Suarez Victorious, Reina’s Return, and Other Monday Notes

By: Noel | July 25th, 2011

Three years after winning the European Championship, Liverpool’s gone and done it again by capturing the Copa America. Wonder if there’s a date set for the parade yet…

* It was a starring role once again for Luis Suarez, scoring the winning goal and setting up another as Uruguay cruised to a 3-0 victory over Paraguay in a final where for the first time in this year’s Copa America a match went something like everybody thought it would. Paraguay’s run to the finals, a feat managed without winning a single game while advancing through two knock-out rounds on penalties, was more enjoyable to read about than to witness as they went about making Greece’s 2004 European Championship winning side look adventurous by comparison. In the end, though, they ran out of gas against a Uruguayan side finally hitting their stride after a slow start that had them looking at times as though they might not even make it past the group stage.

And in the end, too, Uruguay’s resurgent play and resulting victory owed a great deal to player of the tournament Luis Suarez, who strung together a series of exceptional performances in the knock-out rounds. Six months on, and it’s hard to remember there was a time some questioned just how good Suarez really was, with Harry Redknapp famously coming out after his transfer to Liverpool and saying that Tottenham had considered bidding for him but just weren’t sure that his performances could match his price-tag in the Premier League. A time when people would just say Eredivisie with a knowing look and small shake of their head while recounting the strikers who in the past had failed to impress after moving to England from the Dutch league.

Now he’s in the conversation when it comes to the best strikers in the world, while arguably being the best striker currently plying his trade in England—on form at the very least. So for Uruguay, in the end it was a deserved triumph despite a shaky start. And for Suarez it was deserved recognition as player of the tournament after yet another match spent terrorizing defenders with both guile and power.

* Preseason doesn’t matter. Everybody says it. It’s about getting a run; getting fit; getting familiar. It’s about bedding in new players and giving a look to those who may have been passed over in the past. But really, in the end, the games don’t count and everybody should just take a step back and not get too worked up about it all.

Except that as Nate from Oh You Beauty shows us, for Liverpool in the past ten years preseason wins and losses have had a strong correlation to Liverpool’s hopes for a successful campaign:

Since 2001-02, Liverpool have averaged more than two points per preseason game five times: ‘01-02, ‘04-05, ‘05-06, ‘07-08, and ‘08-09. Only once did Liverpool subsequently fail to average at least two points per league game: ‘04-05 – Benitez’ first season – which was Liverpool’s second-worst campaign in the last decade (of course, Istanbul somewhat made up for it). Otherwise, the club carried July and August’s impressive form into the Premiership.

On those five occasions, Liverpool subsequently finished second, fifth, third, fourth, and second in the league. In the simplest terms possible, averaging more than two points per friendly has seen the club end the season in a Champions League spot 80% of the time.

Conversely, on the five occasions Liverpool has averaged less than two points per game in the preseason, they have only managed a top four finish twice—40% of the time.

With six points in three games so far, they’re right on that two points per game marker. And with a visit to Istanbul to face Galatasary coming up on Thursday, preseason might just matter a little more than you thought it did.

* After Thursday’s match in Turkey, the next warm-up is set for the following Monday in Oslo, scene of one of last Friday’s fundamentalist Christian terrorist attacks. In fact, the government buildings that were bombed in Norway’s capital are a scant three miles from Ullevaal Stadium, where Liverpool is expected to face Valerenga to a sell-out crowd of 25,000. Said Ian Ayre of the situation:

Everyone at the football club was shocked to hear the news and see the television pictures coming out of Norway.

Some of our most passionate fans are Norwegian and we count them as friends as well as supporters.

The team is due to play in Norway on August 1. Ahead of that, we want our fans to know we are thinking of them at this terrible time.

Many will have noticed that the players wore black armbands when they faced Hull on Satruday, and though there have been doubts in recent days and the club is said to be actively monitoring the situation, as it stands right now the plan is for the match to go ahead as scheduled.

In rather more upbeat news, Pepe Reina has rejoined training. So that’s a good but rather meaningless in the grand scheme of things thing. And, of course, there’s always Luis Suarez for when you need a moment of distraction…

Some Related Liverpool Posts:

Category: International Duty, Premier League, Team News

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BiggestRedintanzania

This is what i have been thinking for our new formation can i get feed back on this please?? a modified 3-6-1

Carrol

Downing Adam Suarez

Gerrard
Lucas Miereles

Agger Carra Skrtel

Reina
or 3-5-2

Carrol Suarez

Downing Gerrard
Adam

Lucas Miereles

Agger Carra Skrtel

Reina
Justin

Interesting formations, but I have to agree with redtrev73: Adam probably won't start most games early days. I see our midfield consisting of Gerrard (talismanic-game-winning-offensive-beast. translate: he'll probably play closer to goal, but I assume that Kenny is going to be chirping in his ear about good positioning and not taking on "too much" of the offensive duties so that he may defend properly as well, something we often saw him failing to do when it was on his shoulders to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and carry 'Pool to victory), Lucas (our beloved destroyer-sideways-pass-master. translate: I think Lucas will play the furthest from goal in our midfield providing some cover for the FBs and CBs and only getting forward when the movement of the passing demands it), and (fingers-crossed) Meireles (the hard-working-hipster-marathon-man-handler-with-a-shot-to-boot. translate: Meireles and Lucas formed a very effective "pivot"-style passing system through our midfield when we lined up in a 4-2-2-2 formation, so I can see him dropping back to link up play and help move the ball forward, meanwhile being sure to get forward plenty often in support of the attack, and hopefully taking a few more of those sweet hits from outside the 18 (alongside Gerrard of course) in order to cause some havoc in the box on which Carrol and Suarez could feed.

Moving on, I think the offensive tandem speaks for itself. Kuyt, Suarez, and Carrol will start most games with Carrol centrally positioned, and Kuyt and Suarez rotating wings (I also suspect that Carrol will be encouraged to get wide, but he always seems much more at home in the center of the pitch). I suspect Downing will be eased into the lineup in favor of phasing out Kuyt or the two will begin to share minutes. I also suspect that we'll get to see Kuyt employed as our lone striker on occasion so that Carrol may rest.

One option I considered (see Joel's article) was the 4-4-2 with Carrol/Suarez up top and Downing and Kuyt on the wings with an interchangeable midfield of Gerrard/Meireles/Lucas/Adam/Henderson/Aquaman (headed to Fio? http://soccernet.espn.go.com/n....

Now, Biggestredintanzania (I would love to visit Tanzania, by the way), I think the biggest issue lies in your defensive lineups. While we effectively employed the 3-5-2 system during a few games last year, it does not necessarily mean that this is a formation 'Pool would ideally like to take up. You should always strive to play a style that will suit your opposition (unless you are Barcelona and your style includes never letting the opponent have the ball) and that's exactly what that formation was intended to do. Forget that we were having some serious depth issues at FB during that period. I think in an ideal world you try line up with a four man defense, unless the winning tactics demand otherwise. There are a few reasons for this, and I won't pretend to know them all, but I'll do my best to elucidate here.

Football is all about balance, something I'm sure you've heard in flashes here and there or from the tongue of some great footballing legend (both Kenny and Mourinho have been quoted in the press expressing these feelings, but alas, I can't find you a link). This could go on and on so I'll keep it simple. Let's just assume both teams are playing a traditional 4-4-2 formation. With 2 "strikers" you usually have one trying to play off a center back and another either dropping deep to link play, or playing out wide off one of the fullbacks. In this situation if the central striker makes a play, he'll be man-marked by one of the CBs, trying to keep him from turning or getting a clear shot on goal, while the other CB will drop off and track runs or provide cover for the other CB if the one man-marking is beaten. In 'Pool's case, the man-marker is likely Agger/Skrtel with Carra providing the cover because of his legendary last-ditch tackling. In modern football, fullbacks are some of the most dynamic and most important players on the pitch in terms of defensive and offensive contribution, they hold a lot (A LOT) of importance to the team. While a 3-5-2 system still incorporates the use of fullbacks, they will generally play closer to the halfway line whereas in a basic 4-4-2, one can usually find them sitting back a bit deeper so as to maintain some defensive awareness. The extra defender (i.e. the 4th defender in a four-man system: assume one striker occupies one CB with another CB providing cover while the other striker occupies a FB with the same-sided CB providing cover) does a lot of work both on and off the ball. By sitting back when off the ball the FB begins to affect the movement of his same-sided winger/striker/FB. Obviously the deeper the FB sits, the more the players on that side will be encouraged to get forward and take up that space. However, if the FB pushes forward he can leave himself exposed at the back and susceptible to balls in behind or otherwise. So, that is why we see so many ball-carrying FBs today. When a FB is on the ball, and playing against a defensively adept team, let's say ManUre and Jonno is our FB in this scenario, then by carrying it forward Jonno will push back both Young and Evra (I'm assuming Young is being brought in to phase out Giggs on the left). Now, typically, with a proper winger (something 'Pool haven't had in awhile) the fullback doesn't have to do as much offensive laboring, which is why you don't typically think of ManUre's FBs as very attacking FBs, because ManUre have had great stock in wingers over the years. But, as I mentioned, 'Pool have struggled here recently, thus almost demanding that we get our width from our FBs.

I'm almost certain that I didn't make a coherent point above, so I'll try to rehash it here: FBs are very important for Liverpool's offensive movement. While the acquisition of Downing is a step towards decreasing the offensive necessity of having our FBs bomb forward at every chance, I suspect that Jonno and whoever ends up our left-back will have a stake in the squad and that as time moves forward we might get to see a 3-5-2 or 3-6-1 when the opposition calls for it.

I also understand that your formations were probably largely based on the idea that you wanted to cram as much of our new and exciting talent into the starting XI as possible, but the reality is, that 'Pool bought many of these players in order to increase the competition for places and provide some much needed cover for Gerrard. This indicates that some portion of our midfield will be moving on this summer. I'm just hoping its not Meireles.

I'm sorry I didn't have enough time to make this shorter.
redtrev73

Interesting ideas mate but for me dirky starts every time, ESPECIALLY if you've got defensively exposed flanks playing three at the back. When Keny experimented with this type of system Jonno and Kelly were the wide men in the nominal 5 across the middle. I hope i'm wrong but i think Adam might be cover for our injury-plagued captain and if we do need to sell-to-buy then Raul is our most saleable asset ( hate the thoughts of that ). This leaves us with Lucas and Adam/Gerrard in the middle, Dirky and Downing wide and Luis off Carroll up top. Of course there are also many other good options if you go for a front 3.
McrRed

Plus Dirky gets in ahead of Carroll as it stands. The Kuyt Suarez axis is sublime...
redtrev73

Agreed. Might be no harm to have Andy fightin for his place. One gets the feeling that ki needs to stay sharp and have a focus. Lord knows the Dutchman won't let us down. All fretting and pre-season angst aside, you have to be excited at the thoughts of the link-ups now possible between dirky, luis, Carroll, Adam, gerrard, downing and, hopefully, meireiles.
Gryffin

anyone see The Sun this morning? Hell will freeze over before we sell Lucas Leiva.
redtrev73

Hell will freeze over before I see the S*%n any morning lad
steven.

his pass for Forlan around 1:20 is a thing of sublime beauty.
wish i could have watched this match...
alcatrazzledazzle

Maybe the Liverpool cyan alternate jersey was meant to emulate the Uruguay colors so Suarez can feel more at home when he's back in action this year!
cheekyfellow

Congrats to the man. Here's to Suarez selling more shirts in the coming seasons.
Mike

Torres sold a lot of shirts. Now seeing as how Luis is actually competent... and... wait for it...smiles...I see a blockbuster.
Danny

somewhere, in manchester, nemanja vidic looks nervous.
Gally

80% of the time vidic will be skinned by Suarez on 100% of occasions and when Luis averages 2 goals per game Liverpool always win. Love stats. They're super.