goals from last season are being sorely missed and that in mind is Maxi Rodriguez bit part appearance so far is difficult to fathom.
Maxi has a back catalogue of goals scoring 58 goals in 232 goals in his 8 seasons at Atletico Madrid, but more importantly he is a midfield player who in the later part of last season and the first half of this season has proved that goal scoring talent shows no sign of diminishing. This season with 4 goals in ten appearances (2 in the League) he has shown a natural understanding with Suarez and a Lampard like instinct to get himself into goal scoring positions in the area.
On previously blogs I have made assertions that Liverpool’s problems this season lay in the fact that apart from Suarez the goal threat remain the tried and trusted performers Steven Gerrard (2goals:7games); Craig Bellamy (4:14) and Maxi. With the problems of injury and age their appearances are having to be managed by Liverpool’s coaching staff which puts the pressure on players like Henderson, Adam, Downing and even Jay Spearing to pick up the mantle which is difficult when Henderson and Spearing have as yet no track record of regular scoring in the first team.
As we move to only a few hours before the Bolton game, I believe that the team must be given the freedom to play. We haven’t created 292 chances by accident. At stages this season Liverpool have outplayed Man City, Man Utd and Chelsea, but fear has stifled us in recent times with playing three at the back at Stoke when we have the best defence in the league and not taking the chance to kill off Man City in the first leg which showed that the expectation of our history maybe weighing heavy on us. Too many times this season we have seen Henderson playing on the right which negates his effectiveness and blunts our creative options and must have Carroll tugging his pony-tail in anger from the lack of service.
Chances created have to being taken because we can’t go on doing the following:
- 8 per cent of chances taken
- 3 of the last 4 penalties missed in the league
- Failing to score in 3 of our last 4 away games
- Stewart Downing has 47 attempts with out scoring, more than any Premiership player
Sixth in the league with our scoring record shows that if we can improve our scoring record then the the top four may not be beyond us.
