22 March2014 22 Date: 22 March 2014 Western Mail Sunday Times Sun Telegraph Telegraph Opposition: Cardiff City BBC Observer Times Mirror Echo Sun Independent Guardian Mail Competition: League Rodgers sees the power but still demands more Johnson says Liverpool are the people's choice for title Cardiff City Mutch 9, 88, Campbell 25 3 There was a time when the majority of football fans were sick to death of the Liverpool Suarez 16, 60, 90+6, Skrtel 41, 54, Sturridge 75 6 sight of Liverpool parading league titles and dominating the domestic scene but it Referee N Swarbrick Attendance 28,018 is a measure of how much the landscape has changed over the last couple of Total football. Brendan Rodgers did not use the phrase, but as he reviewed the decades that Glen Johnson may well have captured the public mood when he said tactical and technical background to the latest demonstration of Liverpool's brutal Brendan Rodgers' team would be the people's choice to finish top this year. attacking power, the explanation he offered for what had just transpired was While Manchester United and Everton supporters will shake their head at those wholly in keeping with the Dutch philosophy of interchangeable positions and sentiments, within football there is no shortage of admiration for the structural fluidity. way Liverpool are playing right now. It is hard not to warm to a team that gives "There was a great moment whenever Steven Gerrard filled in at right back and the impression there is little point worrying about keeping clean sheets when Glen Johnson played in midfield for a little period," the Liverpool manager said. goals come so easily at the other end. Liverpoolhave won their last six league "That's what we talk about. It doesn't matter where you are on the field when you matches and racked up 24 goals in the process. change, as long as you fill the spaces. Another three points against Sunderland at Anfield on Wednesday night and the "I saw areas that we've developed on the training field: full backs going inside; club that has not won a league title since 1990 will be breathing down Chelsea's there were moments Johnson was inside, becoming a midfield player, and Jordan neck. "I think just to spice things up the neutrals would want to see us win it," Henderson was outside, so it bodes well for us." Johnson said. "Nobody wants the same teams to be winning it over and over Twelve months ago, Rodgers was all too often held up to ridicule for daring to be again. descriptive about his football ideals, terms such as "nine and a half" and "flipping "I guess the neutrals will be packing a punch for us. We must be good to watch. the triangle" being frowned upon by his detractors. Now, with Liverpool riding the People watch football to enjoy themselves, see goals and see exciting football and crest of a wave, his methodology is lauded. I think we do provide that. I think people will be rooting for us because it will be Winning changes everything, of course, and in the case of Rodgers it has altered something different." the perception of him beyond all recognition. Converts have been won over by a While Liverpool's emergence as authentic title contenders was not exactly in the slew of evidence supporting the growing sense that the body of work he is script, there has always been a quiet confidence among Rodgers' squad about responsible for could turn out to be among the most significant at an English club what they could achieve. "I'm not that surprised," Johnson said. "Even last season in recent times. Certainly, Liverpool's firepower and ability to attack from all we were battering teams but not getting the goals. At the moment we are playing angles is a thing of wonder, as Cardiff City became the latest to learn to their cost. well and getting the goals. It's a case of staying calm, really. As long as we keep The six goals that Liverpool scored on Saturday -- a third hat-trick of the season going week by week, winning our games, we know we will be there or for Luis Suarez, a brace for Martin Skrtel and a solitary strike for Daniel Sturridge - thereabouts." - took their total for the season to 82. With eight games remaining, a century of The one obvious chink in Liverpool's armour is their porous defence. Two goals league goals, which they have achieved only once in their history, in 1895-96, is a from Jordon Mutch here and another from Fraizer Campbell exposed Liverpool's genuine possibility. Their average of 2.73 goals per game means that Liverpool are limitations in that department - they have shipped 38 goals in 30 matches. level with Tottenham Hotspur's double winning side of 1960-61 as English To put that record into context there has been only one occasion in the past 13 football's most prolific team. seasons when the Premier League champions have conceded more than a goal Such statistics are remarkable, but it is the visible effect that Liverpool are having per game. on opponents that is most remarkable. "I know as a manager that when you are On the other side of the coin, rarely has a team produced such exhilarating stood on the touchline, the thing you fear in a game is the opponent and their attacking play and scored so freely. Liverpoolare on course to top 100 Premier offensive threat. That's the thing that you fear most as a manager," Rodgers said, League goals this season, largely thanks to Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge. his empathy surpassed only by pride. "You are playing against a team that you Suarez's third hat-trick of the campaign, which meant he has equalled Robbie know can score from anywhere, any angle, and a team that can dominate the Fowler's 28-goal record for a LiverpoolPremier League season, and Sturridge's ball." second-half strike means that Liverpool's front two have contributed a In the early stages, Cardiff showed none of the fear that would later engulf them. remarkable 47 Premier League goals between them. Having twice taken the lead through Jordon Mutch and Fraizer Campbell, theirs, Reflecting on Liverpool's firepower, Rodgers sounded as if he is almost starting to initially at least, was a performance that would give Ole Gunnar Solskjaer hope feel a degree of sympathy for his opposite number, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. "I know that relegation can be avoided. as a manager that, when you are stood on the touchline, the thing you fear most Spirited, effective and creative, Cardiff threatened to prevent Liverpool from is the opponent and their offensive threat," the Liverpool manager said. "You are extending their winning run to six games, but once their opponents settled, playing against a team that you know can score from anywhere, any angle, and a started to play and began to make incisions, the outcome became inevitable. team that can dominate the ball." "I sensed that," Rodgers said. "If you think back to when I first came in, there was It is also a team that has learned to remain calm in the face of adversity and stay always a panic. We played last-five-minutes football with 70 minutes to go. When true to the passing principles that Rodgers has worked hard to ingrain since taking I first came in, we lost the composure. I think there's now an inherent belief in the over. "If you think back to when I first came in, there was always a panic, we team." played last-five-minutes football with 70 minutes to go. We lost the composure," "You can't give them anything," Solskjaer said. "When they get to 3-2 and 4-2, Rodgers said. "I think there's now an inherent belief in the team." that is when they start to enjoy themselves. They are good at keeping the ball and For Cardiff the stakes are every bit as high at the other end of the table. Solskjaer they counter-attack when you get your pressing wrong. They sprint in behind was bitterly disappointed that Martin Skrtel scored his second goal when Cardiff you." were down to nine men, with Mutch and Kevin Theophile-Catherine waiting to The only concern for Rodgers as Liverpool reaffirmed their title credentials was come back on after receiving treatment, but the Norwegian could have no that the defensive shortcomings that could yet undermine them made an complaints about the final outcome. unwelcome return. The defeat leaves Cardiff second from bottom and facing a game of huge Mutch's second goal came too late to be anything other than a consolation, but in significance at West Bromwich Albion on Saturday. "We don't want plaudits for its nature -- an opponent left unmarked in the six-yard box to nod past a giving Liverpool a game; we need points," the Cardiff manager said. "We've got goalkeeper who had been left exposed by those in front of him -- it underlined seven games to get four more points than the two teams in front of us. We are why Rodgers continues to seek improvement from his defence. definitely running out of time. I don't know if it is going to require four more wins. "I think we showed our power in the offensive game today," he said. "We can be I actually think it might be less. But the game against West Brom is not negotiable.