Tactical Analysis: Liverpool 1-2 Crystal Palace

By grvadmin

Premier League newcomer Jurgen Klopp was handed his first defeat as the Liverpool managers side were beaten 2-1 by Crystal Palace.

Palace Manager Alan Pardew encouraged his team to take full advantage of Liverpool having returned from the Europa League fixture against Russian side Rubin Kazan on Thursday, and set out to press high and attack with pace and aggression to capitalise on any weariness in the legs of the Liverpool players.

Following the international break, Jurgen Klopp’s side will face leaders Manchester City at the Etihad and Klopp will be keen for his players to improve on this result. Crystal Palace, now in 8th position and 2 places above Liverpool, will be facing opposition from the opposite end of the table when they host Sunderland at Selhurst Park.

We have studied the defining moments in tis fixture and coaches can access sessions on our website to support your teams and individual players in developing key technical and tactical aspects of the game.

Get the knowledge. Pass it on.

Failing to clear lines

Sako competes with Lucas and wins an aerial ball to knock down to Cabaye on the halfway line. At this point, Liverpool have bodies around and behind the ball and have defensive shape but fail to clear their lines on two separate occasion. Firstly, Cabaye attempts a forward pass which is deflected by Liverpool’s Can and into the path of Bolasie, who is being marked tight by Liverpool’s Sakho.

As the deflected pass travels towards Bolasie, Sakho steps off his marker allowing him to turn and play a pass across the pitch. The pass by Bolasie is a poor pass that the covering Moreno should have cleared with urgency, however Sako puts Moreno under pressure and the attempted clearance ricochets off Sako and into the path of the oncoming Zaha on the right corner of the penalty area.

Liverpool’s defensive line shifts across as Zaha drives into the area with the ball. Sakho fails to block the driven cross whilst the forward run of Cabaye has brought Liverpool’s Emre Can with him.

The driven cross lands at the feet of Can in the penalty area, and he fails to clear the ball from danger as Palace’s Bolasie reacts to pick up the ball, turn and fire past Mignolet from 14 yards out.

This technical practice will help coach your players to defend crosses and penetrating balls from wide areas; http://www.thecoachingmanual.com/watch?video=22b&session=5700735861784576

Counter Attack to equalise

Crystal Palace are awarded a throw in inside their defensive third on the right side of the pitch. Kelly takes the throw but it is cut out by Moreno, who heads inside to Lallana. On receiving, Lallana opens out and plays inside to Ibe, 30 yards from goal.

Ibe dribbles with the ball towards the right of the penalty area drawing in Sako, Soaré and Delaney, as Full Back Clyne makes an overlapping run. Ibe plays a perfectly weighted pass into the penalty box for Clyne to deliver first time.

Lallana moves towards the ball in the area, drawing across the remaining Palace defenders, and has good awareness to flick on the ball across the penalty area as Benteke leaves for Coutinho to finish at the back post from 8 yards.

A great session to develop your players to counter attack quickly and efficiently; http://www.thecoachingmanual.com/watch?video=26c&session=5090214850592768

Bringing the ball out from the back

With 10 minutes of the game remaining, Crystal Palace are awarded a throw in just inside their defensive half on the right side of the pitch. Liverpool fail to press the throw in and the ball is switched across the back line to Kelly who runs with the ball from inside his own half to the edge of Liverpool penalty area and then passes wide to Bolasie who attempts to cross but is blocked by Moreno for a Palace Corner.

This small sided game can be delivered to players and provides opportunities for running with the ball in different areas of the pitch: http://www.thecoachingmanual.com/watch?video=9c&session=5639274879778816

From the resulting corner, Cabaye delivers towards the back post as Centre Back Dann overpowers Firmino to head towards goal. Mignolet parries the ball straight back to where it came from as Dann makes no mistake with the second header and scores the winning goal for Crystal Palace

This article was provided by the brilliant The Coaching Manual. Follow them on Twitter here.

Featured Image: All rights reserved by SafaliThaGod