Rodgers: 4-2-3-1 is, like, so 2012/13

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n 1 June 2012 Brendan Rodgers was unveiled as Liverpool’s new manager. His appointment did not exercise the bulk of Liverpool fans. Many felt sheepish about King Kenny’s departure; others deemed him callow, ungarlanded with silverware, not a big enough name for a club of Liverpool’s stature*; many would have preferred ‘Rafa’ Benitez. I would have liked to have seen Jamie Carragher appointed as player manager for a giggle.

With a weak mandate, and inheriting a squad versed in the ‘swing the ball about’ culture of King Kenny, Rodgers’s task in reversing Liverpool’s downward trend was bordering on the herculean. And from a strictly outcomes focused, league table perspective, it appeared in the initial months that the task might be a bit too tricky for Brendan. Indeed, Liverpool were languishing in mid-table.  The fans were disgruntled and the media unimpressed.  Both were particularly vociferous in their criticism of Rodgers’s decision to send Any Carroll on loan to West Ham with a forward line lacking in numbers after Borini’s injury. Then came the unfortunate documentary (marketed for a US audience and the worst decision of the current Liverpool management) portraying Rodgers as not too dissimilar to David Brent. Personally, I don’t think that I would ever be bosom pals with a man possessing a self-portrait at his family home. Anyway, I digress: mild egomania is a pre-requisite of being a successful football manager. In fact, omit ‘mild’.

Despite the criticism, Rodgers, backed by John Henry, was unswerving in his belief as to how Liverpool should play and the direction of the football club. You wouldn’t know it if your football experience is confined to Match of the Day and 606, but significant progress was being made. Rodgers had already changed the ‘kick and run’ football into his favoured possession-based play: a remarkable achievement considering the short time frame and using the same set of players. In the Premier League only two other managers have effected such a rapid transformation in style in recent times – Martinez at Wigan and then Everton, and Pochettino. 

While Liverpool’s football had improved, apart from Suarez and the fledgling Sterling, the existing squad lacked sufficient players with the necessary skill and jiggery-pokery to move into the upper echelons of the Premier League. Then came the January 2013 transfer window. The transfers were unheralded at the time, but signing Daniel Sturridge for £12m and Philippe Coutinho for £8m have been two of the most successful transfers in value over the last few years. The signings brought added guile and pace to Liverpool’s attack, propelling Liverpool to a very strong finish in the 2012/13 campaign and giving the club the opportunity of a realistic prospect of a top four challenge for 2013/14. We all know how the 2013/14 season has panned out.

Tactically and aesthetically, Liverpool have been the most interesting and pleasing team to watch this season in the Premier League. From a tactical perspective it has been particularly fascinating to see Rodgers countering the conventional wisdom of the need to use a 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 formation and cracking the conundrum of how to play Sturridge, Suarez, Sterling and Coutinho in the same team. For the first half of the season Rodgers generally only played with three of the aforesaid individuals, rotating between a 4-3-3 and 3-4-1-2 formation, partly because he didn’t actually have all four fit simultaneously and partly because he thought that Liverpool would be too ‘gung-ho’. The 3-4-1-2 was less successful, with Liverpool often outnumbered in midfield and exposed on the flanks as demonstrated in the 2-0 defeat at Arsenal. The 4-3-3 was more fruitful, offering a more balanced formation. However, in the second half of the season all four players became available and Rodgers decided to play 4-2-2-2/4-3-1-2 (depending on your outlook) with a very fluid, interchangeable front four with Coutinho, the deepest lying player, often not that much further forward than Henderson.

Playing the 4-2-2-2 has also brought about a significant change in Liverpool’s style. The possession-based, tiki-taka football of the 4-3-3/4-2-3-1/4-5-1 of Rodgers’s earlier tenure has evolved into a more frenetic style, which I’m going to dub ‘blitzkrieg’ (I apologise for those of you who are tired with football/warfare analogies – I’m tired too, but my mind’s too placid to think of another analogy). Blitzkrieg involves the following attributes (other than the Wehrmacht, Rommel and Panzer tanks): high pressing; a frantic work rate in the first half hour (which is not possible to sustain for 90 minutes); more dribbling (overly frowned on by Barcelona); and a greater use of longer balls from deep into the channels to feed either Sturridge or Suarez. Like blitzkrieg, more often than not, Liverpool have flattened the opposition in the opening salvos. 

Weaker opponents (and Chelsea), wary of the pace of the Liverpool front four, have generally sat excessively deep to prevent Liverpool from getting in behind their back four. The problem with doing this is that it allows Liverpool’s front four to make runs from deep and shoot from range, particularly problematic when Suarez is in possession. Of course, stronger opponents playing with a high defensive line are still vulnerable to Liverpool’s quick counter-attacks.

However, the system has weaknesses. The 4-2-2-2 formation leaves Liverpool a little short in midfield which those teams, assured in possession, should be able to exploit. In fact, in the second half of the Man City game, Man City overran Liverpool in midfield before Rodgers reverted to a 4-3-3 substituting Sturridge. The frenetic tempo also leaves Liverpool a little weary in the final 15-20 minutes and might be harder to sustain next season with Champions League football. Still, every formation and style has its weaknesses and Rodgers is tactically astute and flexible enough to react accordingly.

Unfortunately, replicating or even improving on this season for Liverpool from a results perspective will be harder for Rodgers and Liverpool. I’m certainly not in the excessively negative camp (largely comprised of disgruntled, blinkered Man Utd fans) who think that Liverpool will be a one season wonder akin to a Wolfsburg or Montpellier, but the demands of Champions League football will result in a less fresh Suarez and Sterling (for a 19 year Sterling has played too many games already this season) and probably more injuries. Certainly, Liverpool have been fortunate in having had no clusters of injuries this season. Only one out of Suarez, Sturridge, Coutinho and Sterling have been unavailable at any given moment. However, this is a little churlish of me, as generally any side that has a fruitful campaign has good fortune with injuries. Liverpool will not be a Wolfsburg or Montpellier because none of their key players will leave in the summer and they will no doubt bring in suitable reinforcements; strengthening the depth of the squad and their back line. Rodgers will need to have a more fruitful summer transfer window than the last, which was a little disappointing. A similar influx to Sakho, Aspas, Alberto and Ilori will not cut the mustard. Still, a larger war chest should make his job easier in that respect.

Liverpool fans should be optimistic. Brendan Rodgers is an excellent coach and John Henry is one of the shrewdest individuals in the world of investment and sports. The latter certainly doesn’t make many mistakes.

*Liverpool fans still need to be reminded that they are outside the Premiership’s top four in financial terms, massively behind Manchester United.