Something Of A Tactical Analysis

It's been a while since I got to do a chalkboard analysis, and it's going to be a while more. Before, Liverpool had a dearth of league games, which is all they're available for. Secondly, most of those league games sucked and I couldn't bring myself to do one. I mean, what were we going to find out about the match at Sunderland that we didn't already know and would want to relive? Exactly. Now, The Guardian has disabled the chalkboard feature, so I can't make any more. We'll have to figure something else out. Your suggestions are always welcome.

So we'll go with the soccernet gamecast for now. First thing I found interesting was the average starting position:

Carroll and Gerrard are practically on top of each other. The last time these two played together in the league was the home draw against Spurs, and they were both higher up the pitch to start. For me, this only works if Carroll puts the requisite work in, which he absolutely did against Everton. From there, he had to work to get back in the box to be alive for scoring chances, which he mostly was. But dropping this deep allows him to combine with the midfield a lot better, which also gets him moving more as the more the ball is played on the floor. When he gets isolated, he doesn't work as hard sometimes to get involved. And he is capable of playing in a side that passes the ball and is direct, as Liverpool were against the Blue Shite. While we bemoan the 4-4-2 at times, with Carroll that deep, it almost was a 4-2-3-1.

That's also as far forwards as we've seen Martin Kelly, who clearly loved the jump he was getting on Anichebe and Pienaar, whichever one could be bothered, as well as Henderson dragging Baines inside with him on occasion.

As for Gerrard:

Not much I can add to this. This is how dynamic he can be still while over the age of 30. It's damn impressive, and we should enjoy the few years we have left of this all action hero.