After the ludicrous drama, the startling statistic. The final whistle had just blown at Loftus Road when someone calculated that the Queens Park Rangers centre-backs had contributed more goals to Liverpool’s cause this season than has Mario Balotelli.
To score one may be unfortunate. To chip in with two was embarrassing. Yet despite Richard Dunne and Steven Caulker’s costly mistakes, in many respects theirs wasn’t the worst defensive display. Not considering the chaos at the back for Liverpool.
They were bullied by Bobby Zamora. There was something fairly rudimentary about QPR’s tactics: aim for the big man, try and pick up the second ball and bypass the midfield by going from back to front quickly. It was standard in English football for decades. Liverpool still could not cope.
Martin Skrtel and Dejan Lovren were outmuscled and outmanoeuvred by intelligent, but entirely unoriginal target-man play. Age-old English tactics require presence and personality, organisation and aerial ability at the back. Liverpool seemed to lack all. Above all, there was a desperate need for a leader in the rearguard.
It is an indictment of the centre-backs that Steven Gerrard is Liverpool’s best defensive header of a ball. It was telling that his old ally, Jamie Carragher, scathingly suggested that they are now the worst team in the division at defending set-pieces.
Carragher is found in the television studios these days. He retired only 17 months ago. Liverpool have signed seven defenders since then at a combined cost of more than £60 million (Dh354.9m), only for their defending to deteriorate.
Indeed, it has arguably got progressively worse over Brendan Rodgers’ three seasons in charge. Given the Byzantine workings of their transfer committee, he cannot be held solely responsible for the flaws in recruitment but the newcomers have ranged from the promising (Alberto Moreno and Javier Manquillo) to the dreadful (Aly Cissokho and Kolo Toure), via the overpriced (Mamadou Sakho and Dejan Lovren) and the utterly anonymous (Tiago Ilori, deemed so awful he is yet to debut and has twice been loaned out).
Collectively, the back four is a microcosm of the team. Liverpool have spent a lot to regress. They conceded 50 league goals last season – had they won the league, they would have been the champions with the worst defensive record since 1961, when goals were altogether more abundant. And while the focus on Gerrard’s infamous slip against Chelsea is understandable, the broader picture is that failings at the back cost them dearly.
Even in his final few months, slowing, greying and backing away from attackers, Carragher was the most reliable centre-back to feature in Rodgers’ reign. He brought authority, understanding and a willingness to bark at errant colleagues.
He also provided a reminder last week that Rafa Benitez once tried to sign another dominant centre-back. Nemanja Vidic eluded Liverpool in 2006. Twelve months later, Benitez bought Skrtel, a player whose superficial similarities – as another shaven-headed man recruited from a Russian club – should camouflage the reality that he is a pale imitation of a defensive colossus, forever tugging opponents at set-pieces rather than focusing on the ball, spreading indecision rather than bringing order.
If Lovren were bought to be a leader, two months into his Liverpool career, he deserves the benefit of the doubt. Almost eight years into his, Skrtel does not.
Sakho may command even less confidence than his colleagues and his absence can scarcely be described as a blow. Their problems are amplified by the choice of a goalkeeper who, as Simon Mignolet showed on Sunday, can be an excellent shot-stopper, but prefers not to leave his line.
If restoring the long-serving full-backs Glen Johnson and Jose Enrique ahead of the Spanish-speaking newcomers Moreno and Manquillo was supposed to bring a greater sense of harmony, it did not. Liverpool are left with a void, with neither a well-drilled unit nor a sufficiently strong character to control their own penalty area. It is a situation where individual deficiencies are compounded by organisational shortcomings.
Despite Rodgers’ considerable coaching and tactical talents, his record in the transfer market remains underwhelming, with the notable exception of the signing of Daniel Sturridge. He needs to prove his passing principles are not incompatible with defensive solidity. Both factors contribute to the confusion at the back which, with Real Madrid due at Anfield on Wednesday, scarcely bodes well.
In the meantime, there was an irony that Caulker became Liverpool’s match-winner on Sunday. Along with Neil Taylor, Ashley Williams and Angel Rangel, he formed part of arguably Rodgers’ best back four. It was his Swansea defence. That, once again, is an indication of Liverpool’s inadequacies.
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