Liverpool and the back pass syndrome

Suarez and Sturridge celebrate scoring against West Brom

Liverpool FC were given things to ponder upon, as their lacklustre display at the Hawthorns as West Bromwich Albion salvaged a point to remember. A stunning second half display by West Brom was heavy enough for a stuttering Liverpool side. Liverpool dropped two crucial points in the race for the final Champions League spot, as Everton, who themselves were at the receiving end on Tuesday night, came within two points of Liverpool, after beating Aston Villa 2-1.

It all started off as a wonderful display of football by Liverpool, as Luis Suárez place a perfectly executed cross towards Daniel Sturridge, who made full use of his position. It was his eighth away goal of the season, the highest in the Premier League. The celebration was positive, as he ran towards the provider Suárez. The sight was a wonderful one, as ‘SAS’ left the memories of the altercation against Everton behind.

West Brom kept the Liverpool defence busy with good attempts on goal and a brisk start in the second half ensured that they had not given up. And the breakthrough arrived when Victor Anichebe scored the leveller, with a sublime finish past Simon Mignolet, the Liverpool goalkeeper. It was his first goal against Liverpool; he never managed to score against Liverpool for Everton in 7 seasons. However, there was much debate about the manner in which the goal was conceded. No guess-work required; a defensive lapse cost Liverpool two points.

The man in question is Kolo Toure- the strong Ivory Coast centre-back. Throughout the contest, he faltered. He tried to make runs thrice into the West Brom half, but ended up giving away the ball rather meekly on each occasion. Whenever the ball was passed to him, he appeared wobbly; unsure about where to pass. And the decision he made in the 67^th minute was perhaps one of the worst decisions he has taken on the field of late. He immediately showed his usual discomfort at keeping the ball, when Mignolet passed it straight to him. Unsure about what to do, he tried to play the ball to his defence partner Martin Skrtel. But his vision for that pass was only met by an alert Anichebe, who calmly slotted it into the net.

Toure dejected as West Brom capitalized on his error

The style of Brendan Rodgers’ play is to start the attack from the defence. However, it is also important to understand the feasibility of this play. The defender should be comfortable, and have enough confidence to get things going. Daniel Agger, Martin Skrtel and Mamadou Sakho are very comfortable with this style of play. However, one can tell by the body language of Kolo Toure that he is rather uneasy with this style. He wins duels, while he also makes good tackles, but this style of play does not suit him.

But perhaps, the primary reason why Toure is playing is because the two key centre-backs, Agger and Sakho are injured. Agger is experienced enough to handle the ball well, and push the game forward. On the other hand, Sakho is a very confident player, which is evident from the way he tricks opponents to pass the ball. Toure now acts as a mere backup to these players, and will play till one among those players returns to action. That is still a long way to go.

Although Toure has been widely criticized for his dubious mistake, the question is, whether he is the first player to wobble at the back? Probably not. We can give an example of how former Liverpool midfielder Jonjo Shelvey messed up his play for Swansea, minutes after scoring for them. Sturridge capitalized on Shelvey’s mistake and drew Liverpool level against the Swans. The header by Nastasic for Manchester City was even worse; he could not keep a note of where the rushing Joe Hart was. And Fernando Torres did for Chelsea, what he always did for Liverpool- score a goal.

Even in Liverpool’s past, there have been embarrassing instances. It was Skrtel’s miserable back-pass to then Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez on 26^th August 2012 that allowed Tevez to score his 100^th goal in English football. Anfield hero Steven Gerrard has a list of his own errors. Big name back-passes include ones to Thierry Henry and Didier Drogba. Not to forget Jamie Carragher’s woeful back-pass against Zenit St. Petersburg, while Hulk scored the all-important away goal, and Liverpool bowed out of the Europa League after a stunning comeback. The fact is, not just Liverpool, but all clubs have a history of opponents capitalizing on a player’s erroneous back-pass.

However crucial the result can turn out to be, it is clear that Toure has been handed the responsibility because of injured centre-backs. Toure felt devastated, so would any other player. Taking a different look at the game, Liverpool could have given their best efforts to score more goals, as they have been scoring all season. But that did not happen. The point to ponder upon is that however cruel the result may be, it is not the player’s intention to concede a goal from a poor back-pass. Every player commits a mistake, it is upto the fans, whether to keep criticizing the player, or to forget what happened. As rightly quoted- ‘To err is human; to forgive, divine!’