When ‘All Attack’ Becomes a Trap

If you watched Liverpool closely in the run-in of 2013/14, the late collapse against Palace didn’t feel like lightning out of a clear blue sky. It felt like the bill landing. The football was brilliant to watch, absolutely, but it was also hanging by a thread.

Rodgers’ rollercoaster had no seatbelts

The basic idea back then was simple: get as many attackers on the pitch as you can and trust that the opponent will blink first. Some days it looked like freedom. Other days it looked like a team sprinting at a zillion miles an hour, then losing all control for the middle stretch, then trying to win the match again with a final burst.

The problem wasn’t just “we conceded a few”. It was the structure. Steven Gerrard playing as the deepest midfielder mainly because he could hit those passes from deep, in front of a shaky back four and an even shakier goalkeeper, was asking for trouble. You’re basically saying: we’ll outscore you, because we’re probably not protecting anything behind us.

And you saw it in the scorelines. 5-3, 6-3, 3-2, 4-3. Great for the highlights, awful for the nerves. When your wins need that much chaos, you’re living on emotion and momentum, not control.

December showed a different side

That’s why it’s interesting to point to December, when Daniel Sturridge was out injured (and another attacker missing for part of it). Without the temptation to throw the full front line out every week, the side looked a bit more balanced and the wins felt more comfortable.

It’s also hard not to look back at that month and feel we should’ve got more from the biggest games. There’s a memory of a disallowed goal against City, and the sense that Chelsea was there to be beaten too. The details matter in title races, but so does the overall feel: we looked steadier.

Slot’s lesson: control, or caution?

Fast-forward and the comparison with last season under Arne Slot is fair. The biggest issue wasn’t that the team lacked quality, it was that it looked leggy by early April. When rotation doesn’t come, fatigue shows up everywhere: presses arrive half a second late, transitions get sloppy, and even simple passing feels like hard work.

The worry is the “lesson” becomes: slow the game down, rather than share the load. Control is good. Managing tempo is good. But if it’s just a way of protecting tired legs instead of keeping the squad fresh, you risk swapping one problem for another.

Truth is, Liverpool are at their best when there’s both: a clear structure and the physical edge to actually carry it out.

Written by Something Red: 22 January 2026