LET’S start with the things Adam Lallana can’t do. I’m happy to mention those things. Adam Lallana can’t run really fast. Adam Lallana can’t win endless physical battles with giant centre-backs. Adam Lallana can’t… no, that’s it. He can do everything else.
Not that running and battling aren’t important. Pace is the main asset defenders fear, physicality the main asset they employ. I get it. Adam Lallana is not perfect. No player can have been the target of the Main Stand’s most impossible collective demand, ‘BE STRONGER’, more often. For as long as he plays for Liverpool, or in fact anyone, he will disappoint those who like to see towering headers. But.
But, but, but….
He’s special, Lallana. Unique. Perfectly balanced, two-footed, technically pure yet absurdly unorthodox. In every drag-back, every turn to buy a yard, every beautifully clean strike of a ball is the promise of something better — better than this. Better than a 0-0 home draw on a murky day in November. Better than this job, this haircut (but not his haircut), the next five years, the Labour leadership contest, pubs which put the big light on and people telling you who’s in their fantasy team this week (Ed: Erm…should you wish to join The Anfield Wrap’s Fantasy Premier League, our league code is 845952-207187).
And more importantly, less fancifully, there is the promise of better from Adam Lallana. Better than an injury-hit first season (and no pre-season) in a side going through an identity crisis. Better than an intermittent bright spot.
Neil Atkinson says Liverpool too often try to solve last season’s problems with their transfers for the next. There’s truth in this, but I don’t think this applies to Lallana. I couldn’t see him in the 2013-14 side. He’d score goals, he’d contribute, he’d decorate things. But I get the feeling he’d hold us up, put his foot on the ball, make something happen but not the thing we wanted, the thing we wanted to happen, the thing we wanted to happen again and again and again until defenders wished we’d just stop. Watch Juan Mata play for Spain, when they were nearly as good as Liverpool 13-14. That.
https://youtu.be/NnQxO1uDmGQ
Last summer Lallana’s signing, I suspect, was seen as part of a conscious move away from this, towards what lots of fans insisted Liverpool needed in 13-14 — the ability to win 2-0, not 5-1. Because apparently that’s better.
Liverpool needed to grow up, evolve — move on from just winning football matches every week. Get a leader in at the back. Keep possession, be considered, be like everyone else around the top of the table but with a bit less money.
Now it looks like we fancy scoring goals again. But maybe not in the same way — without Suarez and Sterling (but hopefully with Sturridge), recreating 2013-14’s style would be tough. That season’s gone. So, mercifully, has the one which followed it.
But Liverpool have new footballers, footballers who have won before and footballers who have scored goals. Footballers who will do lots of good things, and lots of conventional things, because they are good fooballers. And they have Adam Lallana, neither one thing nor the other, uncategorisable, fluid, a man without a position who reminds you positions are really, really boring and you might as well stay out because you’ve missed the last bus anyway, so maybe text her and just see if she’s in town.
Sometimes I wish he’d release the ball quicker. Sometimes I wouldn’t have him in Liverpool’s first 11 — though I’ve barely seen one of those I might place ahead of him kick a ball. But when he’s on the pitch he’s the one who draws my eye. Of all the players I love — and that’s all of them — he’s the one I want to see play football the most right now.
And that’s pretty much what I’m in this for.
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Pic: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda Photo
Still hard to say with Lallana. Too often last season he was the most advanced player, expected to run on to through balls which he clearly had neither the confidence nor the pace to take on. Ideally you’d want him prompting in from the tip of the kite, but there’s healthy competition in that position. He’s clearly a good footballer, so I’d like to see it work out for him, but I’m not sure where or how he fits in, particularly if we intend to be more 13/14 this year (and let’s hope to god we do)!
Why don’t we just wipe last seasons Lallana from the history books? Lets face it he really got off to a bad start getting injured pre-season in the States (imagine what may have happened if he hadn’t gone to America the same could also be said of Sturridge if Dodgeson hadn’t played him in a meaningless game knowing he had a knock? I hate that old fool).
When Lallana did get the odd games he was injured again and again, this the result of no pre-season and poor game fitness.
Hopefully after this pre-season he is fit and raring to go, and we can see him tricking defenders in the box and getting pens if not scoring.
Just needs to get the balance right of when a bit of skill is required v when a fancy bit of skill is required.
Loathe as I am to mention him in the same breath but Kenny could do the fancy bit but more often than not knew the simple was more effective, quicker and did the job. He always retained the fancy back-heel in his cliché locker too though.
We played our best football of last season with Lallana in the side and with a full pre-season this year my hopes are high for a stellar season from him.
Funny thing about Lallana is he’s very much a “confidence player”. But when he is full of confidence, he’s not as likeable as when he’s going through a bit of a struggle.
Nail on head.
LET’S start with the things Adam Lallana can’t do. I’m happy to mention those things.
-Adam Lallana can’t run as quick as tectonic plates move.
-Adam Lallana can’t win short physical battles with anyone, ever.
-Adam Lallana can’t score double figures in a league season.
-Adam Lallana can’t get more than five assists in a league season.
-Adam Lallana can’t last 90 minutes without standing still for the last 20 minutes.
LET’S end with the things Adam Lallana can do. I’m happy to mention those things too.
-Adam Lallana can successfully hoodwink some people into thinking he’s special and unique because he is a technical player who also happens to be British. There are dozens of Adam Lallana’s in La Liga but
-Adam Lallana can cost £25m and get £70k per week, whereas they’d only cost £8m and get £30k per week.
-Adam Lallana can make people think he is young and improving, despite his actual age being 27 and his running age 47.
-Adam Lallana can take 13 touches when three are more than enough.
-Adam Lallana can do endless Cruyff-turns without beating a single opposition player.
-Adam Lallana can make a very simple change of direction and a 15 yard pass back to a defender look like a thing of immense beauty.
-Adam Lallana can slow down a team full of Sonic the Hedgehogs. -Adam Lallana can make multiple poor footballing decisions within a very short space of time.
WHAT NEXT FOR ADAM LALLANA? The bench. Then the bin.
Ok ok I get it. But tell me, what’s your opinion on Lallana?
I listened to the podcast earlier. Mike said the whole club suffered from PTSD at the start of last season and Neil that a lot of players have to stand up and be counted this season. Well, I think both those points are correct and in explaining Lallana both are relevant. Momentum goes two ways. I think Stoke was a good thing really. From the Chelsea game in April onwards our luck changed and by November we were spiralling out of control. Everything changes for a new player coming into a club when it’s like that. It’s not fun. The pressure’s too intense. Stoke felt like spiral had just imploded. The end. Then you get the calm like the club has been this summer, followed by the rebuild. I suppose the obvious analogy is the phoenix rising from the ashes. I think there’s a different kind of optimism this season. I feel I can sense it and it’s genuine rather than choreographed. A lot of players are gonna start this season without the baggage of last season. Even the new lads won’t be under too much pressure because they’ve all seen that we all think they’re shit. I really think Lallana’s gonna have a good season. I believe Henderson will help him a lot. So, last year was unfortunate for him with his injuries, the mood of the club and his switching positions but he comes into this season from a starting point where he knows he’s far better than what he’s shown us rather than him wondering if he’s good enough to play for LFC. I think we’ll see the best of him but like Neil says, we have to. Now’s his time to shine. He’s certainly capable.
I think Lallana works when we are dominating the game and camping in the attacking third, while the opposition sit deep in two and a half banks of four. He has the ability to change the point of attack, make himself a yard of space and finish consistently when presented with half decent chances.
This is a double edged sword though. Ideally, we don’t want to be in a position where we constantly have to break teams down in this way. Using the Chelsea/Stoke format, poorer sides have become adept at the low block and using sheer physicality or desperation to make the odds of getting a break through much smaller. When you have a side that has some pace (like our current squad possesses) you need to make the most of opportunities to get the ball forward quickly before the oppositions defense can filter back. Here in lies the problem with Lallana. He does have all of the silky technical ability that Steve talks about, but I feel that his achilles heel (apart fro speed and all that) is his inability to make the right choices quickly. Someone makes a run, he gets his head up, he dribbles more, another run, more dribbling, he checks out, head up, no-ones moving anymore, he passes to the centre backs, the opposition including the forwards and the coaching staff are now behind the ball.
He definitely has a place in the squad, but for me its off of the bench or when we are trying to hold a lead (by holding onto the ball). In a weird way it is almost negative to start him, because I think there are options that we have that will provide more impact and ultimately the best approach to sides who park it is to score first and make them attack you.
Lallana is not in the same class technically or imaginatively as Coutinho so I can’t see why he’s a main attraction to anyone in the Liverpool team. He’ll probably be on the bench after a month or so when it’s obvious he can’t cut it in a top 4 team consistently. The amount of games this kid gets subbed off in is bizarre.
He’s a nice player on his day, but he’d rarely get a kick in a top team.
I like Lallana, but he might struggle to get in a the first XI if we have everyone fit and on form.
He comes in for criticism in lots of quarters, yet his figures are a pretty good match up against Coutinho, who some people would put up as our best player from last season. He is a genuine two footed player which is a rare thing, and I think he is probably the best natural finisher, barring Sturridge, available from last season’s squad.
He is not the quickest and perhaps he should pop the ball off earlier sometimes, but we know that we didn’t always have the striker or runners showing for the ball last season, and Coutinho was similarly frustrated by lack of options in front of him.
I understand the worry about whether he is a 90 minute player, but last season was injury hit, and the contribution he makes to the high intensity pressing game probably means we are better of with 70 mins of Lallana giving it everything, than having someone playing at lower intensity who will still be cruising along at 90. I seem to recall a reference that his defensive stats in the opposition half were second only to Suarez in the 13/14 season. (This stat might have been made up, I haven’t checked it!)
Lallana starts in a front 3 at Stoke if I’m picking the team, but is there to be shot at by Ibe, Firmino, Ings and a fit again Sturridge as the season goes on.
Adam Lallana is Liverpool’s Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – we just need to learn how to use him.
I like Lallana too. Think he’s a good player and fucking cool (Alonsoesque, even. The coolness, not as a player).
He’s one of the strangest English players to come up through the divisions ever and I also quite like that, but the thing with that is his age and how it isn’t on his side like it is for say, Markovic.
Shame really; struggled with fitness in the season he would have been a starter and now he’s had a preseason under his belt you can’t see a place for him. Maybe it’s not meant to be.
A bit like Duncan McKenzie sans talent