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Football News: Liverpool Season Review

Liverpool Season Review
Image from: fansided.com

Trying to give an objective view on the season for Liverpool is extremely difficult, it is a season that has brought things to a head, with the excitement of last season vanishing and bringing Liverpool fans down to earth with a bump.

Heading into the season on the back of an exciting charge at the title last season, spending over £100million in the summer, with Brendan Rodgers himself having previously stated that anyone spending £100million in a transfer window should be challenging for the title, there was plenty of reason for optimism.

The 2013-14 season saw Liverpool play some scintillating football in the second half of the season, and there was plenty of reason to hope for more of the same, despite the loss of the outstanding player, Luis Suarez.

A number of players were brought in, such as Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren and Ricky Lambert, who were used to playing the high press that was successful for Liverpool in the previous season, providing reasons to be excited about the football that would be played.

Instead the season began with turgid, possession-based, passing the opponent to death with absolutely no end product whatsoever. Gone were the attacking thrusts into the opposition half resulting in wave after wave of attack.

The only thing left over from last season was a complete inability to defend, whether from open play or set pieces, you could guarantee the opponent would get chances without having to work for it.

Performances in Europe were abject, culminating in two games against Basel were the coaching staff were unable to figure out not just how to combat the opponents, but also what they were actually doing that made them so difficult to deal with.

In fact, it led to Rodgers decision to change the system to a similar one to Basel's in an attempt to improve results, which, at the time, were dire to the point of leaving him desperately defending his position through the media and downplaying Liverpool's hopes and expectations for the season.

Gone were the mentions of title challenges, instead he pontificated about how difficult it was and how a top four place would be a great result for the season.

The bizarre decision to put out a reserve team in the Bernabeu, a game Liverpool needed to get a result from in the Champions League, ensured the knives were being sharpened for Brendan.

Somehow he survived that, and his plan of copying Basel's three at the back system swung into action, though its first outing led to a defeat, it did begin an upturn in results as opponents were caught by surprise.

Liverpool began a steady climb back up the table, though the signs of teams working out the new system were completely ignored, and performances were still mostly poor, at best, with a struggle to score goals added to a struggling defence making life difficult.

The warning signs were ignored and Liverpool's form dropped again, with Rodgers now showing signs of having no idea what to do about it, sometimes changing systems and formations four or five times a game, in an attempt to arrest the slide.

Nothing helped though and Liverpool slumped, ending a promising season in just 6th place with a final day humiliation at the hands of Stoke City compounding the woes and giving Steven Gerrard a send off to forget, despite his goal, as the 6-1 defeat was Liverpool's worst since 1963.

Written by Tris Burke May 27 2015 08:39:56