3 Things Liverpool Need To Do After This Major Injury Blow

Liverpool have been rocked with the news that Daniel Sturridge is to miss another 6 weeks due to another injury, the English striker has not played for Liverpool since an injury in September during an international break.

Sturridge, who was last season’s second highest goal scorer in the Premier League behind Luis Suarez has been sorely missed by Liverpool this season, who have had a pretty bad start to the season.

Liverpool are 11^th in the league table with 14 points from 11 games and are 15 points behind the league leaders Chelsea. Their performance in Europe isn’t better as they have lost 3 out of their 4 games in their UEFA Champions League group and are in danger of missing out on qualifying to the knockout round after returning to Europe’s top competition after almost 5 years.

If that is not bad enough, their strike force has not been firing on any cylinders, Balotelli, Borini and Lambert have not scored a goal in the Premier League. Their midfield does not have the same bite that they had last season, even though they are led by an ageing Steven Gerrard and their new signings Lovren, Markovic and Lallana still are adapting to the team. Things don’t look too good for the reds at the moment.

What can the reds do?

This team is reminiscent of the Rafa Benitez team which came so close to winning the title in 2009 and then just running out of gas, of course a lot of blame goes to the era of the old owners Gillete and Hicks, which almost bankrupted the club.

Liverpool brought in Roy Hodgson and then Kenny Dalglish but they were never going to be long term solutions, the owners trust Rodgers and he must be given time to deliver, a bad start to the league is no reason for people to start calling for his head. A full functioning Liverpool team can be devastating as we saw last season and time should be given to Rodgers to make things right.

1. Fix the defence

This will be a sour point for most supporters and this is something that Rodgers needs to fix as soon as possible. Rodgers’ signing of Lovren, Manquillo and Moreno have not done anything to allay the defensive fears that Liverpool fans had this season and he needs to make some tough decisions in either sticking with Lovren or playing Kolo Toure who was impressive in the away game against Real but did not feature against Chelsea. Rodgers needs to have a defensive coach and he needs one fast.

Liverpool did not have a good defence last season but they were saved thanks to their goal scoring exploits, this season the goals have not flowed and their defensive fallacies have been magnified to a much greater extent.

2. Mix up the formation and tactics

Last season Rodgers was playing various formations to deal with teams, he played a 3-5-2, a 4-3-3 and a 4-1-2-1-2. This season he has stuck with a 4-3-3 no matter what, playing with a solitary striker during most games. Mario Balotelli was brought in but he needs to have another striker for support as he does not make the same dynamic runs a Suarez or Sturridge makes and to make the best use of the Italian, he needs a Lambert or Borini to play alongside him. Rodgers should also work out a plan b if their usual attacking style didn’t work out in few games.

3. The players need to step up

A lot of the current Liverpool squad played to their best ability last season but this season they have all been below average. Steven Gerrard, Jordan Henderson and Raheem Sterling have been poor this season, while big money signings like Lovren and Balotelli have flattered to deceive, a manager can do as much as give them the opportunity to play but if they keep on playing the same way, little can be done by Rodgers than dropping a few big names.

The likes of Can, Allen and Borini have impressed with the few chances they have got this season and giving them a chance to play would send a message to the other players, step up or get dropped. An almost unrecognisable Liverpool team did very well against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, much better than the strongest Liverpool team did against the UEFA Champions league winners did at the reverse fixture at Anfield.

Above all, Liverpool need to get a win and get some positive results going, the injury to Sturridge might not be the best of news but 3 points against Crystal Palace this weekend and then beating Ludogorets in the Champions League might just help them start a run of positive results.