Here we\u2019re looking at why the shouts for his head are growing from lone voices into an overwhelming chorus and whether or not there\u2019s anything that can keep him in his job.<\/p>\n
Liverpool were preparing to play against Manchester United and Louis Van Gaal, the Red Devils\u2019 manager, was asked how he thought the game might go. He said \u201c\u2026it will be difficult, but I like Liverpool\u2019s players and they more or less play my system, which I started here with United\u201d. In other words, \u201cI know what system they\u2019ll play and I can beat it easily\u201d. That quote wasn\u2019t before the match this weekend, though, it was from March when United travelled to Anfield and beat the Reds by two goals to one.<\/p>\n
You would think that nearly six months later Brendan Rodgers might have known not to play straight into the United manager\u2019s hands by sending his team out playing a formation that his rival boss could predict and knew how to beat. Yet it appears that Rodgers has learnt nothing during the last half a year and his tactics at Old Trafford showed as much.<\/p>\n
In every game since the start of the new Premier League season the major criticism after the match is that Christian Benteke has looked too isolated. Fans and commentators alike have made the point that the big Belgian needs some support from his fellow players and that the Reds would look far more attacking if Rodgers abandoned his 4-3-3 formation in favour of playing the likes of Ings or Origi alongside Benteke.<\/p>\n
By Delval Lo\u00efc (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>On top of that, Manchester United took a 1-0 lead against Swansea at The Liberty Stadium recently when Gary Monk\u2019s men were playing with just one striker in the form of Bafetimbi Gomis. They looked in control and Van Gaal\u2019s defenders were comfortable in only having one man to look after, with one man marking him and another sweeping up everything else.<\/p>\n
Yet as soon as the Swans pushed Andre Ayew up alongside Gomis United looked immediately uncomfortable and Swansea promptly scored two goals and won the match. Louis Van Gaal likes an organised team and United\u2019s results in the first three games of the season (1-0, 0-1, 0-0) showed that they know how to keep a clean sheet. But whilst they\u2019ve looked solid they haven\u2019t looked convincing and they have looked positively shaky when they\u2019ve been put under any kind of pressure. To pinch a phrase from Dad\u2019s Army, they don\u2019t like it up \u2018em.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an entirely valid tactic to go into a big away game and try to keep things tight. There\u2019s nothing wrong with playing defensively against the big teams if you feel as though you can get a result and it can\u2019t be denied that it was a tactic that paid dividends when Liverpool travelled to The Emirates to play Arsenal. The Reds could easily have scored three or four in the first half and despite coming under continuous pressure in the second half would have felt hard done to if they\u2019d lost the game.<\/p>\n
So in a sense it\u2019s understandable that Rodgers might have thought a similar tactic would work at Manchester United and for 45 minutes it look as though it would. Unfortunately, though, this is one of the worst Manchester United sides in recent years and Liverpool\u2019s decision to let them control the ball made them look like world beaters. They let their old foe have the running of the match and didn\u2019t put them under any sustained pressure at all. A 4-4-2 diamond formation would have given Benteke the support he so desperately craves and put United on the back foot from the get go, but Rodgers instead opted for a 4-3-3 that left Benteke on his own to be marked by two defenders and allowed the Red Devils to camp out in the Liverpool half.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to be critical in hindsight, however plenty of people were suggesting Rodgers needed to abandon his desperate desire to make 4-3-3 work in favour of getting points on the board. Maybe his preferred formation is the philosophical future of the football club, but if Brendan Rodgers can\u2019t find a way to make Liverpool look like an attractive attacking force then he will not be around to witness it.<\/p>\n
The Starting XI<\/h3>\n
For whatever reason Brendan Rodgers decided that 4-3-3 was the right way forward for the game against Manchester United. Had he also decided that the front three should be Christian Benteke with Roberto Firmino and Danny Ings pushed up close to him then it might well have been the right way to go.<\/p>\n
Mignolet<\/p>\n
Clyne Skrtel Lovren Gomez<\/p>\n
Lucas<\/p>\n
Milner \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Can<\/p>\n
Firmino \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Ings
\nBenteke<\/p>\n
Instead both Ings and Firmino ended up acting as auxiliary wingers, with Can and Milner the closest players to the Belgian front man more often than not. Ings put in a good shift and was one of few players to come out of the match with any credit, but he\u2019s a striker and will offer both Liverpool Football Club and his strike partner more options if he\u2019s deployed as such. A 4-3-3 filled with attacking players became something more akin to a defensive 4-1-4-1.<\/p>\n
Mignolet<\/p>\n
Clyne Skrtel Lovren Gomez<\/p>\n
Lucas<\/p>\n
Firmino Milner Can Ings<\/p>\n
Benteke<\/p>\n
If Rodgers knew that was always going to be the formation he was going to play then why wasn\u2019t Jordan Ibe in the starting XI? If he wanted the drive and energy of Emre Can in the team then wouldn\u2019t it have been better to place him in front of the defence instead of Lucas Leiva? The young German midfielder is still a diamond in the rough and continues to search for his best position, yet this looked like a game too far for the Brazilian defensive midfielder. Youthful exuberance over slow legged experience may well have been the better choice.<\/p>\n
almonfoto \/ shutterstock.com<\/p><\/div>\n
Had Can been asked to play deep then Rodgers could have opted for a middle four of Ibe, Milner, Rossiter and Moreno \u2013 players far more suited to the job of patrolling the park and getting up in support of Benteke than Ings and Firmino. On top of that they are all quick and full of energy, even if Rossiter is still a little young to be depended on in what is traditionally a high tempo game full of strong tackles and robust challenges.<\/p>\n
The players put on the pitch didn\u2019t in any way match up to the formation that the manager was trying to get to them to play. It left different members of the squad looking lost and not knowing where they were supposed to be and caused confusion in the ranks. The combination of poor tactics and the wrong players allowed United to completely dominate the game and gave Liverpool no real way back in once the Red Devils had scored the opening goal.<\/p>\n
As for the constant debate over Dejan Lovren\u2019s consistent ownership of the starting berth in the left slot of the central defensive pair, it\u2019s a marvel that Rodgers thinks persisting with him will eventually pay off. In the Croatian\u2019s defence he actually didn\u2019t do much wrong against Manchester United. Yet Simon Mignolet is fair from instilling confidence in the rest of the team and Martin Skrtel has looked to be in worrying form since the start of the season. The Slovakian always seems to have a mistake in him and why Rodgers can\u2019t see that having three dodgy players at the back on the pitch at the same time won\u2019t work out in his favour is anyone\u2019s guess.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a look at the stats of games in which both Skrtel and Lovren start compared to Rodgers\u2019 own average during his Liverpool tenure and all of Liverpool\u2019s Premier League games thanks to Twitter’s Dan Kennett.<\/p>\n