LIVERPOOL under perform. They need a holding midfielder. Liverpool lose. They need a holding midfielder. Liverpool lose two on the bounce. They are crying out for a holding midfielder.
There’s a problem here between what people want and the reality which is in front of them and which will remain in front of them. Which is that Brendan Rodgers hasn’t bought a pure holding midfielder in five transfer windows as Liverpool manager. Emre Can was used ahead of a holder in his friendly and substitute appearances for Liverpool. There have been few plausible links with a holding midfielder.
In Rodgers’ two seasons at Swansea City he bought what appears to be one holding midfielder. Leon Britton. Who had left on a free in the previous window. Britton also wasn’t supposed to be a holding midfielder. He had played a slightly more advanced before his move to Sheffield United – scoring fifteen goals in his first spell at Swansea and only once since returning under Brendan Rodgers. Rodgers made Britton into the player who plays that position.
So in the last nine transfer windows Brendan Rodgers has bought maybe one holding midfielder who is the same bloke who had left before he got to Swansea. According to wikipedia, in the summer Swansea were promoted to the Premier League Brendan Rodgers bought only one midfielder. Wayne Routledge. He isn’t a central midfielder. The summer before he bought two midfielders. Scott Donnelly, who got one appearance and now plays for Havant and Waterlooville and Kemy Agustien who is now at Brighton.
Alberto, Lallana, Can, Allen, Coutinho are the only real five midfield-y players Rodgers has bought from twenty permanent outfield signings since arriving. Of them you can only imagine two of them fulfilling a role as a holding midfielder – only two could feature in the 2 in a 4-2-3-1 or as the 1 in a 4-1-3-2.
Basically, he doesn’t seem that interested.
It’s easy to see why. Rodgers wants all of his midfielders to be capable on the ball. Able to play and play. He wants his centre backs playing, he expects the earth from his midfielders. He doesn’t want a player who lets the other players play. He wants all the players to play and play and play. To always be bold.
This isn’t to say he’ll never buy a holder. But he’ll never compromise into one who doesn’t offer much more. He’ll not want a player who can’t pass the ball, who isn’t technically good, to be at the base of his midfield. And so the pure holder who can also do all the other stuff is a rarity in world football. They go for top whack and it has only been in the window just gone that Rodgers has had genuine top whack to spend. I very much doubt Rodgers would pass up the chance to sign Busquets. He just isn’t going to sign anyone Wanyamatic. He isn’t going to limit what can be done in that area of the pitch and all the evidence is that he’d rather adapt a more expressive player and get him to do that dirty work than get someone who arrives sleeves already rolled up. And at the minute this Liverpool squad’s only player who you’d say was a pure holding midfielder is the sadly immobile Lucas Leiva (and he is another player who has been moulded into the position rather than arriving as being capable within it).
Lucas Leiva going as quickly as he can, the poor lad. (CREDIT: David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
It’s a situation further compounded by Gerrard. Last season, away at Spurs, we saw what Rodgers wants in its purest form without Steven Gerrard playing (though with Lucas Leiva playing). Gerrard then reasserted himself and was excellent for four months mostly playing weekly football and he’s Liverpool’s leader. He’s been a brilliant player and somehow, somewhere (Saturday 27th September, Anfield) he will be brilliant again. He’ll have more farewell tours than Bob Hope but the jokes won’t get old. He’ll spend this season playing more games than he sits out and therefore you can’t offer first team football to a holding midfielder good enough to come in for a big fee.
I think the eventual solution to this – through this season when Gerrard needs to sit out and into next – is that Rodgers’ll want two or three central midfielders exceptionally mobile centre midfielders rotating around the area, all taking turns to work without the ball, all playing when they do get it. Henderson, Allen and one other. Comfortable on the ball, tactically astute, always looking to play. There is every chance the one other is next summer’s big signing. Perhaps January’s. I’d be surprised if it is a specialist like M’Vila rather than a hard running, technically brilliant all rounder like Pogba (names chosen simply because they are both French internationals people talk about. Substitute in names of your choice). It also wouldn’t surprise me if Rodgers had a look at the younger players at the club to see if anyone can help do this.
In the immediate short term, Liverpool need to do what they have to to get themselves to West Brom unbeaten and reassess. Reassess collective fitness, reassess how often you deploy the captain, reassess where Lallana and Coutinho can fit in and flourish.
Fundamentally I hope Rodgers never compromises himself on this. Not because I believe that to be endlessly right (it patently isn’t – loads of managers have had and are having success with holding midfielders right now) but because when managers start compromising what they are about at core level is when managers lose their way.
I believe those calling for that change, for that compromise are howling at the moon. The howls may be fair points. They may even be right. But they are, to the reality in front of our eyes, irrelevant. The defensive specialist craved isn’t just around the corner and he almost certainly never will be.
Although not signing DM’s Rodgers has changed his systems quite a lot and is a very young manager so I do think he could adjust his philosophy over time. Another unrelated point is that run of 11 wins last season playing unbelievable football has made us all a bit giddy this season. We’ve had a bit of a frying pan in the face moment and the realisation it will be harder this year. Still think we will be great this year and looking forward to when we hit form
Zeitgeist.
Fecking predictive text! I meant shiteist.
Good piece as usual. Can’t argue with any of it.
Wonder who will play the holding role tomorrow night? Surely SG will be rested….so a replacement? Rodgers obviously doesn’t have many options at the minute…with injuries impacting.
I’d guess Lucas will get the nod on the night. The game is at Anfield and versus a Championship side albeit a decent one, especially away from home. God knows Lucas is now permanently reduced by injury but as a one-off he can play the holding role and with intelligence and arguably fulfill the defensive and spoiling aspects of the role better than SG.
Some would say give young Rossiter a go…… Neil might have hinted at that in his piece….but the lad is very much …. a lad! He isn’t the man-child Rooney was at a similar age. Rossiter is a little lightweight and can look very “leggy” and while without doubt, he looks to be shaping up to be a fine player we might have to wait 12/18 months before we see him wearing a first team shirt with any sort of regularity. And who knows in that time the extra muscles, and power generated, might allow him to evolve into a different type of midfield player eg box -to-box.
As SG fades more and plays less, might Henderson be given the holding role? He’s a physically imposing player who likes a tackle and certainly has the engine to constantly sweep that 20 yard area in front of the whole back four. Henderson’s passing is quick, crisp and sure too which would benefit the speed of ball movement between the playing ” thirds”
Whilst I think you’re right, Rodgers won’t buy and out and out holder, you’re wrong about managers compromising. Rodgers abandoned his preferred method to get the best from the players available last season. That was a compromise, that was successful.
I remember having a conversation with a guy in a pub a couple of years ago about holders. I was saying we needed one, he was arguing that we’d never played an out and out holder, that our years of success were built upon players who could do everything. He was right, Souness was a holder, but he was so much more. Is it so hard to be tactically disciplined and be able to pass? I’m not sure. One thing’s for certain, the current system isn’t working and Gibbo’s right about our transfer strategy, I posted the same argument last week. Lallana and Markovic were clearly bought with 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 in mind. It might be worth giving 3-5-2 or 3-4-3 a shot, but with Gerrard as an auxiliary centre back. Simply say to him: this is your role, the game is ahead of you, I don’t want to see you cross the halfway line unless we have a set piece. He might well thrive on the responsibility. It’s the only way he keeps his place at the moment because he hasn’t got the legs to play in a more advanced position, anyone arguing otherwise is in cloud-cuckoo land or they haven’t watched him play recently. Moreno’s a natural wing-back as is Johnson. Markovic is supposed to be good defensively. We could then play any 3 of Henderson, Allen, Sterling, Can, Coutinho and Lallana in front of them. I’m not entirely convinced, because wing-backs are often aimless, just chucking crosses into the box and I’d rather see our midfielders flooding the box, but it may be worth a try. The other, more radical alternative, and one right up Brendan’s street, is converting Coutinho. He’s quick, good at tackling, great at passing and shit at shooting. We’ve got nothing to lose!
Why get a single person to hold that position when you can have Joe Allen and Henderson combine with Gerrard to form a Voltron-like robot towering over the middle of the pitch? Captain Fantastic trodding the earth with Allen as his left leg, Hendo thundering down upon the right, filling his victims full of dread like some power chorded nightmare collectively dreamt up by the fevered brains of Ozzy Osbourne and Ted Hughes.
A Matic type would be sound as an option for Brendan but it’s easier said than done to find that quality of all-rounder for that position.
There are very few quality ball playing defensive midfielders. But we need one and won’t compete for top honours without one. Its going to be expensive but its a total necessity.
Ideal scenario is somehow we get our act together playing 4-3-3 and occasionally the diamond but at all times keeping 4 at the back, resulting in 4th place ahead of Utd, Gerrard realising come seasons end he can’t do this anymore, retiring and us, knowing we need a name to replace a legend, buying Pogba. His height would be an added bonus.
Although keep your eye on William Carvalho. Could be a cheaper option.
Is it possible we’ve just let a great option for a DM go in Agger? Excellent on the ball, decent tackler and wouldn’t have the burden of (2nd from) last line of defence.
A bit late now, I know, but would have loved to see Rodgers try it.
Whilst we undoubtedly need a DM (and a ball-playing one, as Neil says), I still think the priority is good coaching of the defence. A DM has nothing (or very little) to do with not picking up players at corners, allowing crosses into the box unchallenged and having no communication between ‘keeper and defence.