Must Be Made Of Knock Off Legos

I'd say we should call all the king's horses and all the king's men, but the only documented evidence we have of their work is of them failing.

You've seen it by now. Steven Gerrard is back amongst the medical machines to figure out the extent of an infection in his ankle after a slight knock there. You've probably seen the pictures of him on crutches and with a cast or boot on his lower leg. You see cast, crutches, and hear infection, and there's no part of you that thinks we'll see an armbanded #8 any time soon.

I've written a couple posts this season on what Liverpool can expect from Gerrard, and the answer keeps leaning more and more toward "nothing". He makes the team better, but Liverpool can't count on him. We'll wait until we hear the official diagnoses, but even if it's not as bad as we think, how long until the next time we have to do this all over again? Probably not long.

While hating to assault a horse no longer taking in oxygen, with Gerrard's fragility one has to wonder about the flogging of both Raul Meireles and Alberto Aquilani. Maybe they both didn't want to be here, and Liverpool have no patience for malcontents. But it's worth studying.

How will Pool cope? Probably more of the 4-2-2-2 with Adam and Lucas in the middle. Even in that formation, Jordan Henderson tends to drift in the middle. It might be worth seeing what he can do at the point of a midfield triangle behind a three-forward look. He's only gotten limited looks there as it is, and it's clear where he'd like to be anyway. Or perhaps more of a look at Jay Spearing with Adam and Lucas with Henderson or someone else part of that front three. Whatever, it's time to formulate a real plan that doesn't involve the captain.

-Nate at Oh You Beauty has a kick ass post about Liverpool's positioning on Saturday, specifically a comparison between the relationship of Downing-Enrique and Henderson-Johnson. In essence, Liverpool are already playing a 4-3-3. In a nutshell, Henderson is far more tucked in and deeper than Downing is, and how deep Lucas is playing to either compensate for or compliment that fact. It's also keeping Johnson on the wing, which isn't a bad thing.