Embracing their Lack of Strikers - Could Liverpool fit a 4-6-0?

The striker-less formation has been dubbed by many as the next tactical innovation to become a common sight in football in the coming few years. This inventive system originated from Luciano Spalletti's AS Roma side in 2007, when he was somewhat forced to play without a striker due to an injury crisis in their front line. This 4-6-0 looked rather similar to a 4-3-3, homogeneous to Barcelona's 4-3-3 which saw the false 9 Lionel Messi drop into the brilliant midfield of Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets. In Spalletti's system it was the original false 9, Francesco Totti who dropped deep into another creative midfield which accommodated Pizarro, De Rossi and Perrotta.


Brendan Rodgers has been criticised recently as his Liverpool side lack a goalscorer up top, and sit at 18th in the table whilst scoring 4 goals in 5 games. In his 4-3-3/4-2-3-1, the front line usually consists of Fabio Borini and Raheem Sterling playing behind Suarez who leads the attack. That aforementioned Roma side consisted of a creative striker in Francesco Totti, a goalscoring winger in Vucinic, who now plays up front for the Scudetto winning Juventus side, and a skillful Brazilian on the right, Mancini.

In Fabio Borini, Rodgers' has his Vucinic. Although the Italian hasn't displayed any sort of goalscoring talent in the matches we've seen of him, in his 26 games at Roma last season he scored 10 goals from a wide position. The 21-year-old also has time to improve and adapt to Rodgers philosophy, though his manager might not have much time if the Reds continue their poor start to the season.

Luis Suarez can also be the Totti to this system, he already drops into midfield in their current formation, and the Uruguayan is just as good (if not better) at creating chances than finishing them. Though he definitely isn't as good as the Italian legend, he has the ability to play a similar role.

The last player of this trio could also feature in the 4-6-0, playing Mancini's role. Both Sterling and the Brazilian share some similar features, they're both with good dribbling abilities and very tricky to play against, take this incredible goal from Mancini as my evidence.

Now this unusual system looks completely alien to the Premier League, where some teams are still playing a 4-4-2 and playing Stoke-esque football. However, you may remember that Manchester United side that played a system which accommodate the attacking prowess of Carlos Tevez, Wayne Rooney, and Cristiano Ronaldo. Ferguson managed to fit this trio into a very fluid system up front, as the three forwards interchanged positions regularly, though on paper it was a 4-3-3, the striker dropped deep often to create
space for his two other teammates up front.

Why it Suits Liverpool

There are a lot of similarities between Guardiola's Barcelona and Rodgers' system, the first one which will come to everyone's heads I'm sure will be their tiki-taka playing style. The man in the Anfield hotseat has brought the system which gave him success at Swansea into the Liverpool team, which focuses heavily on ball retention and fluid passing, two things you'll see much of at Camp Nou. Since the Barcelona side which used the 4-6-0 well played similarly to what Rodgers is trying to achieve at Liverpool, the latter should be able to make the innovative system work, given time.

The 4-6-0 at Roma however was used as a purely counter-attacking formation, as they would break using the flanks of Mancini and Vucinic. Even though this set-up is better used for teams such as Liverpool's for it's midfield.

The system which has 6 midfielders will also assist the side in playing their possession football, as they would easily outnumber nearly every team in midfield. This formation also requires support from midfield, which Rodgers has in the Anfield legend Steven Gerrard and youngster Jonjo Shelvey. Roma's 4-6-0 had deep creators in David Pizarro and Daniele De Rossi, whom Joe Allen and Nuri Sahin will be looking to emulate.

Though this system may take time to get used to, even more than usual as the Liverpool players are still getting accustomed to the new philosophy that Rodgers is looking to implement, I feel this formation could work, as it suits the Anfield side well.

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