Team Focus: Making Sense of Liverpool's Shortcomings

If you were to lay out all of Brendan Rodgers’s problems this season, the list would be as predictable for Liverpool fans as it is painful.

Most obviously, there is the departure of Luis Suarez, and the loss of so many goals as well as so much devastating play. To add insult, there’s been the injury to Daniel Sturridge.

That has placed a hugely unfair burden on Mario Balotelli, but it shouldn’t obscure the reality that he has so far looked hugely out of place.

That reduction in goals has been exacerbated by an ongoing avalanche at the other end, as the defence remains a calamity and Steven Gerrard’s continued decline destroys his ability to offer that back line any protection whatsoever.

It is seemingly becoming apparent that Rodgers may well have a huge blind spot when it comes to the defensive side of the game, one that is matched only by a muddled approach to transfers.

The question of how Liverpool used the money received for Suarez is now starting to really weigh on minds, but it pales next to the biggest psychological issue with this squad: the trauma of how close they came to a title triumph before collapsing.

That was always going to have some kind of effect, especially given the intense nature of the decisive games against Chelsea and Crystal Palace. Now they also have the intensity of a fixture list full of Champions League games.

It is possible that there is a problem even more profound than all of this, however, which also illustrates how much of an effect all of these other factors have had.

It is the dismal nature of Liverpool’s football right now; the dreariness, the dullness, the lack of movement.

This is such a particular problem because the cornerstone ideals of Rodgers’s entire coaching career - going back to Watford, Swansea City and so especially obvious last season - have been fluidity and motion.

That was why the 2013/14 title challenge was down to so much more than Suarez. It was about an apparently effortless system, which at the same time overpowered so many opposition sides, maximising the Uruguayan’s brilliance.

Consider the context of so many of his best displays. Suarez was able to blisteringly interchange both the ball and positions, while the likes of Jordan Henderson bombed on. Defences didn’t know where to look.

The absence of players as mobile as Suarez and, temporarily, Sturridge would obviously see the rest of the team adjust, but the extent of the drop-off is still so marked.

Now, those same defences only see an opposition awkwardly moving in more disjointed fashion.

If last season was “poetry in motion”, this has been the starkest cinema verite. Reality has interrupted Rodgers’s imagination as a coach.

A number of stats emphasise this, just how much life has been taken out of Liverpool’s game.

Most obvious, they are scoring less, and having fewer attempts on goal. The shots per match have dropped from 17.1 to 14.7. Although the logic might be that they are more careful about their shooting, there has been a lower proportion of shots on target - 32.1% rather than 39.6%.

Clearly, Liverpool are not working the balls into the same type of positions. The attack isn’t moving. That is best displayed by the drop in dribbles, from 12.4 to 10.2, and the conspicuous decline in through balls, from five a game to two.

These two stats are so striking because, more than others, they show how expansive a team they can be. Through balls split defences and open up matches, with their frequency reflecting a side’s movement. Dribbles display technique and trickery.

At the same time, Liverpool’s possession has actually slightly increased from 54.8% to 55.4%, and their pass success has gone from 84.1% to 84.3%.

It is as if, without the same wonder in attack that puts opposition on the back foot, they are trying to play it that bit safer; to move less; to risk less; to be that bit more static to preserve some structural stability and self-protection.

It hasn’t worked. It all means Rodgers is going to have to work harder on the training pitch.

That is what much of this is about: effectively re-coaching a much-changed group.

It may mean it’s a while until we see much change on the pitch.

What do you think has been the main issue with Liverpool's play this season? Let us know in the comments below