Fulham v Liverpool Tactical Preview: Alternatives for Dalglish without Lucas

Liverpool... at the Cottage.

London, Liverpool, then London again. It was a trio of fixtures against shirts of Blue. Two wins at the Bridge, plausibly building a bridge too far for Chelsea to secure domestic success this season. Sandwiched in between was an utterly dominant performance against Manchester City, with the Reds arguably on top of their rivals for sustained periods. A score draw, though, was perhaps a fair reflection of the tie, with Joe Hart undeniably brilliant in goal.

Yet there was a time for deep thought, for concern, for sadness. Ligament damage, six months. Out for the season. Lucas Leiva, the evergreen apex of Liverpool, is now reduced to a cheering fan on the stands, unable to impose his commanding presence and tower over others much like a Brazilian beast.

As such, varying emotions will accompany Liverpool in their third trip down to London in a mere two weeks. This time, their rivals are stationed at Craven Cottage, lying on the banks of that famous river. As far as the Thames is concerned, Fulham are treading perilously close to relegation waters. They are just three points off the drop zone.

Lose and they will be closer to that dreaded chop – and if you fancy a punt – do note records say that Fulham have failed to score in six of their last eight league games against Liverpool. Last season’s corresponding fixture saw Maxi bag a hat-trick as Liverpool romped to a 5-2 win, so this should be a clash the Reds will relish.

Fulham’s form hasn’t been a bed of roses of late – Won one, drew twice and lost twice in their last 5 league games. Their latest Europa League assignment saw them succumb to a narrow defeat at Twente – meaning they have only scored once in their past three games, with that single coming courtesy from a Vermaelen own goal.

All this will be left up to Liverpool to exploit, but whether the job gets done, therein lies a different matter altogether. The disenchantment amongst Liverpool fans grew after their repeated failings against ‘lesser’ sides, so the Reds must resolve this if they have serious ambitions to their top-four claims.

Probable team line-ups

Probable team line-ups

Now for the nitty-gritty. As mentioned earlier, the unfortunate prognosis on Lucas’ knee means that he’ll be sidelined for the remainder of the season. Meanwhile, there’s no specific timescale placed on Gerrard’s progress, but he’s looking suspiciously close to a first-team return. Jack Robinson is the other injury doubt.

The barely trivial matter of Lucas’ prolonged absence means that Dalglish will need to reshape his tactics to suit the needs of the team. While Spearing is Leiva’s carbon-copy, it’s difficult to foresee the 23-year-old being used on a consistent basis.

A more sensible decision would be to slot Jordan Henderson into his favoured midfield role, with him and Adam reversing duties constantly – one could hold the fort at the back while the other attacks, and vice versa. This varies from the previous primary tactic, where Adam was the one entrusted with attacking responsibilities with Lucas providing the defensive shield.

Over at the Cottagers’ end, the most prominent absentee is in the form of former Chelsea winger Damien Duff, who has picked up a calf injury. Their other concerns include Sidwell, Sa, Grygera and Davies – all of whom won’t make it in time to face the Reds. But they do boast a relatively strong side, spearheaded by veteran Danny Murphy, who once plied his trade in a Liverpool side. Another ex-Red will make an emotional return to a side he spent 8 years with – John Arne Riise, who will line up for Martin Jol’s side in his hugely favoured left-back position.

Fulham, The Opposition

Martin Jol plays a traditional 4-4-2 formation, focussed on a narrow passing game. Much like Liverpool’s former central axis, Fulham’s centre midfield is strikingly similar. Etuhu plays the holding role, protecting the back four, whereas the attacking impetus lies more towards Murphy. This is reminiscent to the respective roles Lucas and Adam play in Liverpool’s central midfield. It has to be said though, that at age 34, Murphy isn’t the kind of player who will embark on bombarding runs through the centre like how Adam is accustomed to, instead choosing to utilise his experience to play intelligent passes.

Out wide, Fulham’s Bryan Ruiz is deployed on the right but he doesn’t provide width, instead constantly choosing to cut in with the aid of his stronger left foot without really running down the line. While he is an intelligent player blessed with great technical skill, he hasn’t quite adapted to the demands of English football yet. This is contrary to his time at Twente, where he banged in 36 goals in 61 games in all competitions which persuaded Fulham to part £10m for the Costa Rican attacker.

Together with Dempsey and Murphy, he will look to provide adequate support for the men up front, Dembele and Zamora. In fact, Fulham’s wide midfielders do have a penchant for returning the ball into the middle channel for the likes of Dembele, who drops back on a regular basis.

Up front, Bobby Zamora will provide the fearful presence – and he will be employed by Jol as a primary target man due to his ability to hold up the ball, together with his other attributes such as his aerial presence and good awareness.

Fulham's passing heatmap

That said though, Fulham are a rather defensive team, especially against top sides. Against Arsenal last week, a staggering 71% of their passes were played in their own half – with only 6% of their passes being played in the final third of the pitch out wide.

Fulham’s tactic is rather unique. It centres around the wide midfielders but attacking towards the corners is not encouraged towards their final third of the pitch. Their primary passage of play do pass through the wide players, but in effect the ball is then returned to the players like Murphy or Dembele, who will then carry on from there.

Biggest on-pitch battle

Philippe Senderos v Luis Suarez

Senderos will be up for one of his toughest assignments, when he faces Liverpool’s hot-shot Luis Suarez. Despite being a rather decent defender, tough in the air, Suarez’s craft and cunning could prove too hot to handle for the Swiss defender. Senderos’ distinct lack of pace and acceleration means that should Suarez combine lethally with Bellamy – it could pose severe implications for Fulham, where the ever-reliable Mark Schwarzer could prove to be the Cottagers’ key man come Monday night.

Dalglish’s tactical approach

Breakdown of Fulham's goals

Fulham are notoriously slow starters, and very prone to concentration errors especially towards the end of both halves. The graphic above showcases the breakdown of goals scored and conceded by Fulham. The most distinct and alarming stat is that a total of 11 goals have been shipped in the last 15 minutes of each half, so there should be further encouragement for Liverpool having failed to break down both Norwich and Swansea despite laying late surges on their respective goals in this season’s home ties.

Dalglish will demand a high-tempo start, but might probably ask his players to peak especially in key periods when Fulham have been error-prone.

Liverpool's attacking stats

Liverpool’s play this season has mainly centred on the use of flanks, particularly on the left, as proven by the graphic above. With Fulham fond of having their wide midfielders to cut inwards, it is possible that Dalglish will instruct a persistent, pressing game on the likes of Luiz and Dempsey to dispossess them before quickly feeding the ball down towards Liverpool’s wide channels, with Enrique and Johnson overlapping on a consistent basis.

Lucas could have been a pivotal player for Liverpool in this fixture, but the onus will now fall on the likes of Adam and Henderson, or even Spearing to press and then feed the ball down to these channels. However, with the likes of Maxi and Kuyt constant back-trackers, they are likely to harry Luiz and Dempsey respectively to aid the overlapping full-backs.

Ideally, Dalglish could also request for Johnson and Enrique to play further up the field, possibly in a wing-back role, since it has been pointed out earlier in the piece that Fulham aren’t keen on running down the flanks.

Conclusion

Both sides enter December, one of the more crucial months which could be potentially season-defining. For Liverpool, 6 League games on offer, all very winnable and 18 points up for grabs. This represents the beginning – a test of whether or not our top four aspirations are validated, and whether or not we can reverse a trend which has seen us perform poorly against lesser teams, in comparison to sides like Man City, Man United, Arsenal and Chelsea.

Fulham represents this first obstacle. Based on form, history and paper, this is a side that Liverpool must demand three points from themselves. Also, this fixture is the first since we’ve lost Lucas Leiva to injury. It will be interesting to see how Dalglish reshuffle, how Dalglish best utilises the alternative solutions in his pack of cards.

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