Match date: 17 August 2013

The opening match of the new Premier League season and it was a decent advert for what could be a very exciting and close season.

Liverpool have not won an opening day fixture since they won 1-0 against Sunderland in the 2008-2009 season with a goal coming from Fernando Torres with less than ten minutes to go in the match. Stoke though also have not scored at Anfield since their rise to the Premier League that same year and have not won at Anfield since 1959, but with a new manager at Stoke in Mark Hughes and a rather public call from the owners to play a more attractive style of football and with Liverpool and Brendan Rodgers looking to compete for a top four spot, the opening match of the new season was set to be class.

Pressing and the Higher Line

One of the aspects of Rodgers’ sides, whether it be Swansea and now Liverpool, is the importance of pressing the opposition high up the pitch and looking to win the ball back quickly and Liverpool did it incredibly well today. Consistently when Liverpool lost the ball high up the field, they were quick to get pressure on the Stoke player with the ball and win the ball back.

As you can see above, Liverpool won 16 of their 19 attempted tackles while also winning possession an additional 6 times in Stoke’s defensive half, which is an incredible number of tackles to attempt in the opposition’s half, especially when you compare it to Stoke’s efforts; they attempted just 6 tackles in Liverpool’s half, winning just 3.

Majority of Liverpool’s tackles occurred within the first ten yards of Stoke’s half, winning all of one of their attempts. This is credit to the work of the midfield trio of Lucas, Gerrard, and Henderson, who collectively won 12 of their 14 attempted tackles, while Coutinho was actually Liverpool’s top tackler, winning 6 of this 8 attempts. More importantly though, this is credit to Liverpool playing a higher defensive line. The higher a defense plays, the easier it is for the midfield to squeeze the opposition’s play.

Last year, Rodgers had to abandon his idea of playing a high line with Martin Skrtel and later Jamie Carragher partnering Daniel Agger at centre back. With the two former players, there was a lack of pace and mobility that is required to play a higher defensive line, however, with the acquisition of Kolo Toure, who won two of his three tackles in Stoke’s half this afternoon, it has allowed Liverpool’s centre backs to play higher up the pitch and make it easier for the midfield and front three to win the ball back as they lose it and today it certainly helped continue the pressure that Liverpool were putting on Stoke’s defensive players.

Glen Johnson, Jordan Henderson on the Right

With Iago Aspas getting his Liverpool debut, on paper, he was the right sided player of Liverpool’s attacking three, but his movement brought him inside and up alongside Daniel Sturridge. For Liverpool, this meant that Glen Johnson, who I compared to Dani Alves last year when Liverpool won 5-0 against Norwich, had the whole right side of the pitch to himself and he used it well during the first half.

It is of no surprise that Glen Johnson is good when he has the ability to get forward, but he played incredibly well, especially in the first half, acting as their main outlet on the right side of their attack.

Majority of the time, Johnson received the ball inside of Stoke’s half, compared to Jose Enrique on the left side, who got the ball about an equal number of times in both halves. Johnson also had the fifth highest number of passes by any player in the final third, above both Daniel Sturridge and Iago Aspas and had the most number of take-ons in the match from either side as well, with 5 of his attempts coming in Stoke’s half.

Henderson also played more on the right throughout the match as well as Aspas drifted inside and, later, when Sterling came on, shifting Coutinho behind Sturridge. Henderson had some really good efforts on goal as well, two saved by Begovic and one saved by the woodwork, but all three efforts came from him running in from the right. He was not playing as a wide right midfielder, like he did a lot under Dalglish, but more of a false winger.

Gerrard and Coutinho Dictate Play

Gerrard and Coutinho were both very important when Liverpool had the ball. Gerrard was almost always the player showing for players, offering a relief from pressure and then looking to move the ball quickly to someone else. At times he tried to be a bit too adventurous with his cross field balls, but was also composed with the ball at his feet under pressure.

Coutinho was the one to dictate Liverpool’s play once they got into the attacking third, creating 5 chances for his teammates, as you can see on the right of the image above. His vision and technical quality is undisputed and looked good for Liverpool both on the left side of the attacking three, drifting inside, and through the middle once Sterling came on.

He linked very well with Sturridge as he did at the back end of last season and showed really good signs of working well with Iago Aspas as Liverpool were very fluid in their attack. If his teammates were a bit more clinical on the day, and Begovic wasn’t on top form, Coutinho would have had a good amount of assists.

Conclusion

I  barely mentioned Stoke at all throughout this piece, which I think is fair as their play wasn’t too inspiring, even under a new manager who is trying to get them to play a different way. Aside from their penalty, which Mignolet saved so well, giving him a great start to his Liverpool career, their next best effort was probably from Jonathan Walters take after Stoke played a bit of keepy up outside of Liverpool’s penalty area.

Stoke also looked to press initially in the game, but Liverpool were able to get past their first line of pressure far too easily and it left a lot of openings at the back for the likes of Coutinho and Aspas to easily move into.

Defensively, perhaps due to the physicality of Stoke, Liverpool looked a bit shaky at times and will have to tighten things up at the back a bit, especially on counter attacks. The last quarter hour of the match could have been a bit more calm for Liverpool if Rodgers had decided to put on someone like Joe Allen to help Liverpool keep the ball a bit better in nervy times.

Overall, a good start for Liverpool, beating an opponent that they had trouble against last year, while showing good signs of progress towards Rodgers’ vision. Stoke on the other hand might struggle to see a real positive change from the Tony Pulis days and if they are to stay up, Begovic will have to have days like he had today in every match.