Lessons for Liverpool to learn

If Liverpool’s limp attempts to claw their way back onto level terms against Chelsea saw them sleepwalking to second spot, the implosion at Selhurst Park was the moment they woke from the dream.

Crystal Palace weren’t subtle but they were sensational in wiping out a three-goal deficit to draw 3-3 and all but gift the title to Manchester City.

Six months on and it’s tempting to feel Liverpool have yet to recover. Languishing in the bottom half of the Premier League, a defeat on Sunday would be a sixth in just 12 games this season – as many as were lost in the entire 2013/14 campaign. So has Brendan Rodgers learnt anything from that extraordinary experience on Monday Night Football?

“You’ve got to manage the game better than that,” Rodgers told Sky Sports afterwards. “The decision-making under pressure has to improve… Maybe we just got carried away.” It was a frank assessment of a game Liverpool had led 3-0 with a little over 10 minutes remaining. In fact, they spent much of the second half pushing for a fourth.

The positioning of the full-backs was particularly telling. Glen Johnson and Jon Flanagan continued to provide width high up the field regardless of the location of the ball. Perhaps motivated by an improbably desire to haul in City’s superior goal difference, protecting the lead was not in their thinking. It meant Tony Pulis and his Palace team always felt an opening might be available.

“We knew we could score goals against them because they play so open,” said Pulis. “They almost play a numbers game that they’re going to score more goals than you. So you know you’re always going to get opportunities and chances against them.  They’ve played very open all year. This is just the way Liverpool play.”

The problem was that once Damien Delaney had pulled a goal back, the atmosphere in the ground helped create a surge of momentum that Martin Skrtel, Mamadou Sakho and the rest never looked like being able to arrest. “Those two centre-backs are a problem,” said Gary Neville. “Once it went to 3-2 it was an inevitability. There was just too much happening. They needed support. They were struggling. They were just retreating and they’re asking to be hit.”

While either Skrtel or Sakho has started every Premier League and Champions League game this season, it is revealing that Rodgers has yet to start them together. Indeed, their only action alongside each other was from the 22nd minute of the 3-1 defeat to West Ham. It’s a recognition that something needed to change, even if Dejan Lovren has not proven to be an effective solution.

And yet, the question of whether the issue is one of style or personnel remains a matter of intrigue. For instance, Liverpool’s poor start to the season has seen them conceded 15 goals in their opening 11 matches. If extrapolated over a full 38-game season that would see them let in 52 goals – just two more than in their 84-point season last time out.

What Pulis refers to as a 'numbers game’ has been undermined not by Liverpool’s defence, which remains as porous as ever, but by the goalscoring problems at the other end. Their goal-per-game tally has more than halved compared to last season. The approach remains similar but without Luis Suarez to finish the chances, the team’s inefficiency is proving a major problem.

In 2013/14, Liverpool ranked among t