I love Javier Mascherano. Seriously. If you want to get me a present (for Christmas, New Year’s, Valentine’s Day or just because you love me) then get me a Liverpool jersey with Mascherano on the back. Mascherano and Sissoko (the heir apparent) are two energy-packed tough tacklers who own the centre of the pitch. The perfect foil for Xabi Alonso, who’s a brilliant tackler and reader of the game, but needs the time and space that an all-action partner can provide him in order to launch his killer passes. So where does this leave Steven Gerrard? Not really difficult to guess, eh?
Steven Gerrard is a monster lah. He’s Mascherano and Xabi Alonso combined; a complete force of nature. But I don’t believe there’s a need any more for him to be in the centre for Liverpool. His favourite position? Too bad lah because we really need him on the right. And no, not because of the usual reasons of our lack of a good right-sided midfielder. The biggest reason why we need him on the right, is because our defence is shit.
What more evidence do you need then last night’s game with Arsenal? We were torn apart by some really, really good attacking and passing from the wonderful team that is Arsenal. And it is against such fearsome attacking ability when all your weaknesses in defence are exposed. I think you can classify the Liverpool defence as what I call desperate defending. I don’t mean it in a bad way, but in the sense that the 4 defenders don’t really close down the attackers, but instead form a huge wall, limiting the passing options the attacker has while the defensive midfielders close down on the ball like hungry tigers. The moment a pass is made in an attempt to get past the defenders, that’s when the defenders react and cut off the pass. The reason why I call this desperate defending is because the defenders love the dramatic, and have a habit of holding on to the last minute before they make the crucial sliding tackle (Carragher especially) which prevents an otherwise good striking opportunity for the offence. And even if that tackle fails, well out comes Reina (damn fast lah) who will then make a save (which is more than likely to be dramatic.)
It makes for good television, but it’s damn scary to watch.
So Arsenal beat the system, through pace and precision passing. I don’t want to pin-point the blame on individuals lah, because there’s noting much we can do now. Hyypia simply cannot play against pace but you just have to trust his immense experience and immaculate judgement lah. Risse is vastly over-rated and should be rid off lah. He’s not a footballer but a thug! But the quality of defenders doesn’t really matter, because such is the system.
Which leads me back to Steven Gerrard. Yes, play him on the right, because I think we really need the presence of two dedicated defensive midfielders to help the defence out. Not only that, I really love to see Mascherano, Xabi and Gerrard owning the entire midfield. Add Benayoun/Kewell on the left and perhaps I won’t worry so much about defence any more.
Perhaps.