Right now everyone is pointing their fingers at every single player at Liverpool, laying the blame on who ever they think is the easiest target for that day. I do not think it needs a rocket scientist right now to figure out that one of our biggest problems is on the left side of our midfield.
Joe Cole has been deployed in that role for the last couple of games and he does not seem comfortable, let alone happy out there. I recall when Joe signed for us in the summer, he was looking forward to playing in a more central role which he claims is his most favoured position. In the early part of his time at Liverpool, he has had a couple of games in that central role behind the striker and he has look decent there. But he is up against Steven Gerrard for that position and we know that Gerrard will be the first name in that position all the time. Thus Cole has been forced to still remain in the team but playing out on the left.
Cole does not give us the width we need down the left as he is always drifting infield and making it easy for opposition defenders to pick him up. Just look at the game against Blackburn where Maxi actually stayed wide on the right and how much better he looked and the team looked. Now if we can have Maxi continue to do that on the right and then the same on the left we would look much better.
In the summer I thought that Jovanovi? was going to be our answer down the left. He got a run down the left in the early games during the season but he has not covered himself in much glory. I thought he would be a more attack minded wing wizard but he is just full of work like Dirk and not giving us much going forward thus Roy has had to stick it out with Cole in that position. There is also the option of having Babel out on the left but that to me is just a non-starter as I do not rate Babel at all and he would be the first name I would want to see leave Liverpool if I was in-charge.
So what does Roy do now with our problem down the left? Does he stick with Cole out there and instruct him to hug the left touchline at all times? This problem is not something new to us, we have had a problem with our left midfield for many seasons now, so I do not expect it to change for the better any time soon, but something has to be done.