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*Official* English Football Season 2014-15
- Thread starter GIMH
- Start date
So harsh on Citeh.
Lillian Thomson
Hall of Fame Member
He was assistant to Noel Blake when he was Under 19 manager, so he presumably saw the two players there. I wouldn't suggest that Blake would pick crap players from former clubs for the sake of it, but there was probably a bit of bias.
Typical of the FA to appoint a nitwit like Boothroyd who's brand of hoofball was sussed a long time ago.
dontcloseyoureyes
BARNES OUT
How many times are we gonna draw ****ing Bayern. **** off you dirty German ****s.
Ikki
Hall of Fame Member
Actually, our record is pretty good with him as the holder against the bigger teams, funny enough. Disagree though, Gerrard's not Mascherano, but he's better than Kroos defensively. It's not his role to be that either.
I'm more concerned about our defensive line, which is still giving up stupid goals. The Real games will have a lot of goals I suspect.
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Eds
International Debutant
This is pretty good on Gerrard vs. Man City: Tactical Analysis: Manchester City 3-1 Liverpool | Efficient champions pounce on errors Outside of the Boot
.. and this sort of thing happens pretty regularly. It's not really a problem unless you come up against top teams though as Henderson, Coutinho and Allen are all really good defensively these days. But against players like Silva and Nasri that just doesn't really cut it.
Ikki
Hall of Fame Member
Obviously I don't agree with it. Saying 'Gerrard is non-existent defensively' when in that game he had the most tackles + interceptions + effective clearances is a bit daft. It also assumes Gerrard is a defensive midfielder, when he's not really. For the normal CM, his work-rate is still top-notch but he'll never have Mascherano or peak-Lucas like impact as a DM; unless he totally concentrates on the defensive side. Like Pirlo, he'll be relying on a lot of the defensive work in wider areas to come from his 2 supporting CMs. It's here where the distinction of deep-lying playmaker really makes sense.
I think Rodgers, like Ferguson, doesn't really believe in a true out-and-out DM. It's also pretty clear he doesn't like his holding midfielder tracking runners all over the place. The same goal we conceded against City with Gerrard not tracking Silva, was similar to the one where Clyne got behind Lucas. And, on the whole, I'd agree that you don't want your holding midfielder dragged around if his duty is to sit in front of the defence; though in that instance I think Gerrard has some blame for tracking him late.
I just think there's a recognised trade-off with Gerrard as your holder. If he was great defensively and with his passing (instead of being merely good and great in those respective qualities) at 34, you'd be talking about some freak of a player. I don't mind that formation even against the bigger sides, but there is definitely an onus on Allen/Henderson, or whoever are the two midfielders supporting, to cover Gerrard's sides. And that's where the problem was, not the middle. Almost 50% of their attacks came through the right side of their attack, which is inordinately high. They took advantage of the new LCB-LB pairing in Lovren and Moreno. It's also City we're talking about here; a team that scores for fun at home. As I said, when you look at our big games last season against the big teams, with Gerrard holding, we were ironically better defensively than against the likes of Cardiff and Stoke.
Also, the goal highlighted in the above question can't just gloss over a ballsed up clearance by Lovren and then Moreno going to sleep and letting Jovetic get in behind him. In this highlighted goal I actually like part of Carra's analysis on MNF. You can't have such a gap between your defenders and it was criminal for Skrtel to not push Lovren into that space as he was marking nobody. That's sunday league stuff.
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Ikki
Hall of Fame Member
Looking forward to the Spurs game, but Pochettino's pressing game has always given us problems when he was with Southampton. I don't think our team is up and running enough to counter them as well/intuitively as we did in the 2nd half of the season. The game's come a few weeks early for us; I think there could be a surprise. Or it could click and we score a few goals in no time.
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Uppercut
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You have to say it's sensible. We offload our worst-performing 10 and Dortmund get someone they know how to get the best out of.
I wish we'd worked a direct, precise game around him, and I think Ferguson would have, because he was so keen on offloading Rooney. But Moyes happened, then Januzaj happened, then we signed Mata and it's clearly time for him to move on.
He's such a unique player, and when he's playing well is so, so good to watch. It would be a minor tragedy for football if he just wasted away in our reserves.
I wish we'd worked a direct, precise game around him, and I think Ferguson would have, because he was so keen on offloading Rooney. But Moyes happened, then Januzaj happened, then we signed Mata and it's clearly time for him to move on.
He's such a unique player, and when he's playing well is so, so good to watch. It would be a minor tragedy for football if he just wasted away in our reserves.
