Dear oh dear, Brendan Rodgers. How wrong could your team selection be? First off, it was evident that Jon Flanagan had to be included after his fine display against Everton last weekend, but here’s the thing, he’s a predominantly right footed full-back playing on the left. This results in two things: one, he’s never going to foray down the left flank and provide width as he’ll always be looking to come in; two, the back line is thus imbalanced, with Glen Johnson hugging the touchline on one side and Flanagan narrow on the left.
This comes to the second point, why no left-legged centre back then? You have two left-footed defenders in club vice-captain Daniel Agger – who admittedly had a poor game last weekend – and the club’s record fee paid for a defender in Mamadou Sakho. Rodgers instead chose right-footed Kolo Toure to partner right-footed Martin Skrtel in defence, meaning one of them had to play uncomfortably on the left-side of central defence.
Thirdly, this game at Hull is the typical tough away game that Liverpool have struggled for the past few seasons, yet Rodgers decided to play inexperienced players. Granted the form of the aforementioned Flanagan, regardless of how inexperienced he is, meant he merited a start, but Raheem Sterling’s first start in two months certainly did not. This was not a game to experiment, especially when you bring in the less inexperienced Victor Moses into the side as well. Too many changes against a tough Hull side…
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