Liverpool vs Burnley Analysis: Why "Pass and Move" has Failed

View from Anfield Road End

Liverpool v Burnley 5pm / Jan 17 2026

There is a massive difference between watching Liverpool on the television and watching them from the stands. On TV, the camera seduces you into following the ball. You see the pass, the shot, the tackle. But when you are actually there, like I was at Anfield against Burnley yesterday, you see the truth. You see the space, or the lack of it. And right now, what you see is a team completely devoid of confidence.

We all know the DNA of this club is built on "pass and move". It sounds simple, but it relies on instinct. It is about knowing where your mate is before the ball even reaches your feet. It is rhythmic.

Yesterday, that rhythm was gone.

Instead of pass and move, we are watching a painful new sequence: stop, look, turn, look, stop, pass.

It was agonising to watch. A midfielder would receive the ball and freeze. Not because he is a bad player, but because he is terrified of making a mistake. He stops the ball dead. He looks up. The forwards aren't moving because they don't believe the ball is coming early. So he turns. He looks again. By the time he finally releases the pass, the Burnley block has shifted, the gap has closed, and the opportunity is dead.

It reminded me of an artist who has been told he is only allowed a certain amount of brush strokes per picture. Instead of painting with freedom and expression, he is overthinking every single movement. He is paralysed by the mechanics of it all.

That is what we looked like against Burnley. We looked like a team of overcomplicated artists, so obsessed with the tactical instructions or the fear of losing possession that we forgot to just play.

When you strip away the instinct, you strip away the speed. And against a low block, speed is everything. You cannot break down a defence by stopping and looking; you break them down by moving the ball faster than they can move their feet.

The quality is there. We saw flashes of it with Wirtz. But until the belief comes back, and until the players trust their first touch and their teammates' movement again, we are going to keep painting these stiff, laboured pictures.

We need to stop thinking, and start playing.

Do you agree? Was it the tactics or the nerves? Let me know in the comments below.