Jon Flanagan

[Fredo]

It was a ace, but he could have been in trouble for that with another referee.

Thought the same thing. He's a bit rash sometimes.

[Shaggy]

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Is old-school Flanagan the key to LFC-Man City?

Posted by Michael Cox

Jon Flanagan is a proper full-back: a right-back, a left-back and a throwback. English football hasn't witnessed a youngster in his mould for a while -- a wide defender whose most eye-catching quality isn't his crossing or his pace, but his tackling.

Few clubs' supporters cheer a local lad as fervently Liverpool fans do, and Flanagan is the archetypal youth product. His father was on Liverpool's books as a youngster but didn't quite make it, while Flanagan himself grew up on Utting Avenue, no more than 250 meters from Anfield, where you can hear the roars from the crowd on a match day. Flanagan has the Scouse look and the Scouse accent; his boyhood heroes were Jamie Carragher, Michael Owen and Steven Gerrard.

Flanagan has been given various nicknames since breaking into the first team -- including the "Red Cafu" (acknowledged by the Brazilian himself on Twitter) and more recently, "Flanny Alves." But neither of these are entirely appropriate -- and presumably that's the joke, because Flanagan isn't that type of player at all.

Cafu and Alves are classic Brazilians: attack-minded full-backs more suited to playing as wing-backs because of their incredible stamina and crossing ability. The majority of modern full-backs were adventurous wide players as teenagers before being pulled back to defence. There's a slightly rarer breed who grow up as centre-backs, before being shifted across to full-back. Almost every right-back's "second home" is either the right of midfield or the centre of defence, depending on their skill set.

Not Flanagan: He's naturally a right-back, but his second-choice position is left-back, the same role on the opposite flank. This is increasingly rare but makes sense for him. Flanagan isn't selected for his attacking ability, so the positional shift doesn't affect his ability to race down the outside and whip in a cross. He's a tackler, and if you can tackle, you can tackle from both sides of the pitch. "I concentrate on defending, as that's my main job," he says.

Making 3.6 tackles per game, Flanagan is the Premier League's third-most-frequent tackler this season, behind midfield destroyers Claudio Yacob and Morgan Schneiderlin. They're proper tackles, too, full-blooded challenges that get the supporters off their feet and put the opposition winger on the floor. Sometimes there's a risk of Flanagan going over the top, but he's not a dirty player -- simply a very committed defender.

The area Flanagan feels he needs to improve, in his words, is his ability to get crosses in and attack more. This would have been the standard approach for defenders 20 years ago, but today it's generally the opposite -- Luke Shaw’s crossing ability, for example, is not in doubt, but his positioning and tackling does need a bit of work. The same was once true of Ashley Cole, Leighton Baines and Glen Johnson -- and is still true of Kyle Walker.

Technical ability is generally developed throughout a player's teenage years, whereas defensive responsibility and tactical discipline comes a little later. Flanagan is the opposite; therefore it's difficult to judge precisely how good he'll become.

He could develop into a Liverpool stalwart for a decade or more and play in European Cup finals, or alternatively he might remember this weekend's game against Manchester City as the most important of his career. A Liverpool victory gives the club their best chance of winning a league title since before Flanagan was born, and the battle in his left-back zone might be vital.

Manuel Pellegrini is blessed with three options of roughly equal quality on the right wing -- Jesus Navas, James Milner and Samir Nasri. Interestingly, they are completely different breeds, which means Manchester City's approach will be obvious by whom Pellegrini selects in that position. Navas is a pure winger, capable of beating opponents on the outside before crossing the ball. Milner is a more balanced player, a specialist at protecting his own full-back, while Nasri is about ball retention.

A meeting between Flanagan and Navas would be fantastic -- an anachronistic old-school, pure winger battling a pure full-back, an unplanned tribute to the 1953 FA Cup final when the ball seemingly spent the entire game at the feet of legendary winger Stanley Matthews, jinking his way past the opposition left-back, Ralph Banks. You don't see contests like that in the modern era, with wide players drifting into the centre or cutting inside before shooting.

Navas has been in excellent form, but considering that a draw wouldn't be a terrible result for City, Milner might fancy his chances of selection. His problem, of course, is Flanagan himself -- not considered a significant attacking threat by Pellegrini, which means there's no need to deploy Milner as a defensive tool. Milner could be used as a substitute, as he was in the recent 1-1 draw at Arsenal when Pablo Zabaleta was being overrun by Lukas Podolski and Kieran Gibbs.

Then there's Nasri, who has enjoyed a fine campaign and would provide the right balance -- someone who can help City retain the ball, particularly helpful as Pellegrini should revert to his favoured system featuring two up front with Sergio Aguero's return. In a positional sense, this would cause Flanagan the most problems, and it would be interesting to see whether he lets Nasri drift inside unattended or sticks tight and prevents the Frenchman from enjoying any space.

Pellegrini's approach will be fascinating, because we've yet to learn whether City can win big matches in a cautious manner. Their usual approach this season has been all-out attack, but against genuinely top-class sides like Bayern and Barca, they've been outplayed. The most salient City match from this season, in terms of strategy, is the last-minute defeat away at Chelsea, where Pellegrini pushed Yaya Toure forward, played Aguero up front alone, and had both Silva and Nasri coming inside. That seems the best indication of Pellegrini's probable strategy, and makes Nasri a probable starter on the right flank.

But we don't know for sure, and that's the interesting thing about this mini-battle. On City's right flank, the key is unpredictability, but from Flanagan, you know exactly what you're going to get.

[Liverpool]

The fact he 'grew up' within a stones throw of Anfield is always brought up. Yet he lived in a lovely big house in Childwall.

[Fosterbloke]

That tackle yesterday on Milner!



Absoloutely poleaxed him ha ha!!







I LOVE tackles like that, love them.

I missed that!

[DannyMan2006]

Been much better than expected, still not fully convinced but I wouldn't worry about him being in the team. Happy for him. Needs to try and stop getting caught out at the back post though.

[Shaggy]

Pretty instrumental in the first two goals - him coming inside on to his right foot really helps us open things up. His assurance and composure on the ball is fantastic.

[BigChief]

Him and Sterling are great at relieving pressure by running with the ball. Glen used to be another but seems to have turned to jello now.

[rudedog]

He was good going forward but he let Snodgrass have a free header for their second goal, defintately something he needs to work on.

[Muddled]

Yeah, he should have dealt with it better, but that ball shouldn't have come across in the first place. Johnson and Skrtel could have dealt with the situation so much better.

[Roanmore]

Glen used to be another but seems to have turned to jello now.

How many times yesterday did he take it forward, stop, turn around and pass it back? Infuriating, put us under pressure.

[Fredo]

Think their left sided player pushed him back a lot. That was one key element in Norwich's tactics in the second half. A lot of their attacking play came from that side.

[RichC]

How many times yesterday did he take it forward, stop, turn around and pass it back? Infuriating, put us under pressure.

He was also instrumental in creating Luis's goal

I think he had a decent enough game whilst maybe not his best

[Bernardicus]

Give him no. 23, he's the closest thing to Carra we'll see for a while.

Obviously he's not a centre half but his overall way of playing and attitude reminds me of him so much.

[BigChief]

Just watching the game again, Glen wasn't horrendous but was clearly targeted. And it worked. They managed to pull Skrtel out successfully which resulted in crosses to Sakho and Flanno in the middle who were both extremely poor in the air.

Coupled with Flannos obvious weakness against strength (Demel, Milner, Snodgrass) there's a bit for Chelsea to work with. That's if they can stop us first.

[vlahka]

Flannagan is brilliant. Absolutely love him.