Liverpool beating a strong Leicester City side 5-1 away from home in the FA Youth Cup was a fantastic result, and there were many good things to take away from the performance. But in time-honoured Liverpool tradition (albeit slightly tounge in cheek), I’d rather focus on the things that were not good enough.
For a team that won 5-1, Liverpool had a disappointing amount of possession. The first two goals came after Leicester had the reds on the back-foot and both were on the break. That shouldn’t detract from the quality of the moves, or the finishes but it was unbelievable that Liverpool were 2-0, and then 3-0 up.
When Liverpool did have the ball, they didn’t do much with it. They hurried their passing and struggled to string more than 3-4 passes together. As the game openened up, the reds were guilty of losing the ball in important areas of the pitch. A move like that resulted in the Leicester goal but it could have been so much more. They had two 1-on-1s with the goalkeeper and hit the woodwork three times.Even the excellent Andre Wisdom had a tendency to get rid rather than take time and pick a pass.
The passing was often over-ambitious all night and the objective appeared to be catching Leicester for pace rather than building sustained pressure. This meant that when Liverpool had broken up a Leicester attack, too often they found themselves on the back-foot soon after. It would have been better to see the players know when to make the ambitious pass and when to play it simple.
Leicester didn’t make it easy for Liverpool, often by-passing midfield completely. But the holding players didn’t stamp any authority on the game, disappointing for someone with the footballing abilities of Michael Roberts in particular.
Liverpool were also a bit rash in the tackle. Although the second of the two bookings was harsh, Roberts could have seen red at a higher level and Coady dived in too frequently for a player in that position.Coupled with this, the team was particularly effective at closing down Leicester. They didn’t hunt in pairs, as the first team does at its best and rarely hassled Leicester into a mistake in midfield. That left a lot of work for the defenders.
There were also individual things to work on:
- It was disappointing to see just how often Michael Ngoo was beaten in the air by the centrebacks
- Matty McGiveron was caught out a couple of times, though once rescued it with a brilliant saving tackle
- Deale Chamberlain was indecisive coming off his line and this led to a couple of great opportunities for Leicester
- Tom Ince often gave up when he lost the ball rather than track back
The point of all these negatives is not to be overly-critical (although I am a grumpy bugger). But when you bring in coaching staff from Barcelona, you aspire to a quality of football that was often missing tonight. Liverpool have assembled some great cup-tie winning teams at this level over the last few years, without developing players who can play consistently at the next level (Darby and Spearing not withstanding). If the new philosophy is to work, it needs to depend less on results and more about the style and ethos of the football.
But at least the team has more confidence and gets to play on in the competition. Next up, Watford or Hartlepool at Anfield.