Rickie Lambert Goes from Underused to Overused for Liverpool

Goals from Adam Lallana, Steven Gerrard and Jordan Henderson gave Liverpool three valuable points against bottom-of-the-table Leicester City.

Brendan Rodgers' side continued their mini-revival with a second win in a row, which takes them back into the top half of the Premier League.

Rodgers made three changes to the starting XI, bringing back in captain Gerrard, Lallana and full-back Javier Manquillo. Out went Jose Enrique, Joe Allen and Philippe Coutinho.

The shape of the side remained the same as in the last two games against Ludogorets Razgrad and Stoke City, with Gerrard playing in behind Rickie Lambert in the attacking midfield role.

Liverpool again had no recognised forward on the bench, with Fabio Borini—who hasn't had an injury declared—not featuring for a second game in a row.

That meant that Lambert played his fourth 90 minutes in row: four full games in 10 days.

When the 32-year-old started against Crystal Palace, he had only previously started three games for Liverpool this season.

All of a sudden, from being underused by Rodgers, the former Southampton forward has now been overused—and it showed in the Leicester match.

Lambert is clearly a player who benefits from playing regularly, but at the same time, he's not a player who can really play at his best level three times in a week.

Caught offside five times, as per WhoScored, Lambert struggled to keep up with the pace of the game and hold the ball up as required.

He did, though, work extremely hard up front and was responsible for getting Wes Morgan sent off, a game-turning moment on the hour mark.

Unfortunately, Lambert's match stats back up what was visually apparent and don't make great reading: zero shots, 69 percent pass completion, zero chances created, no tackles, one unsuccessful cross and seven from 16 aerial duels won (none won in opponents' box)—all stats via StatsZone.

This isn't Lambert's fault at all, but what is a worry is that with Sunderland on Saturday and Basel next Tuesday, Lambert could be asked to play what would be six games in 17 days.

That's a tough ask for any footballer, let alone a 32-year-old who had only started one league game before this run.

In the continued absence of Daniel Sturridge and Mario Balotelli, Rodgers has chosen to lean on Lambert and ignored his only other forward, Borini.

There wasn't even the option to change Lambert if Liverpool had easily won the game with half an hour remaining, giving him the rest he seemingly requires.

Not much has been revealed about the extent of Balotelli's hamstring injury, suffered while on international duty with Italy last month, and Sturridge is sidelined until the New Year—meaning Lambert may be needed to carry the Reds' attack during the busiest period of the season.

Rodgers has gone back to basics, dropping his new signings—bar Lambert—and grinding out results rather than blitzing teams away like last season.

The combination of 32-year-old Lambert and 34-year-old Gerrard may work against Leicester, but whether it can work in the crucial Champions League tie with Basel next week remains to be seen.

Much relies upon the pace of Raheem Sterling on the left, who also appears to be in need of a rest—the 19-year-old is Liverpool's most used outfield player this campaign.

Sterling was again Liverpool's biggest threat but was woefully given nothing from referee Lee Mason who, other than getting the dismissal of Morgan correct, had a terrible game. Sterling was denied several free-kicks, while Gerrard was denied a stonewall penalty.

Overall, Lambert is working admirably and certainly can't be criticised, but he may need to miss a game soon in order to get the best from him—a complete contrast to two weeks ago.

Two wins in four days, now for another on Saturday to set up the big match with Basel.