Liverpool 0-1 Southampton: were Brendan Rodgers side timid in approach?

Dejan Lovren celebrates his winning goal with his teammates during the Barclays Premier League match between Liverpool and Southampton at Anfield on September 21, 2013 in Liverpool, England. (Getty Images)

Liverpool crashed to their first defeat of the season against Southampton at Anfield – in a game that they would have in all probability chalked down for a win – but they only have some bizarre decisions from manager Brendan Rodgers to blame.

Liverpool’s strategy this season has been to defend well, with Rodgers doing his “Jose Mourinho” influence full justice. Liverpool have relied on the invention of Philippe Coutinho and a rejuvenated Daniel Sturridge to score first, and then hold on for the win. They won their first three games with an impressive (defensive) work ethic.

That was not the case in the game when Jonjo Shelvey scored against first for Swansea on Monday. However, instead of truly witnessing how they would react to conceding first, Shelvey did his team no favours by gifting his former employer’s two goals in an exacting draw, making it an extremely emotional affair.

Southampton have made significant additions to the squad this summer but none have been more so significant than adding Mauricio Pochettino last season – a disciple of Marcelo Bielsa. The Saints haven’t had the best starts to the season, but this low-scoring contest proved to be a keenly contested tactical battle.

With Coutinho out injured and Luis Suarez serving the last game of his ban, Liverpool lacked creativity in the final third. Here is where Rodgers made some extremely strange decisions:

1. Staring Raheem Sterling on the bench.

2. Starting with four centre-backs in a home match, which meant that Rodgers stifled the attacking potential of his own team by opting to start no conventional full back, who could bomb forward.

3. There was no clear link between the midfield and attack. Iago Aspas was playing off Sturridge sometimes and when he went missing, the striker himself had to come deep to collect the pass.

4. With the Southampton midfield energetically cutting down on space and with the full-backs tucking in, Liverpool essentially struggled to play through the lines. This meant that Sturridge moved away from the goal to receive the ball, further blunting Liverpool’s goal threat.

Southampton played some neat stuff but Liverpool’s backline seemed to be mostly untroubled till Daniel Agger’s mistake meant that Dejan Lovren scored from a corner. Rodgers did not really make any changes, when they were clearly required.

One very obvious pattern of Pochettino has been the tendency of the full-backs to cut in to the space left open by the wide midfielders. This theme was seen throughout and almost resulted in a goal when the ever-impressive Luke Young seemed to cut in and waltz past the entire Liverpool defence, only for Simon Mignolet to produce an amazing save to keep Liverpool in the game.

When Rodgers finally removed two of his centre-backs and brought in Sterling and Luis Alberto, the game’s pace seemed to pick up and Liverpool had their best chances, especially one in which Sterling’s touch prevented what would have been a one-on-one situation and probably Liverpool’s best chance to draw parity.

On the whole it was a pretty dour and unconvincing performance from Liverpool. The timidity they displayed – considering that they were playing at home on the back of a good run – is more to do with the manager and his slightly odd setup, which was the undoing of all their early season hard work.