Newcastle 3-1 Liverpool: Liverpool unable to cope with aerial power of Carroll
The starting line-ups
Goals from Kevin Nolan, Joey Barton and Andy Carroll meant Newcastle leapfrogged Liverpool in the table.
Alan Pardew’s intention was clear – change as little as possible. Joey Barton and Kevin Nolan returned to the side after being unavailable for last week’s defeat to West Brom, but the other nine players remained.
It was a similar situation for Liverpool – the only change to the side which beat Aston Villa was the return of an obvious first-choice, Fernando Torres.
It was a game that could have gone either way – Liverpool actually had one more shot on target than Newcastle (4 to 3) and Fernando Torres had an excellent chance at 1-1. Individual errors and poor defending was what cost Liverpool this game, but there were various interesting tactical features.
Two 4-4-2s
The game was quite open with two 4-4-2s, partly because there were only four players operating in the centre of midfield (compare this to the 4-3-1-2 v 4-3-1-2 battles in Italy this season, where there are eight players in that zone).
There were differences in how the two sides operated within the 4-4-2s, however. There was slightly more depth and variation to Newcastle’s shape, particularly with the strikers. Shola Amoebi dropped off when not in possession and occupied one of Liverpool’s central midfielders. With Kevin Nolan taking care of the other, it meant that Cheick Tiote could play in a deeper role and sweep up in front of the defence. He also had more time on the ball than any other player, and passed calmly to keep possession.
Wide players in
As has been common for Liverpool this season (as it was when Roy Hodgson was at Fulham), the wide players took up central positions when Liverpool had the ball. The temptation, especially when the side loses, is to criticise a lack of width, and of course, there was a lack of width. However, Maxi Rodriguez and Dirk Kuyt were arguably Liverpool’s biggest goal threats when drifting into these central roles.
Rodriguez had an excellent headed chance at 1-0 that he should have buried, whilst Kuyt netted the equaliser from an inside-left position – he wouldn’t have been there had he been stationed out on the right touchline.
Playing this way makes it easier for Liverpool to move the ball forward – Lucas and Raul Meireles are presented with an obvious forward pass. A couple of good moves through the centre broke down because of poor individual decisions, whilst the full-backs provided width from deep. All this contributed to Liverpool dominating possession (53%).
Lack of movement upfront
Maybe the problem here, though, was that there wasn’t enough lateral movement from Liverpool’s front two. (The same could be said of Newcastle’s, but then this clearly wasn’t their game, they were seeking to win the ball in the air, and did so very well, so it would be a pointless criticism). For Liverpool, with Rodriguez and Kuyt coming inside, the Newcastle full-backs were being dragged out of shape into narrow positions.
There’s also an argument here that full-backs have become so used to playing against high wingers in 4-2-3-1 / 4-3-3 formations where getting tight is essential, that when they go back to playing against wide midfielders in a four, getting tight means they come too high up the pitch and leave 2 v 2 at the back when they should be providing some form of cover, meaning movement is even more important for the front two.
A good template for how to play 4-4-2 with narrow wingers (or 4-2-2-2, if you like) is Villarreal. Giuseppe Rossi and Nilmar move wide and the opposition defence is given all kinds of problems positionally. Torres and David Ngog are very pacey and very mobile (and Sol Campbell, in particular, is not) so the lack of movement was frustrating.
Comparing Ryan Babel favourably to Fernando Torres has probably never been done before, but Babel’s movement in wide zones against Villa complemented Kuyt and Rodriguez’s’ drifts inside very nicely, something Liverpool lacked from Torres here.
Carroll
The main problem, though, was that Liverpool were simply unable to deal with Carroll. In open play he worked both centre-backs well, winning 17 of the 20 challenges he contested.
It was obvious that Martin Skrtel and Sotirios Kyrgiakos weren’t dealing with him effectively in the air in open play, but it was incredible that Liverpool didn’t mark him with more than one player for the free-kick which resulted in Newcastle’s opener. Carroll’s dominance in the air this season has hardly been a secret, and the fact that Liverpool did double mark him from a similar free-kick later on shows that this wasn’t something Roy Hodgson was ‘against’ for whatever reason, he simply either (a) hadn’t thought about it at all or (b) had decided not to do it.
Equally, the players should take some responsibility for improvising in these straightforward situations – Carroll had already climbed high to win two headers early on – it’s hardly unreasonable to suggest that someone on the Liverpool side must have considered doing something to stop him. Maybe with Jamie Carragher barking instructions at the back, Liverpool would have adapted sooner.
Carroll created the first two goals by winning the ball in the air, but Liverpool also had problems with him on the ground. Lucas backing off for the third goal was simply awful defending.
Other points
Unlike Villa, Newcastle pressed Liverpool from goal kicks, meaning Liverpool had to do a lot more work to get the ball from goalkeeper to midfield. On a couple of occasions this resulted in panicky clearances from the centre-backs, whereas against Villa, Liverpool only had to compete in the opposition half.
Joey Barton was very good. The right-sided midfield role is not one he favours, but he plays the position very well. As well as dropping deep to pick up the ball in the centre of midfield to create from that zone, he’s also happy moving wide where he delivers measured crosses into the box. He is (in a strictly on-field sense) a very intelligent player – he uses the ball well, he moves into space to provide his teammates with easy passes.
The introduction of Nile Ranger was very important. He provided pace to get on the end of Carroll’s knockdowns and also forced Liverpool to defend deeper, meaning those knockdowns were in more dangerous areas. It was a similar move to Tottenham bringing on Jermain Defoe at half-time against Arsenal, and had similar consequences. It should be noted, however, that the substitution was prompted by Ameobi’s injury, rather than a pure tactical move.
Conclusion
Failure to deal with Carroll was Liverpool’s main problem. The sloppiness at marking him properly for the early free-kick suggests a lack of organisation, a lack of foresight or a lack of communication. Whichever is closest to the truth, it doesn’t reflect well on Hodgson and his coaching staff.
Newcastle fans sorry to see Chris Hughton go should be pleased by Pardew’s decisions here – it would appear that he agrees Hughton was doing a good job, as his plan today was to change as little as possible from the previous regime.
Newcastle 3-1 Liverpool: Liverpool unable to cope with aerial power of Carroll
Great Review ZM…some really interesting points.
Having watched most of Liverpool’s away games this season they do appear to lack width and Torres has often been quite isolated, but I don’t think these where the key factors which contributed to their downfall today. They are quite negative on their travels and have a real lack of pace in their midfield. I was surprised how Kyrgiakos and Skrtel failed so badly to deal with Carroll…. I would have expected an aerial battle to be more to their liking.
Yes, me too. AC has dominated almost every aerial contest this season but was amazing to see how on top he was here
Proper sick of the guy in all honesty. Sotiris should’ve definitely taken care of him – I think he has more physical presence than Skrtel and is more dominant in the air. I’m actually surprised Sotiris didn’t put away at least one of his headed chances (I think there were two…) given how sharp he’s looked in the opposition penalty area of late. I was foolish enough to wage a fiver on him scoring today too (with a mate, not THAT stupid…..) so it’s a real shame.
Either way, I have to think about leadership here. Without Gerrard and Carragher, who can really lead the side on the pitch? Geordieland is a nasty place to go to at the best of times (it’s all relative) and I don’t think Pepe Reina is a natural leader when it comes to more than barking at his defence for their outrageous incompetence. Always been a bit miffed about the GK captain idea – OK, so a GK with vision might be able to better assess the issues on the pitch in terms of movement and positioning but when you need to galvanise the troops or change stuff or be everywhere, be an example and motivate players all over the pitch, you’re pretty restricted. The display today – typical of the Hodgson era (away game wise) – smacked of balls-less-ness.
Pool away form is a bit like inviting your geriatric old grandmother round to your house for, let’s say, Christmas. You wheel her out so she can get pissed and embarrass herself and everyone else in the process, and then return her to an everyday existence whereby she is far less likely to anger and irritated everyone.
Torres is playing very badly and I am surprised how he still gets picked. I love Torres but he is getting picked on name instead of on form. I think Ryan Babel had a great game against Villa and deserved a start ahead of Torres.
It’ll be interesting to see what Pardew comes up with for a plan B. Hughton pretty much nailed this 4-4-2 but didn’t really have an answer in the squad when one or two key players were missing. Guthrie can’t play that right sided midfield role like Barton can.
Also, Gutierrez is suuuuch a bewildering player.
I genuinely sometimes wonder if he actually is a football player. As opposed to, I dunno, an Argentine tap-dancer who hoodwinked someone into believing he could play football. Perhaps he paid them in hair.
It’s not that I don’t like him, I just can’t work him out.
I suppose his most valuable contribution to the team is his ability to win freekicks (which is helpful when you have Carroll getting on the end of those).
A stat: he is the 5th most fouled player in the league. Another stat: Newcastle are the most fouled team in the league. Mmmmm.
I bought him in Fantasy Football because he was cheap and occasionally would do something. This pattern seems to have ceased of late. To be honest, I think most of his FK-winning “ability” stems from his poor footwork and the fact that he’s a bit of a lump with good body strength i.e. he gets hemmed into small spaces near the touchline and more often than not manages to get his body between the opposition player and the ball, eventually forcing the referee to blow for a FK in his favour after some tussling and jostling.
Sorry what was that – Newcastle are the most foul team in the league? Thought as much.
Newcastle has two very good players, one is Carroll of cours and the other is Tiote.
Can you do some coverage on the FIFA Club World Cup?
“[Pardew's] plan today was to change as little as possible from the previous regime.”
This is actually what makes the appointment most bewildering and frustrating. As good as the result and performance were, would they really have been any different under Hughton? If he’s not actually going to change anything (of course he still has lots of time and we might get some impression if he spends in January), how can it possibly make sense to gamble on the players’ morale in the way Ashley has done?
Of course, Pardew’s in a no-win really. If he does well Hughton will get credit, and if not he will get slaughtered.
Excellent analysis.
Regarding the lack of lateral movement up front by Liverpool – many times they seem to move the ball up front to the strikers too quickly. Yesterday there were a few occasions when N’Gog and Torres were left alone with the ball. For some reason, the Liverpool midfield at times refuses to support the strikers, maybe it is because under Roy, the whole team is defending deeper.
Another problem yesterday was with Johnson moving up the pitch, Kyrgiakos had to shift in to the right to provide cover – but Skertel would seldom move in to cover Kyrgiakos – because Konchesky would be somewhere midway on the pitch himself. Mascherano would cover up this exact gap excellently and they are missing him. Opposition against Liverpool do not have to work hard to drag the center backs apart – Liverpool are doing it for them!
the problem is that none of the liverpool strikers are good at holding up the ball, which would be required to buy time for the mids to move up in support, considering the direct style Roy try to implement
so ‘pool would ether need to play a shorter passing game to work around this (like Villarreal does), or buy a new striker
Or they could add a fast MF which would be much cheaper.
Get someone fast to play instead of Meireles who can link the forwards with the rest of the team or they could get a faster wing player and be able to kick long passes down that wing. If you move a faster winger in place of Kuyt you could play deep balls into the triangle between Enrique, Tiote and Gutierrez (which is a huge area of open space).
I think Liverpool should go to a 4-3-1-2 where the front 2 stays the same then someone like Kuyt or Babel plays as a CAM linking the team with the front 2. Keep the other 3 MFs in a central role with the CDM covering over the top of the opponents front 2 and let Johnson and a LWB attack.
I do agree that a 4-3-1-2 formation similar to the one we (Roma) play currently (or possibly 4-3-3 with Gerrard as false nine) would work better with this current Liverpool team, but that just wont hapen with Roy as coach
Babel would prolly fit great into the current trend of playing a roaming “winger” in the hole with Gerrard/Maxi and Meireles taking turns to join the attack and Lucas holding his ground in the center
Terrible game. Wonderful analysis.
Only thing I’ve smiled about today was your genial ribbing of Joey Barton’s specifically on-field intelligence. I don’t think a single geordie would contest it, and you made my day.
Everyone wins.
Pardew should be given some credit. He could have replaced the injured Ameobi with Alan Smith. The result would have turn out differently. Ranger’s pace unsettled Skrtel and Kyrgiakos. In response, what did Hodgson do?
At the other end of the pitch, Torres wasn’t being sufficiently serviced. What was Plan B? Only NGog’s injury forced Hodgson to do something, and what he did wasn’t right. (The right Plan B would have been to move Kuyt to partner Torres up front.)
Roy isn’t 100% to blame i think. Torres is out of form and the goals are from individual mistake mostly. Like ZM said, the game could go either way..
Hodgson wasn’t to be blamed. Neither was he to be praised. It matters very little whether or not he is managing Liverpool. He has not made any tactical change that would tip a close game into Liverpool’s favour. Don’t a team with Liverpool’s stature deserve a manager that they can blame? Average performance is good enough for the like of Fulham, Udinese and Grasshoppers. There is no question that Hodgson has always been able to keep his teams away from below average performance. He is not a bad manager. But, is not-a-bad-manager good enough for a 5-time European champion?
Liverpool are slightly better than they were at the beginning of the season. But they sill lack pace, creativity, shape, organisation and spirit. Apart from that they’re tickety-boo, Mr Hodgson!
I don’t think you can give Pardew any credit for this win. Yes, he kept things the same, but what else was he going to do – he had just 2 days with the players beforehand.
The acid test for Pardew will be whether he has the balls to continue not changing things too much. Obviously we need a Plan B, and if he can come up with a reasonable one (I genuinely can’t come up with a sensible one myself*) then he’ll have done more than half of his job, but our Plan A is a fantastic system for playing against sides of superior quality.
It’s like a small-time Benitez following Mourinho – will Pardew’s ego force him to ditch what Hughton has built, or can he be humble enough to keep using it? Will he prefer to succeed or (more likely) fail on his own terms?
*If we agree that the current system is best against superior opposition, we need a slightly more aggressive formation to play against worse teams, and we just don’t have the pace or creativity in enough players to do so. How we must rue Ben Arfa’s injury.
My point is that we have two managers, both a bit too timid to make substitutions without being forced by injuries. When forced, one opted for a game-changing substitution, the other for a steady-as-she-goes one. The latter deserved neither blame nor credit. The former could have been blamed, were his less risk-averse decision to turn out badly. Well, it didn’t turn out badly. Is it fair then not to give him any credit?
I assume you mean the Ranger for Ameobi substitution – a change which Hughton had made in almost every game since we’ve been playing with 2 up top. It was the obvious switch, and I don’t see how it was – at the time – opting for a “game-changing substitution” any more than bringing Babel for Ngog.
If he’d changed the system, or done something unexpected, then fair enough, give him credit. But this was Hughton’s system, Hughton’s players, and exactly the change Hughton would have made in the situation.
Next weekend we’ll see.
“Lucas backing off for the third goal was simply awful defending.”
Could you please elaborate?
I do not think Lucas “backed off” per se. He simply did not close Carroll down. Based on what previous evidence ought Lucas, covering for a CB, have rushed to close down Carroll with the ball at his feet roughly 35 yards out?
It was only “awful defending” (not even that, some of Skrtel’s ‘defending’ was well and truly awful, Konchesky’s general ‘defending’ has been awful) with hindsight. And that’s just not very good analysis, in my humble opinion.
He did ‘back off’ in that he took a step backward when Carroll was lining up to shoot
http://www.footytube.com/video/newcastle-united-liverpool-dec11-67476 (10:00)
It’s not very good analysis, no – it’s not even analysis, there’s nothing to say about it, nothing to analyse
I agree, it was awful, I said at the time why is nobody closing him down!? They literally invited him to shoot, and it wasn’t even like Carroll had to try hard to find the space, I was watching him as the move developed and he just strolled into the space, took his time to line it up and banged it in. Not sure what Lucas was looking at, think he looks over his left shoulder (probably to check what Konchesky was up to!) instead of engaging Carroll. Still, the game was gone by this point.
You can analyse the hell out of a game like this but the simple truth is, Liverpool have the players of a mid table team. Would Konchesky, Kyrgiakos, Lucas, and Maxi get anywhere near the first team of, say, Chelsea? No way. Far too many passengers, not enough game winners. Where are the goals going to come from if Kuyt, Gerrard or Torres don’t play out of their skin on their own?
Managers are paid to make the big decisions, did Hodgson just not have the bollocks to drop Torres? Torres in my opinion is quite inconsistent, and this sounds rather amateurish, but when he’s bad, he’s very very bad. On his day he can be quite unplayable, but when it’s not his day, he’s lethargic, his touch is poor, and he just generally doesn’t look interested.
Babel comes in against Villa, and does a very good job, getting himself a good goal in the game, despite the return of Torres, who despite the Chelsea game has had a quite a poor season, so why did he not get a start in this game, or at least the second half, because Torres was piss poor in the first half. It’s as if Torres knows he can play badly, and Roy won’t drop him because Roy doesn’t want to upset him.
As for the article, the title sums it up pretty well, Liverpool just couldn’t deal with Carroll. He won headers and flicked balls on all game long, and the main culprit in not dealing with Carroll, was Martin Skrtel, who really is a very poor player. He’s not fast, he’s strong, but he’s not as strong as someone like Carroll, and he’s going to be up against players like Carroll quite alot in the PL, so can’t really count strength as one of his attributes in my opinion. He’s also error prone, let Carroll dominate him in the air for the first goal yesterday, then a pathetic attempt at clearing the ball allowed Barton in for Newcastle’s 2nd. He’s also very poor at bringing the ball out from the back. Really dont know what he offers the team.
I agree that Torres sometimes does look shocking…tough to drop him though – although was impressed with Ngog and Babel together v Villa..part of that was just Villa being awful though, I suppose
Torres is used to playing alone upfront. He never really got it going in Spain’s team too with Villa as his partner.
Torres-Gerrard were excellent in 08/09, imo it should stay this way. Sadly Roy does not think so. Of course Gerrard is injured now, JC could deputize for him temporary or Kuyt.
My view was that it was simply a failure of delegation. Soto should have been marking Carroll at all times rather than Skrtel.
I’m interested to see what happens when SG comes back. My idea would be to play him between Raul and Lucas in centre midfield and Torres up front – just let him play at being destructive.
Am not sure, with the embedding of Raul, the improvement of Lucas and Maxi and the work-rate of Kuyt how and where Joe Cole fits in.
He is rapidly becoming the new Robbie Keane.
RCM
http://leftbackinthechangingroom.blogspot.com
I’ve never liked SG as one of a 2 central midfield pairing. In fact Liverpool’s best central midfield since the 80’s was the dynamic Gerrard/Xabi/Masch combo that done them so well in the mid 00’s.
Such a conondrum for any Liverpool manager to play the undroppable Gerrard who doesn’t really have a true position. A great player but not a great footballer you might say.
But if you can shape the team to get the best out of Stevie, it might be enough to challenge for trophies but such reshaping generally inhibits other players. I think Torres would suffer most at not having a good strike partner to share the burden.
But a 4-2-3-1 type with
……Lucas….Raul…….
Kuyt……Gerrard…..Cole.
is a formidable lineup…. But with Gerrard, Cole and Torres in the same team over the course of a season what you have is 3 inconsistent yet brilliant players. Babel is another who’s inconsistent (and immature).
One of Torres’ problems is he’s another player who when not on form remains undroppable for the manager. And his *in form* ability is so significantly ahead of the contending strikers that it’s another lose-lose for the manager.
Liverpool need maybe 1 more consistent quality player in attack with a good injury record to give the manager a wee bit more option.
liverpool had the best of it. 55% possession, more shots on target ( 5 vs 3 ) more corners etc. Newc had just 3 shots on target. & 3 go in.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/gamecast?id=292994&cc=5739
i immediately question the keeper in these circumstances. not much chance with the 1st. possibly could have done better with 2nd. did poor with the 3rd. his goals /saves ratio is 22/43=0.51 is bad. ignore the teflon media reputation. look at the facts. his saves per game = 43/17= 2.53. ben foster has 79/17= 4.65..a full 2 saves more per game than reina. foster has let in 20 compared to reina’s 22.
For those not on Twitter, here’s an alleged photo of the Liverpool tactics board
http://yfrog.com/gzkkgdj
Interesting that ZM picked up on the narrow wingers of Liverpool who were meant to get either side of Tiote. Also how high Liverpool’s full-backs were a bullet point of Hodgson’s setup.
Anyway, only saw the highlights so thought I’d drop off this very interesting image!
Keep posting stuff like this i really like it
Do you people have a facebook fan page? I looked for one on twitter but could not discover one, I would really like to become a fan!