For many, there has been a belief that in order to get the most out of Charlie Adam he must be played as part of a three-man midfield, alongside players who will be able to cover for his shortcomings and in doing so allow him to do what he does best—break down tough opponents and create scoring opportunities.

After months of praise for being one of the best defensive units in the Premier League, Saturday's game against Bolton saw Liverpool's normally stout defensive line concede three against the side with the worst home record of any club in the seven leagues that make up the top end of the English footballing pyramid.

In the wake of Saturday's match against Stoke, much was made of the draw representing a complete tactical failure by Kenny Dalglish and Steve Clarke. The key failure in that larger breakdown was meant to be the deployment of three centre backs in a formation nearly identical to the one which had defeated Stoke at Anfield a year earlier, as in the eyes of many those three centre backs represented an overly defensive approach when facing a club with so little attacking intent.

In my post-match review cum pre-match preview in the aftermath of the 5-0 trashing we handed out to Wigan Athletic on Boxing Day, I had warned that the greatest danger Manchester United faced now...
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The past three league matches have seen Charlie Adam paired with three different midfield partners, with each new pairing leading to a slight shift in the focus of Adam's game. From a largely offensive effort when paired with Lucas against Manchester City through to a job as the deepest midfielder against Queens Park Rangers, it's meant an interesting—and surprisingly successful—progression.

Two exits within the space of a week. That is the reality of the season so far for Manchester United; one that started so brightly with good, positive football that had us all purring and brimming...
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It was a match that Liverpool should have won, if only they'd taken their chances. If only the officials hadn't overturned an offside Luis Suarez goal that wasn't. If only Kevin Friend hadn't given Jay Spearing a questionable red card or if only he had awarded a penalty and not a free-kick when Charlie Adam was felled as he entered the sixteen-yard box.

The last time I wrote an article, it was to describe a very troubling, disturbing and traumatic defeat against our neighbours, Manchester City who to their credit are making the right noises SO FAR....
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Yesterday we broke down Liverpool's winning goal, and while the focus may have been on Glen Johnson's run from deep and his fantastic finishing of it, the team effort involved in the buildup was plain to see. It might be fair to say that most goals, if you dig deep enough, are team efforts, though often that effort can either be fairly self-evident or, conversely, hopelessly muddied.

Dirk Kuyt draws Ashley Cole inside to cover for John Terry. Glen Johnson's run from deep catches Florent Malouda unaware. And Liverpool recover from a long stretch where they were outplayed by Chelsea to win for the second time in a row at Stamford Bridge under Kenny Dalglish. For some, Johnson's composure in the box and skilful, left-footed finish might seem one more reason to deploy the attacking fullback higher up the pitch.

On Saturday, Swansea's unheralded midfield trio of Mark Gower, Leon Britton, and Joe Allen overran their Liverpool counterparts, maintaining possession patiently and allowing Swansea to dominate for long stretches. They didn't, however, significantly outplay either of Liverpool's midfielders individually, with Lucas having the most effective passing game of any player on the pitch and Charlie Adam giving arguably his most controlled performance in a Liverpool shirt.

West Bromwich Albion marked the first time that Jamie Carragher hasn't started at centre half this season, and with it came the first chance in ages to see Martin Skrtel and Daniel Agger paired at the back. The long-delayed partnership, one many assumed Rafa Benitez intended to use as the replacement for Hyypia and Carragher before a series of injuries made it nearly impossible to imagine, put in an almost flawless performance.

Against Everton, Lucas Leiva only passed to Charlie Adam twice in their 67 minutes on the pitch together, while Adam passed to Lucas five times. By comparison, Lucas passed to Steven Gerrard three times after he came on for Adam, a limited data set but one that nonetheless would equate to a healthy nine passes across a full ninety minutes.

In a season that has seen more than its share of less than stellar performances while discussion about his future has pushed to the fore, the reaction to Jamie Carragher's composed performance at Goodison on Saturday was swift and unanimous. The club's official website, never ones to shy away from hyperbole, gauged the prevailing mood and turned things up to eleven when they skipped obvious choices Lucas Leiva and Jose Enrique in favour of promoting a Carragher every-touch compilation.

If nothing against Brighton or Wolves was going to convincingly answer the questions left behind by the Tottenham debacle, at the least fans could hope nothing that happened would make the players involved seem any worse. And if Andy Carroll's first positive performance of the season at least set out a convincing blueprint for the player moving forward, Charlie Adam's performance only left more questions despite forcing a Wolverhampton own goal.

Afterwards, opinions ranged from Andy Carroll having finally shown something of his worth as more than a target for long clearances to him having done nothing in particular to rewrite the gargantuan failure narrative he's been saddled with since arriving at Liverpool for £35M in January. Sometimes those wildly divergent opinions even came from the same pundit.

Liverpool FC overcame a gritty Wolves side at Anfield to end their run of two successive defeats in the BPL. So here's what I think won Liverpool FC the game....

A week after failing to impress against Valencia, Jordan Henderson again had a poor showing, this time against his former club Sunderland in the first match of the new season. As much as wildly overreacting and proclaiming the campaign an utter failure on the basis of one opening day draw is an unhealthy, reactionary approach, it's also impossible to ignore the fact that not everything went according to plan.

In a heady stretch of six matches between January 16th and February 12th, Raul Meireles scored all five of his Liverpool goals. When the goals started to dry up, some began to wonder just how important he was to the team's continued success—especially given the way everybody else in the side seemed to be clicking as Liverpool flourished with an up-tempo pass and move game and the goals poured in against everyone from City to Fulham to Birmingham to Newcastle.

With the tactical breakdown of Lucas against Wigan already well covered not to mention that it's been done it to death around here in the past it seemed a good time to take a slightly deeper look at just what sort of player new signing Luis Suarez showed himself to be in his first full match for his new club.

Divide the pitch into three equal zones: offensive, defensive, and midfield. Divide each zone into a further six sectors, three across the pitch and two deep. Zone one is the left back sat in defence, and counting right and up the pitch zone eighteen contains the opponent's corner flag as attacked down the right wing.

Four days since the January window closed?
Time for some new transfer rumours!

Is it too late to start a poll on which Liverpool player gets the first yellow card for a foul on Torres? Or how long it takes before he mopes when a call doesn't go his way? Nevermind. But hey, speaking of polls (woo!

Everything is connected. Everything is related. The system works because it is the perfect system for the opponent and the players are effective in their roles, not because any one player grabs the game by the scruff of the neck and carries the team to victory.

i.

In defense, three central defenders comprehensively negate Stoke's solitary target.

**With no real breaking news on the transfer front and Ed and I feeling as though there's little more to say that hasn't already been said, it seems as though it wouldn't hurt to bump this post on tactics back to the top of the page. It went up while people were already occupied with the initial Torres rumours, and an hour later the Suarez story broke and completely buried it.