How Fulham Exploited Liverpool’s Defensive Lapses

By: Noel | December 8th, 2011

It was a match that Liverpool should have won, if only they’d taken their chances. If only the officials hadn’t overturned an offside Luis Suarez goal that wasn’t. If only Kevin Friend hadn’t given Jay Spearing a questionable red card or if only he had awarded a penalty and not a free-kick when Charlie Adam was felled as he entered the sixteen-yard box. If only the posts Liverpool hit twice had seen the ball deflect into the back of the net things would have been different, too, though of course if one were in the mood to consider maybe and what if, then Fulham too could point to their own missed opportunities. Opportunities like the one they had less than six minutes into the match, when a well-worked move probably should have ended in a goal for the hosts.

Danny Murphy (1) receives the ball from Dembele (2), free to roam throughout the match and at the moment taking up a position on the right with Bryan Ruiz (3) moving up top to support Zamora. Dembele continues his run inside while Charlie Adam rushes out to meet Murphy. Luis Suarez, playing on the wing, doesn’t track Dembele inside, leaving Jay Spearing (4) to pick up the run with the centre backs occupied by Ruiz and Zamora.

As the ball is returned to Dembele, Liverpool seems well equipped to deal with the immediate threat of Fulham’s attack, outnumbering the immediate attackers and with Charlie Adam returning to the defensive zone in support.

Dembele moves the ball quickly to Zamora (1), who touches it off to Ruiz (2). Agger and Enrique watch Ruiz while Skrtel stays on his man, ensuring that Zamora doesn’t have the opportunity to spin off him, searching for a return ball and clear run at goal.

Spearing, unfortunately, is caught watching the ball as it heads to Ruiz, actually coming to a full stop while Dembele continues his run (1). With Skrtel pulled up the pitch marking Zamora, it leaves acres of space for Dembele and an easy pass for Ruiz.

Spearing points to the man he had been covering seconds earlier (1), but it doesn’t help Skrtel, who has to change direction in an attempt to catch up with the free-roaming Dembele in full flight. Luckily for Liverpool—and fortunately for Spearing—Dembele doesn’t manage to beat Reina on the ensuing chance.

Fulham’s clearest chance of the first half coming as a direct result of the man tasked with filling in for the injured Lucas Leiva failing in his duties didn’t bode well for the rest of the night, though in the end it would instead be a much more simply worked goal that did in the visitors, with Pepe Reina partially clearing a corner only to see the ball come straight back at him.

Before Liverpool can reorganise from the corner, the ball is sent out to the right footed Danny Murphy on the left (1). Jordan Henderson, jogging back, is the nearest support player (2), but he leaves Johnson to defend Murphy one on one and covers against the pull back.

Murphy dips his shoulder to the left and Johnson bites, shifting his body weight onto his right foot as he prepares to block off the outside. Murphy, however, moves straight ahead, around Johnson and onto his stronger foot.

Johnson recovers, but not in time to stop Murphy from getting a shot off. Meanwhile, Agger and Skrtel are left outnumbered in front of goal, still deep from the corner and with three men to worry about. With Skrtel focusing on the man in front of him, Andy Johnson (1), that leaves Agger with two men to worry about.

If either defender is to recieve any blame for the goal it is Agger (1), who allows Dempsy to pass in front of him, choosing to defend space instead of following the most dangerous man in it. And, of course, on most nights the initial shot is stopped and held by Reina, and nobody remembers the passage of play five minutes later. On this night, a rare lapse by the Premier League’s best keeper on the back of earlier errors means three points dropped.

Here, Johnson made the key, initial mistake that was at the root of Fulham’s goal. He also made the mistake that is hardest to explain away or excuse. In their ways, Reina spilling Murphy’s shot and Agger choosing to ignore Dempsy’s run across him may both have been bigger errors, yet for the normally sure-handed Reina it is easy enough to write it off as one bad moment while Agger’s mistake came about from being faced with two men to mark. He made the wrong decision, but it was a wrong decision made in a more difficult circumstance than Johnson, who instinctively bit on Murphy’s fake to the outside and gave the Fulham captain the inch he needed to move inside onto his stronger foot and get a clean shoot off.

However, the biggest culprit may in fact be poor set-piece defending, with four Fulham players around the six-yard box and only three Liverpool defenders to mark them after the partial clearance left Liverpool’s defenders scrambled and ill-prepared to stop Fulham once Johnson flinched. Whose fault exactly it becomes then is nearly impossible to know for certain for anybody not involved in training, though with Dirk Kuyt, Jordan Henderson, and Charlie Adam all looking on with no man to cover it’s not a stretch to think that any one of them being more aware of the threats could have led to things turning out differently for Liverpool.

If one had to assign blame, then Kuyt, most central of the three and seen in the early shots watching the ball more than the Fulham players near to him, would seem the most likely choice to add to Johnson, Agger, and Reina in the list of players who all should have done better on the goal. As is so often the case, then, a team effort. If anything, however, it is Fulham’s earlier chance that is far more worrying in the long term, as on that occasion it was almost entirely the fault of Jay Spearing. With the assured Lucas out for the remainder of the season and no chance of reinforcements until January, such an error is one more reason—if any were truly needed—to fear points will be lost through an inability for the club to compensate for their missing holding midfielder.

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Category: Match Recaps, Premier League, Team News

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nezi

the real person to blame here is andy carrol and co not being able to score for a whole 90 minutes. The defence played the game well but offcourse they will make a mistake and they did. Liverpool should have scored a least 2 goals by the time fulham scored. Liverpool better win that QPR game or else they will struggle to get 7th place this season
brother jon

the goal boils down to a spilt ball (slippery? cuz it didn't seem like that hard a shot) and a well coached player following the shot.
but that frame as murph lines it up tells me that Jose & Agger are still thinking about that Malouda scuff and so they're all over that back door (and four players). seems like Dirk coulda slid 5 yards over toward andy johnson which woulda let Agger stick closer to dempsey. a lot of spectatin for being a man down. fatigue? or LOL?
CheekyFellow

Welcome to hell week
Suarez from the car park...

Nice clarity in the pictures and write up.

There was an irritating pundit who talked about Reina not catching the initial clearance when in clear space (from a corner?) before the ball came back and ended up with Murphy. His punch was very good, yet the seqence of play led to a goal.

Also, while Hendo might have been covering for a cut back, there wasn't anyone there, and I thought he might have moved out a bit to provide some cover against Murphy cutting right. He wasn't really doing anything else from where he was, just standing around thinking being in the vicinity was of some use.

As for Spearing and Adam, Murphy was his usual intelligent self and Dembele had the run of our half of the pitch all night long.

Didn't notice his tackling but he seemed always to be well positioned and then was dangerous going forwards as you say from the outset. This was very key to getting the most out of Dempsey.
Good player who will take the reigns off the ageing Murphy if he doesn't get bought by another club first.

Schwarzer was his usual excellent self [and could have won the title for arsenal], unlike earlier in the year and Carroll mis-hit Suarez' cut back from the goal line that looked like it would have been an almost certain goal.

Hence my call for Carroll to be played in the forthcoming fixtures to get his sharpness. We know he's a lot better than we're seeing.
purify_the_body

Suarez is a lot better than we're seeing, too. Wouldn't it make more sense to keep Carroll on the bench and try to get our Ballon D'Or nominee going instead, by keeping a consistent formation and lineup with the players who work best with him? Carroll just gets in his way.
KC

Sorry totally unrelated but didn't know where else to post it.

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news...

INJUSTICE UNFAIR RAGE RAGE RAGE

Okay to be honest I'm really noob at football so I'm not actually sure what the FA entails (People in charge of football in England?) but why does Rooney get a 2 match ban and Spearing gets a 3 match ban no questions??? Okay so Rooney is playing in Euro 2012 and Spearing is just playing the League Cup but that's prejudice and biasness right there. UNFAIR!! RAGE RAGE RAGE!! And I love how Kenny talked about how they found 4 other cases of similar to Suarez which weren't charged. SOOOOO UNFAIR RAGE RAGE RAGE RAGE RAGE!! I'm not making a lot of sense right now but I HATE it when situations aren't fair which means I'm often in rages like this.
Red2death

Well, that's the life of a red...

All we can do is control our players, play by the rules, and try not to fall afoul of them. Really, the only unjust instance here is Spearo's red - should have been a caution for overexuberance. Then again, Rodwell got sent off for something not so dissimilar against us too, so it sort of evens out.

As for the others, flipping the bird is always wrong, no matter how provoked. Surrounding the ref is always wrong, no matter how bad the ref's decision. Nevermind that Utd can get away with it consistently, that doesn't make it right.

Dalglish needs to control his players and he knows it. That's why his appeal is only that the FA not make Luis Suarez the first example when they've ignored others before. But they have to start somewhere and if they choose to start with Luis then there's really nothing more to say. Accept it and move on. (until some Utd player does the exact same thing and only gets a soft slap on the wrist, and then call their bluff).
Latortillablanca

spearo and adam is a much more worrying fit than lucas and adam - obviously. but specifically, 20 wants to mark a man one v. one, its where he shines. great breakdown by noel clearly highlights that he has a lot to learn about shielding.

it was apparent in real time that spearing was caught between marking individuals when the most important thing lucas does from that position is fill space and cut off angles. and its prolly the hardest thing to learn as a defender, in particular from a position that asks you to do it in transition as well as from 'half field' defense (if u will). the wee iron had several instances in the 1st where he was too aggressive and naively went to blow something up. he'll learn hopefully, and he def improved in the 2nd half before his sending off, so there's cause for optimism. but from where i'm sitting its about 50/50 right now that spearo is a squad, plug and play CM rather than Lucas' deputy...

the scary thing is not having either - hendo is certainly decent at man marking, but nothing more, shelvey is just a right-footed adam defensively, is it even worth it bringing either 8 or 26 up here? so basically we have zero CMs that "shield" like lucas does, with perhaps spearing being capable of quickly learning how. gotta dip in that transfer market... 15m should do it for sissoko or casemiro.

not sure i even wanna take it here, but carroll's development could be huge to compensate for lucas - effective CF hold up play can be a defensively challenged CM's best friend. it slows the game down and helps your midfield retain shape while also buying time for FBs to move up and down...
Suarez from the car park...

wow, that last paragraph was stretching it somewhat!

Note to self, most teams don't have a CM that shields like Lucas does.
Latortillablanca

i guess i should say carroll AND blinding form from Adam...
Waiting for Sterling

Yea, but all the best teams have a player thats similar. Barca, Real, Milan, Inter, Arsenal, Manc, Manu, Chels. In the modern game, a player "like" Lucas is needed.