In this, the first Steven Gerrard-less Liverpool season for 17 years, Brendan Rodgers has the midfield to himself. There are no accommodations to be made, no tiring legend to support, no senile monarch to uphold.
Jordan Henderson, Emre Can and now James Milner, needn’t be spotters for a defensively shaky club captain any longer. They can focus now on forging their own midfield. And so after a full preseason and three Premier League matches, what does Liverpool’s midfield look like now?
Well, it is, without doubt, a midfield of gristle and hustle. With a rotating unit of players who, you could argue, are known more for their endeavour than their flair, Brendan Rodgers appears to be building a robust unit behind his attackers.
There is, though, an uncomfortable creeping feeling that without Phillipe Coutinho, this midfield will find it difficult to provide the necessary spark going forward. For all of Milner’s, Henderson’s and Can’s industrious hustling, one fears that, collectively they lack the footballing dexterity to unlock firmly packed defences. With Roberto Firmino still very much finding his feet in the Premier League and Jordon Ibe still rather flighty and streaky, it does place an awful lot of pressure on Rodgers’ little Brazilian sprite, Coutinho.
Liverpool’s results thus far have reflected this bluntness. Only a screamer from Coutinho separated Liverpool from Stoke in the opening match. Then a wrongly allowed goal against Bournemouth allowed a heaving Liverpool to stumble over the line. Finally, last weekend saw an end-to-end goalless draw with away at the Emirates. The Arsenal draw showed obvious signs of improvement in attack, with plenty of Liverpool chances created, and Petr Cech making a number of astonishing saves.
Still, when you watch all of Cech’s stunning interventions, the Liverpool play that forced them was almost entirely constructed by their talismanic Brazilian. The through ball to release the on-rushing Milner. the dropped volley-pass to play in Firmino, who crossed for Benteke. Then, twice the Brazilian crafted shooting opportunities out of nothing. Standing in front of Rodgers’ robust midfield, Coutinho appears even more luminescent, and his importance to this team glows even brighter.
Milner, Henderson, and Can can all be brought into the attacking play. All are muscular, direct runners that are able to shoot strongly and accurately. But they tend to shuttle forward off-the-ball, from deeper areas, or lurk around the edge of the box. None of them can really be relied upon to beat players with skill or pace. No, they need a gifted catalyst to revolve around, to pass to and then run by, hoping to collect a miraculous, disguised return pass when they burst through the other side of the defensive line.
However, to have a line up with three of a similar type of player, all stood stodgily in between defence and attack, can be risky. This whole issue is intertwined with the broader footballing question of the value of having deep-lying creativity present in a line up. Juventus, losing at home in their opening Serie A match already look like they’re missing Andrea Pirlo. Manchester City have Yaya Toure, who looks to be back to his best for the Citizens, his assist for Samir Nasri’s goal against Everton dripping with quality. To have Toure in addition to David Silva, well, City’s creative cup is overflowing. Now to London where Chelsea play their best football with Fabregas dictating from reserved positions. Even Manchester United received a sudden surge in attacking threat against Newcastle when a refreshed Michael Carrick arrived off the bench, not that they capitalised on it.
With Lucas Leiva, Can and Milner comprising the starting midfield three that lined up against Arsenal, it’s little wonder that the vast majority of promising moments were created by Coutinho. Of course, injuries have played their part in this too; Adam Lallana, and Jordan Henderson would certainly add some fluency to the Liverpool midfield. Then there’s Daniel Sturridge, the preternaturally talented, eternally inured striker, upon whose fitness it has become utterly impossible to rely on. Liverpool’s goal-void will go some way toward being filled if he can come back fit, and remain so.
It may also just be a matter of time, of inevitable cogency yet to be developed. But not having a linking creative player, to grease the wheels between defence and attack, through the middle of the pitch, might be a problem that hangs around. Liverpool played their best football last season when Coutinho was firmly placed behind the striker, in the archetypal No. 10 position. Against Arsenal, Coutinho, while still highly effective, spent most of his time drifting around the left flank.
From the few games we’ve seen so far, it appears as though Milner’s spot in the central midfield is assured. The reports surrounding Milner’s move to Liverpool all stated that Rodgers had assured the Premier League winner a place in central midfield and that this was key to Milner’s decision to kit up in red. Coutinho is such a splendidly brilliant player, he can play virtually anywhere and impact a game. But whether Milner’s presence, has an effect on Coutinho’s positioning and, in turn the central fluency on the team as a whole, is a question that must be asked.
In conjunction with Milner’s presence, it may also be the absence of Raheem Sterling that has forced Coutinho a little higher and a littler wider. Losing a player of such vibrancy would naturally compel Rodgers to place his most creative player nearer to Sterling’s old position. But perhaps the answer isn’t to charge the Brazilian with being an ersatz-Sterling, but to place him alongside his steely midfield colleagues, in a slightly deeper role.
Here, and with two wholly defensive players covering for him, Coutinho might collect the ball deeper when coherent passing through the middle is breaking down, as well as take up a more advanced position, looking to thread through assists. With players either side of him, as well as Benteke in front, his impactful moments would come from the very core of the team’s attack, the beating creative heart.
Decisions, decisions, all for Brendan Rodgers, mind you. The business of football management can sometimes end up being more alchemical than logical; intuition can mislead, and an oblique response is too often the correct one. Losing players like Sterling and Luis Suarez, as well as having to mitigate for Sturridge’s injuries, have meant that Rodgers can enjoy some goodwill for a while. He can afford to tinker in these early season matches. The perfect balance of gristle and glimmer is needed here, and, if it can be found, then leaden performances will turn to gold.
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