Liverpool 1-1 Basel: five talking points

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/dec/09/liverpool-basel-talking-points

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1) Wrong place, wrong time

The quality of Liverpool’s passing in the first half was often execrable, which was the cause of much of their troubles, but there were other problems. Lucas and Joe Allen were nominally positioned in front of their defence but they too often left open the very area they were supposed to protect. Either they were too far in front of the back four, leaving space behind, or they dropped back to join a swelling mass of defenders, leaving space in front. This was most clinically exploited when Fabian Frei was allowed absurd amounts of space in which to turn and execute a one-two with Luca Zuffi before firing Basel into the lead, while Allen, for example, was toiling purposelessly as an auxiliary inside-left-back. In an interview immediately before kick-off Brendan Rodgers had insisted that “one thing I know [is] the players are ready for it”, but for the key periods of this game that hardly seemed the case.

2) Lots of hype and no hope

In the hope of inspiring another fabled night of European football it was repeatedly impressed upon Liverpool’s players that they should look to get the crowd going in the early stages. And this they most emphatically did, with the first howls of frustration heard before the 10th minute and the dismay peaking in the 20th when the home side created their first decent chance and Raheem Sterling decided that instead of shooting he would pass to the player marking Steven Gerrard instead (the first of many poor decisions from the increasingly tired-looking tyro). Five minutes later the visitors took the lead, and overall the first 45 minutes was capable of inspiring nothing other than a half-time rollicking and a couple of early substitutions. These did help, despite Lazar Markovic’s red card; sometimes Rodgers seems better at altering teams than he is at putting them together in the first place.

3) Basel far from faulty

Basel are the fool’s gold of the Champions League group stage draw: it might appear to be a stroke of luck to be given them, but in reality you’re unlikely to profit. The Premier League certainly considers itself very emphatically superior to the Raiffeisen Super League, which Basel, chasing their sixth successive title and their eighth in a decade, lead by eight points after 18 games, but Basel the Swiss side keep reminding them of their folly. Liverpool now join Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham in cursing them over recent seasons. Logic suggests that a team whose domestic trips take them to the likes of Vaduz and Aarau should feel some nerves on stages such as this, but they were nowhere to be seen in a splendidly composed first half and only slightly more evident in the second. They are emphatically deserving of their place in the knockout stages.

4) Still life in old legs

This season has been full of talk of the effects of age upon Steven Gerrard, and last night brought more reminders of time’s passing, marking as it did – as infinite previews pointed out – precisely a decade and a day since his late goal against Olympiacos dragged Liverpool out of a similar hole. There was another in the shape of the man to whom Gerrard tapped the ball at kick-off, Sterling, who turned 10 on the day of that game and 20 the day before this. But if the captain is no longer the dynamic figure of old he remains at the very least reliable and, as that goalbound free-kick proved, at his best still magical. His set pieces were, with one obvious exception, disappointing but it was those around him who were found wanting here. Rodgers had promised that, should his team sneak through, “come February, when it starts again, we’ll be a better team”. Anfield may have only the Europa League to look forward to, but it must still witness those promised improvements.

5) Best of the bench?

With no striker on the bench Brendan Rodgers decided his best hope of changing the momentum at half-time lay, at least in part, with a switch of left-backs. José Enrique and Glen Johnson were described as “arguably the best full-backs in the league” by their manager 18 months ago but looked a very long way short of that standard here (it was the Spaniard whose night ended early, though the Englishman was the less impressive). But by bringing on a defender at this stage Rodgers denied himself the use of an attacking player later on should his side require one, which it turned out they probably did. The other half-time arrival was Markovic, who attacked with more pace and brio in his brief cameo than anyone else in red. But then he managed to get himself sent off, with half an hour still to play, following an incident in which, unusually, he was both clearly guilty (of foolishly throwing his arm) and obviously innocent (of touching anyone with it).