Liverpool FC: A ‘mental block’ or the curse of zonal marking?

You have the same system as last year, you have the same players (bar Alonso) as last year, but you come up with two completely different results. How is this possible? This Liverpool side has a remarkable Jekyll and Hyde character about it. Swinging from the dizzying heights of last season, topping the table at Christmas, to sitting in a lowly seventh place in November this season, 11 points behind the current league leaders. What has changed so drastically during this relatively short period of time?

As much as I admire Xabi Alonso, his sale cannot be at fault for conceding 18 goals in 12 games while it took over 26 matches last season, and I do not see how you can lose 5 games this season while having lost only one this time last season. Something seems to be amiss at the club. Albert Riera thinks he knows the answer: a “Mental Block.” It is an interesting proposition which shows to all outsiders the lack of confidence that has spread through the team which has led to Liverpool’s title hopes all but vanishing and being on the cusp of an early Champions League exit. Riera believes that despite the 2-2 draw against Birmingham, they could have done no more to win the game:

“In games like the one against Birmingham you could see we were trying to do everything . . . We played wide, between the lines, always going forward and only defending with two centre-backs. We were really unlucky, because they had one free-kick and one shot from a long way out.”

Liverpool were trying to force the result and came unstuck, something which rarely happened last season due to the solidity of the defence. Riera can’t see why there is such a sharp contrast, ‘luck’ he says has a lot to do with it for they are playing the way they have always done, but now it is just not working due to injuries and defensive lapses. Why have the tactics and techniques that held the team in such good stead last season apparently no longer getting the results? According to Riera:

“Now our problem could be mental, because we are being untidy, as much as I do not like to say that. We have plenty of possession, plenty of opportunities, and while it is clear we have to manage conceding goals from free-kicks, we should be winning games like the Birmingham match.”

The problem with this ‘mental block’ argument is how you get into such a state of low confidence in the first place? A lack of confidence comes from poor results where there have been fundamental underlying flaws in tactics. Riera hits the nail on the head when he expresses the fact that it is clear for all to see that Liverpool have been conceding too many from set pieces. They have conceded in double figures so far from corners and free-kicks. So we go back to that age-old argument over the merits of zonal marking. Benitez’s sides have always had this Achilles heel; every time a corner or free kick comes into the box I get extremely nervous that we are going to concede, and more often than not I am proven right.

The fundamental problem with zonal marking is that it allows an attacking player to get a run, and the momentum, on an opposing defender who is keeping to his zone. Benitez believes however that the benefits out way the negatives for unlike man-marking, zones mean you can’t lose your player on a cross to allow a free header, as you just clear the ball if it enters your zone. Now, far be it for me to advise a manager in the class of Benitez but if you are conceding goals from set pieces so regularly, you have to ask the question whether the system or the players are at fault. The answer is probably both for it is a vicious circle. Once you start conceding from set pieces, you start to lose faith in the system and when you have lack of confidence and form, these problems are magnified and lead to even more errors on behalf of the defenders. A defence that was so solid last season looks to have become completely incompetent over night.

The solution to such a problem is to change the system; shaking things up should get the players out of their current malaise. Benitez should try playing man-marking and playing the defensive line deeper just so the foundations are put back in place. You may draw a few more in the short term, but the confidence in the defence will increase and allow the team to go forward with more certainty, scoring goals, conceding few and overall getting the team back on track.