Liverpool Go Retro With a 3-5-2...

Respected football writer Jonathon Wilson asked if "3-5-2 is dead?"  he cited Napoli as the main example of a club currently playing the formation. Now Napoli have company in this group with Liverpool under Kenny Dalglish joining them.

The pioneer of the formation was former Argentina coach Carlos Bilardo who led the country to World Cup victory in 1986. The formation was used to accommodate the talents of their most talented player, Diego Maradona. Now Liverpool are using a formation which died out in the late 80's and very early 90's, popular tactical analysis site Zonal Marking pointed out,

"The use of a three-man defence is extremely unusual in the Premier League – this was the first time a true three-man defence has been used in 2010/11 by any side (drawing a distinction between three- and five-man defences), and in that respect, it was a very interesting decision."

But why have Liverpool decided to adopt this formation? I'm hoping by looking at their matches against Chelsea and Stoke respectively, I might be able to answer that.

Against both Stoke and Chelsea Dalglish has elected to start with three centre backs. This is feel is a pretty good response to sides playing with a 4-4-2 especially taking into consideration that neither Stoke or Chelsea play with a withdrawn striker. The theory behind this is that playing with three at the back leaves two centre backs in this case Agger and Carragher marking the two centre forwards leaving Skrtel free to sweep up any loose balls. I think that this three at the back also gives the side to make the most of Carragher and Aggers' passing ability from the back, ensuring that less wasteful long balls are played from the back as they were under Roy Hodgson.

On the attacking side of things it frees up wing-backs Martin Kelly and especially Glen Johnson to attack and give their side the width Liverpool have lacked in past seasons. After the sales of Albert Riera, Yossi Benayoun and now Ryan Babel the Liverpool squad has no recognised wingers. The logical step if you have in side with these deficiencies is to do what Liverpool have done which is to play a formation with none. The abundance of midfielders in the shapes of Raul Meireles, Steven Gerrard, Christian Poulsen, Lucas, Maxi Rodriguez and Jay Spearing also made this decision a practical one.

Another attacking benefit of the 3-5-2 Liverpool play is that they have the standard 3 v 2 advantage in midfield against a 4-4-2. But with so many teams playing the modern 4-5-1/4-3-3 Meireles drops deeper to then give Liverpool effectively a 4 v 3 advantage, like he did against Stoke, leaving Dirk Kuyt as the lone striker.

All in all the formation currently suits the way Liverpool play and reflects clearly the kinds of players they have at the club. But will this be a long term switch? Jonathon Wilson in the Guardian put his feelings across when using Napoli as an example,

"So what, then, of Napoli? If 3-5-2 is ailing, how can their success be accounted for? The answer is that they are quite happy to have, in effect, two liberi. Napoli are not a team who need to take the initiative to the opposition; rather – as happened in the early days of catenaccio – they often sit deep, invite the opposition onto them, and break quickly, using the pace of Ezequiel Lavezzi.

It would not work for everybody – probably not for a top, top club, who feel the onus to take the game on themselves – but it works for Napoli."

The thing is, I feel formations don't determine the way a team plays. With Liverpool there are no liberi (sweepers) and they don't defend with a deep line. They also have what was described as a "foraging foursome to fear" in the Guardian by Paul Hayward. He was referring to a foursome of Andy Carrol, Steven Gerrard, Raul Meireles and Luis Suarez but in the last two games it has been a very effective foursome of Meireles, Gerrard, Maxi and Kuyt. All four have pushed high up the pitch when battling for possession and attacking especially against Chelsea today. This in the end pinned Carlo Ancelotti's side back and lead to them giving away possession in their own third.

All in all the formation change has been a success, but the true test will be when this formation becomes a regular occurrence. Teams will then amend their systems to counter it and try to expose any perceived weaknesses. For now I'm just enjoying this deviation in tactics from the usual 4-4-2 and 4-5-1/4-3-3 we've got used to seeing week in week out in the Premier League.

How Liverpool Have Improved Under Kenny...

Liverpool in recent games under Kenny Dalglish have shown signs of improvement. But why has this happened? What is Kenny doing that Roy Hodgson wasn't? Well I hope I might be able to answer that question.

I think that the key difference is the back four. Yes, Liverpool are looking like they pose more of a attacking threat with Fernando Torres scoring 3 goals in four games in Dalglish took charge. I feel this improvement in form stems from the organisation of the defence.

Under Hodgson the Liverpool back four consisted of Johnson, Kyrgiakos, Skrtel and Konchesky. Of this back four there is only one player, Glen Johson who is recognised as a good ball player. The others are known as efficient defenders all know for their combative attributes more than anything else. With Kyrgiakos at the heart of that defence there is also a lack of pace (when Carragher played under Hodgson the same applies). This led to him dropping deeper, which meant that the other 3 had to do the same, to ensure he isn't playing the opposition forwards onside. Dropping deep and not having players you cant play the ball from the back is footballing suicide and can turn games into attack v defence training sessions.

With the defence dropping deeper left space "between the lines" which meant Meireles and Lucas had to drop deeper to cover the space. This basically meant that Liverpool were surrendering large areas of the pitch to the opposition which Kuyt and Maxi would have to cover defensively leaving Torres isolated. Now this would be fine if the team had two traditional holding midfielders and wingers with pace to expose the space the attacking team leaves behind it. For example Manchester City have operated with a similar system this season with Yaya Toure, De Jong and Barry in midfield. The wingers in the side are Johnson and Milner who both have pace and can expose gaps teams leave when attacking them. Liverpool don't have this pace in Kuyt or Rodriguez and Torres is left in 2 v 1 situations far too often with the centre backs. Therefore they don't pose a threat when they are defending deep and are set up to be picked apart by the opposition. This theory was shown in the second half performance in the recent performance against Everton when Agger was injured at halftime to be replaced by Kyrgiakos.

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When Kenny Dalglish took over there has been a major change in the defence. The back two consists of Agger and Skrtel neither of whom lack pace and Agger is exceptionally good on the ball. Dalglish has also started playing youngster Martin Kelly at right back and moving Glen Johnson to left back. Now they are playing with one stopper (Skrtel) and three ball players (Agger, Johnson and Kelly). This template is followed by all the top sides in the Premier League for example Manchester United have Evra, Rafael and Ferdinand who are excellent on the ball with Vidic as the stopper.

With this change in the back line it has allowed Lucas and Meireles to be more forward thinking and push higher up the pitch and in turn has led to Maxi, Kuyt and Torres becoming more of a threat in the attacking third of the pitch. This was noted by Zonal-Marking who described the reasons Liverpool won,

"Simple passes combined with good movement from Torres and forward runs from midfielders caught out Wolves’ defence, and Liverpool were comfortable after their second goal, despite a couple of nervous defensive moments."

These deep runs weren't possible under Hodgson as the team was playing far too deeply putting to much pressure on attacking players to defend rather than concentrate on attacking. When players like Rodriguez and Kuyt are expected to defend deeper it leaves far too much space in between them and the goal to make them an attacking threat and leaves Torres isolated. Now with the support of the two wide men Torres is starting to look like his old self by getting on the scoresheet.

Another benefit of a higher line is that Glen Johnson can play to his strengths, under Hodgson his defensive weaknesses were exposed as his teams centre backs kept dragging both full backs deeper putting him in positions around his own penalty where he was uncomfortable. A key aspects of the first goal against Everton was Johnson burst forward even though he was playing out of his natural position he wasn't asked to defend deep and allowed to get forward.   

Conclusion

The players bar Kyrgiakos are the same but they are playing with a higher line which I think is due to an improvement in morale and confidence aswell as a tactical/selection change Dalglish has implemented. These changes have led to a more attacking style of play with the side keeping the ball on the floor rather than being pin back in their own half and hitting long balls towards an isolated and demoralised Fernando Torres.