{"id":239,"date":"2015-09-24T14:52:59","date_gmt":"2015-09-24T14:52:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/?p=239"},"modified":"2016-07-13T11:19:13","modified_gmt":"2016-07-13T11:19:13","slug":"liverpool-1-carlisle-1-a-professional-embarrassment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/liverpool-1-carlisle-1-a-professional-embarrassment\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool 1 Carlisle 1 – A Professional Embarrassment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liverpool 1 \u2013 Carlisle 1 After 90 Minutes And AET, 3-2 On Penalties<\/h2>\n

Some people might say that a win\u2019s a win. Others might suggest that a lower league team coming to Anfield and putting in a dogged display of grit and fight isn\u2019t anything new and that we shouldn\u2019t read anything in to it. Yet the reality is that, on and off the pitch, the League Cup match against Carlisle was nothing short of a professional embarrassment.<\/p>\n

There are, perhaps, one or two positives to take from the game. The overwhelming feeling of everyone who watched Liverpool toil and struggle against a League Two team, however, was one of disappointment and disillusionment. Despite having talked about the manager to some extent in most of our recent pieces it\u2019s virtually impossible to discuss the game against Carlisle without making reference to the manager and the tricky situation he finds himself in. As always, we\u2019ve broken our piece into sections so feel free to read the whole thing or just to skip to the bit you\u2019re interested in. Make sure you tweet, comment or choose some other way to get involved, though!<\/p>\n

Accentuating The Positives<\/h2>\n
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This piece is likely to be overwhelmingly negative in its feel. That\u2019s somewhat natural after any poor performance, let alone a poor performance that comes in the midst of a host of poor performances. Yet before we get too doomy and gloomy it\u2019s only fair that we discuss the one of two positives that came out of the game last night \u2013 as long as you scratch beneath the mediocre surface.<\/p>\n

Emre Can appears to have got his groove back, for example. The German youngster, who is only 21 despite the fact that he looks like he\u2019s about 32, has had a tricky couple of months at Anfield after earlier impressing and suggesting he had enough promise to make a real go of his Liverpool career.<\/p>\n

Can arrived at Liverpool from Bayern Leverkusen with a reputation of being a dynamic midfielder who can also play in numerous defensive roles. Brendan Rodgers obviously rated him and played him in several different positions in a number of varied formations last season as he tried to find a role for him. Eventually it seemed as though he\u2019d found his niche when the manager played a back three and put Can on the right side of the defence alongside Martin Skrtel.<\/p>\n

Yet when the Reds struggled to beat Swansea and then lost 2-1 to Manchester United at Anfield the Northern Irishman abandoned his back three in order to try out a 4-3-3 formation, meaning Can was no longer part of a defensive trio and was instead asked to play as a right back. He was never at home in the out and out defensive position the manager asked him to take up, being humiliated by talented wingers and giving away more than one penalty in the process.<\/p>\n

At the start of this season the manager was once again determined to make a 4-3-3 formation work, yet he was also keen to move Can out of the defence due to the arrival of Nathaniel Clyne and yet keep him in the team wherever possible. This meant playing him in various midfield positions, none of which seemed to suit the wunderkind. He saw himself as a midfielder and yet couldn\u2019t influence the game to a satisfactory degree from the middle of the park. He doesn\u2019t particularly want to become a defender, but his best work has come when he\u2019s been asked to play at the back and break forward when the opportunity to do so presents itself. In short, he wasn\u2019t happy wherever he was being played and looked a little lost in a Liverpool team that is desperate to be found.<\/p>\n

When he was called up to the German squad at the end of August, he was delighted. Interestingly, Joachim Low put him in the squad as a defender and that was the position he played in when he got his debut for the national team, being part of a defensive unit that conceded one goal but watched the attackers score three, giving the Germans a victory over Poland that saw them head to the summit of their qualifying group.<\/p>\n

Whether it was his call up to represent his country, the fact that Low saw him as a defensive player or something the Germany manager said to him during his time away on international duty remains unclear, but the one thing that can\u2019t be questioned is that he looks a different player. For two games in a row he has been defensively sold whilst giving the team a good outlet moving forward, finding space and making intelligent passes. His wonderful, confident panenka penalty deserves plenty of plaudits at a time when everyone else seemed to be losing their heads completely.<\/p>\n