Last Updated: Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:27
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers admits he is tinkering with players' roles in an attempt to get more goals out of the team.
In recent weeks the experiment of pushing full-back Jose Enrique further forward has been a qualified success, with the Spaniard scoring one and providing some much-needed attacking impetus. But injury to teenager Andre Wisdom has seen Glen Johnson revert to his more right-sided role and winger Stewart Downing come in as cover on the left of defence with less success.
Downing was culpable for Tottenham's opening goal in Wednesday night's 2-1 defeat at White Hart Lane after being caught ball-watching to allow Aaron Lennon to sneak in behind him. The decision to drop the England international, who cannot get into the team in his preferred role, back into defence has been questioned by critics. But Rodgers insisted it was a means to an end and hoped, like Enrique, it would revitalise the 28-year-old while assisting the team.
"Sometimes that can take the pressure off," said the Reds boss. "In the modern-day game the full-backs are very much offensive players, although they have to defend. It is not a position which is new to him and he gets forward and serves the ball well from it.
"I would never put a player in a position where it doesn't benefit the team and that he doesn't want to play in because there is no reward for that. He is comfortable playing in it and it means Jose Enrique doesn't have to cover the whole pitch.
"We are just trying to find, because of the shallowness of the group, different solutions which allow us to attack and defend well."
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