For about 55 minutes of Liverpool’s contest with Leicester City on New Years Day, everything was going pretty well for Brendan Rodgers’ team, and then Adam Lallana picked up a knock and everything went wrong.

Since a defeat to Manchester United and victory over Bournemouth in the League Cup quarterfinal, Dejan Lovren’s place in the team was taken away, and the 3-4-2-1 has been working. Against United and Arsenal, Liverpool pressed pretty well and showed an intensity that hadn’t been there since a 3-0 victory over Spurs – in August.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what’s been going really well and what went very wrong.

Adam Lallana:

His defensive work rate is world-class. He travels all over the pitch to the win the ball against each Premier League opponent he’s faced. Rodgers just has to make his talents become more fruitful and by changing the system, that has happened. Here’s a chart of the amount of times Lallana has won the ball back for Liverpool in his last six Premier League starts via ball recoveries and tackles:

Even though he reads the game pretty well, he rarely gets interceptions, which is why those numbers were left out. Instead of benefitting from his teammates’ pressing, he does the dirty work himself. Also it has to be noted that in the Swansea game, those numbers don’t include this:

With the Englishman, the numbers can’t explain what he does, because it is his ability to work that becomes infectious in the squad. If you look at the way Suarez played last season in terms of his desire to get the ball back so that the Reds could go on and score, we’re seeing something similar in Lallana.

Three separate games are shown here and Lallana is doing the same thing. The numbers above indicate that he is becoming more comfortable in the system, and note that against Leicester he only played 55 minutes. He likes playing down the middle, because he has a high soccer IQ and works well with Raheem Sterling and Philipe Coutinho in attack. Clustering them together allows them to interchange and combine. More importantly, Lallana now understands how he is supposed to press and the new system fits his style perfectly on both sides of the ball.

Emre Can:

The German is a versatile player, who had done a bit of work in the center midfield and left back, but also at center back for his former club. According to Transfermarkt.com, Can played at center back for Bayer Leverkusen once in a 2-1 defeat to Hamburger SV, and also played the position in a U/21 European Qualifying match against Ireland. The bottom line is his experiences multiple positions before hitting 20 (he turns 21 on January 12) must have helped him step in as the right center-back in the back three.

He is smart, physical, and very strong, but also good on the ball.

But it’s not just about strength, power and being good on the ball for Liverpool anymore. The biggest criticism of this team is defensive positioning. Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville have done some really interesting pieces on this topic, but things are getting better – kind of.

The importance of communication and knowing one’s role in the team decides so much, especially when it comes to the highest level of the game.

In a system where wing backs get forward and the center backs have to step up to stop the ball, coverage is even more essential.

Can understands where he has to be on the field most of the time. 

In addition, his teammates have gained a better understanding when it comes to covering for each other and knowing where they are supposed to be if someone steps up, which is common in a back three.

In the example below, Can advances pretty far up field, but Lucas is in the position where Can would have been to step up and stop the ball at the end of the clip.

Lucas’ coverage allows Can time to get back in position after his run forward.

This is a theme that ran across the squad in the match against Leicester.

Defensive Positioning:

On Monday Night Football, Lovren was criticized were leaving big gaps like the one below.

So the question became how Rodgers would close those gaps and get the defense and the midfield in-sync with one another. What doesn’t fit into the above clip is that Joe Allen blew his coverage for Alberto Moreno, who had gone too far forward. Therefore, there were two issues concerning positioning: 1) Leaving gaps 2) Not covering for one another.

That has improved in the past few weeks because the team has had more experience in the three-back system and the personnel is different.

From the Swansea match, there’s a sequence in the 21st minute where Jefferson Montero is out wide with the ball.

Javier Manquillo covers the Ecuadorian and the spacing across the back line is solid.

The only issue might be in the space between Can and Manquillo, but Lucas can cover that area if the Swansea player behind him tries to run into it. Meanwhile, Henderson has the extra runner picked up. If Montero cuts back and doesn’t cross, the defense can shift up and cover the situation without the threat of a surprise runner getting in behind. If there’s a cross, the three center backs can cover the three primary threats in the air.

Here’s how the sequence ends:

The good understanding between the players continues against Leicester.

Above, the spacing is good and the coverage by Coutinho, who gets back for Moreno, is solid. The positioning of the back three is fine as well, because Sakho shifts over along with Kolo Toure and Can, while Lucas covers any runners.

The shift of Riyad Mahrez is neutralized.

This happens again four minutes later.

A similar situation happens in the 51st minute when a long ball is played down the right side of Liverpool’s defense. Can steps to the ball and alerts Henderson, who was playing as the right wing back, to drop and cover. The Englishman listens and slips perfectly into the back line.

The result is Liverpool pushing the threat backwards and forcing Leicester to recycle the ball in midfield.

At this point in the match, it’s 2-0, but then the same problem Liverpool faced last season came up – defending too deep.

At the beginning of the season, Lovren looked like he was going to solve the problem of sagging, but instead the defense kept dropping off and gaps continued to be open.

It seems like the gap and coverage problems have been solved, but the Reds conceded two goals against Leicester from outside the 18-yard box, which rings alarm bells from the end of last season.

The first goal is scored on a simple knock down play. It’s a great finish, but Mamadou Sakho has to do better defensively when covering his man. There’s no reason for the attacker to get this strike off. In Sakho’s last few appearances he hasn’t done much wrong outside of this and his positioning has improved a ton from last season. Perhaps his injury gave him some time to watch some tape and increase his tactical awareness. He’s been excellent outside of this one moment.

As a result, this goal is less concerning than the second one, in which the team switches off. But when they do switch off, they do so in protective positions, which is a pattern and therefore a concern. Dropping off cannot be the default for the back line. It happens on the second goal:

Can comes out to challenge, but that ball should never get to the goalscorer. Mahrez provides the assist and there’s no reason for him to be able to slide this ball through. If you stop the clip with Mahrez on the ball, here’s what you get:

You’ve got Sakho stepping up to help Steven Gerrard in midfield, but Toure, Can, and Henderson are way too deep. If they step up, it cuts off Jamie Vardy as an option and makes Jeffrey Schlupp have to time his run a lot better. Stepping up would also have changed Mahrez’s mindset once he got the ball. Below, we’ll let the sequence play out from that angle.

Could Simon Mignolet do better? Possibly. Should Sterling have tracked Schlupp? Yes. But should Schlupp have ended up with the ball in that much space? No.

While just about everything was in-sync during the match, there is no doubt that this is an institutional problem that involves poor communication. Rodgers has done a good job at Liverpool, but he does criticize other teams for sitting back and defending, because it’s easier to do. I’m not sure if he actually believes that, but he has to set his own team up to defend better, even if they are more exposed than those who sit back for most of the match.

Over the past month, there has been noticeable improvement with the defense and that will have to continue for the Reds to make a run at the top four.