a m ole Posted August 21, 2022 Share Posted August 21, 2022 10 hours ago, Indigo said: Average positions against Bournemouth and from today. What a mess. Haha the funny thing is, that line up I made was a joke but it’s almost exactly spot on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a m ole Posted August 21, 2022 Share Posted August 21, 2022 16 hours ago, a m ole said: Scary scary scary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Made In Aston Posted August 21, 2022 Share Posted August 21, 2022 8 hours ago, weedman said: I just don't get his tactics at all. I assumed he'd come here and set us up like Liverpool and I was all for it. I think their system is the best one for normal teams (normal as in, not Man City with several billion to spend on whatever player they feel like), but he just doesn't. I think it's an ego thing. He likes the way Liverpool plays but if he copies the system then everyone will say he is in klopps shadow. So he has come up with something that is a bit like it but with his own tweek. A bit like Pinkman coming up with chilli flavoured meth in breaking bad. Its fundamentally flawed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted August 21, 2022 Share Posted August 21, 2022 What's Kamara doing wasting his time in no man's land? We don't do that here. Front or back, lad. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PieFacE Posted August 21, 2022 VT Supporter Share Posted August 21, 2022 The only thing that makes sense sat this point is a 4-2-3-1 Make ourselves solid, play with width, play our best players in their best positions. Pretty much, back to basics and completely rip up everything Gerrard has been trying to do. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted August 21, 2022 Share Posted August 21, 2022 9 minutes ago, CVByrne said: I really don't understand what formation we intend to play. We've two pacy wide forwards in Sarr / Bailey. We've three Centre Forwards in Watkins/Ings and Archer and we've two 10s in Coutinho and Buendia. We play ultra attacking full backs so need a 3 man Midfield to cover for them and with a CDM dropping a bit deeper we are easier to overrun in midfield. A move to a 4 2 3 1 with more conservative fullbacks and a double pivot in midfield makes the most sense for the squad of players we have. However we don't have enough steel to play alongside Kamara in that 2. It also means no real place for McGinn or Ramsey in that formation. So a 4 3 3 with conservative full backs and attacking 8s is an option. But you'd expect Buendia and Coutinho to not really feature in that team either. It's all very confusing. All that really matters is to fix the midfield you need two 6s in there and one 8. ..............and I am not disagreeing with any of that.....but in one on ones, we are puny....we prefer to stand off than challenge, and when we do challenge we are too late to the ball......its a mess. The way we set up and play is a real issue, but also, even in one on one situations, we are woefully inept. There is a serious problem with this team and its not confined to one specific thing, its a combination of flaws. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delphinho123 Posted August 21, 2022 Share Posted August 21, 2022 13 minutes ago, Davkaus said: What's Kamara doing wasting his time in no man's land? We don't do that here. Front or back, lad. So true. I’m sure Gerrard must be giving him a rollicking for not playing out wide as close to the fullbacks as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delphinho123 Posted August 21, 2022 Share Posted August 21, 2022 (edited) You can absolutely forget it if this is the way we’re going to play this season. Just forget it. You could go and sign Modric, De Bruyne and Kante and it isn’t going to make the slighest bit of difference. If you set your team up to literally not play anybody in the middle of the pitch, you’re going to lose a helluva lot more matches than you win. This is staggering. Edited August 21, 2022 by Delphinho123 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a m ole Posted August 21, 2022 Share Posted August 21, 2022 The set up means that 50/50s are regularly 60/40s for the opposition player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodders0223 Posted August 21, 2022 Share Posted August 21, 2022 4 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said: You can absolutely forget it if this is the way we’re going to play this season. Just forget it. You could go and sign Modric, De Bruyne and Kante and it isn’t going to make the slighest bit of difference. If you set your team up to literally not play anybody in the middle of the pitch, you’re going to lose a helluva lot more matches than you win. This is staggering. Fullbacks play as wingers and centre midfielders play as fullbacks. I'm sure Johan Cruyff created this philosophy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCJonah Posted August 21, 2022 Share Posted August 21, 2022 (edited) 26 minutes ago, PieFacE said: The only thing that makes sense sat this point is a 4-2-3-1 Make ourselves solid, play with width, play our best players in their best positions. Pretty much, back to basics and completely rip up everything Gerrard has been trying to do. It seems so obvious. Or if you insist on full backs being the attacking width then play 3 at the back. Edited August 21, 2022 by DCJonah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCJonah Posted August 21, 2022 Share Posted August 21, 2022 A few times yesterday we won the ball in midfield and Ramsay or Mcginn had to hold the ball and wait for someone to go and find space out wide. Once was Digne having to sprint down the line as he was in a defensive position. The other was Bailey having to push out wide because his starting position was so central. Slows everything down when we actually win the ball back in the opponents half. There's no options out where the space is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted August 21, 2022 Share Posted August 21, 2022 We're witnessing history in real time, the birth of the midfield underload 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regular_john Posted August 21, 2022 Share Posted August 21, 2022 I think we should bring Nakamba back into the fold. He looked absolutely fantastic when Gerrard first joined, was a shame about his injury. He'd offer exactly the kind of steel and aggression we're missing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted August 21, 2022 Share Posted August 21, 2022 Every squad is gonna have strengths and weaknesses. Massively simplified you build your tactic to maximize those strengths and to try and make it as difficult as possible for the opponents to exploit the weaknesses. We seem to do the opposite which I'll give Gerrard is novel. And it's not like we don't have players who are better-ish suited to the way we want to play who are stuck on the bench most weeks. No one, absolutely no one creates a tactic that leaves the midfield completely empty. Steven Gerrard: Hold my tea. Spent way too many post highlighting this flaw last season but then it was supposedly all Luiz fault, not the tactic. Liverpool after all plays with attacking full backs and look at them go. It's right up there with tactics Tim's extremely high line defending with extremely slow defenders he used against Arsenal and Southampton or whatever it was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted August 21, 2022 Share Posted August 21, 2022 56 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said: You can absolutely forget it if this is the way we’re going to play this season. Just forget it. You could go and sign Modric, De Bruyne and Kante and it isn’t going to make the slighest bit of difference. If you set your team up to literally not play anybody in the middle of the pitch, you’re going to lose a helluva lot more matches than you win. This is staggering. When we played with two up top and a 10 against Everton that giant hole was well covered by Coutinho. He played well defensively in that game. I don't get why Gerrard has ditched the narrow 10s and gone for wide forwards and left the midfield so exposed. When we play with one 10 we have a proper diamond and 4 Midfielders works defensively. Gerrard keeps changing the formation and causing the problems. With a Midfield 3 of two attacking 8s and a deep sitting 6 trying to cover the full backs and Midfield. You're setting the team up to fail deliberately. Either go with the diamond or go with a Midfield of proper 6s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted August 21, 2022 Share Posted August 21, 2022 9 minutes ago, CVByrne said: When we played with two up top and a 10 against Everton that giant hole was well covered by Coutinho. He played well defensively in that game. It did look an improvement, but it has to be acknowledged they're likely to be one of the 3 worst teams in the league this season 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted August 21, 2022 Share Posted August 21, 2022 Our average distance covered in a game is the second lowest. Only Man U worse. You can talk about lineups, systems and subs as much as you want. I want to know why the players are running so much less than their opponents? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted August 21, 2022 Share Posted August 21, 2022 I think it's easy to say we don't have a good enough Midfield three. When it's a huge amount about the system and the massive burden placed on the midfield with the system. The ultra attacking full backs leaves the two 8s covering for them and with a proper 6 in Kamara he's sitting deep. This leaves a gaping hole in front of him. When we play a diamond that hole is covered by our 10. Which makes Gerrards use of a 4 3 3 twice this season with wide forwards so baffling. He's trying to have us create more chances but he's gone from having two 10s covering the midfield to nobody. The only solution to our Midfield problem is to play a Midfield diamond or to change the way the full backs play so one of them has to stay back if the other has got forward. I can only assume signing of Sarr while we have Bailey is to have them be the flanks of a 4 3 3 with Watkins up top at times and the fullbacks not providing the width. We could play a 4 2 3 1 quite easily or a 4 3 3 if the fullbacks changed the way they play to the steering wheel system of one goes forward the other stays back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adman Posted August 21, 2022 Share Posted August 21, 2022 Just now, Vive_La_Villa said: Our average distance covered in a game is the second lowest. Only Man U worse. You can talk about lineups, systems and subs as much as you want. I want to know why the players are running so much less than their opponents? If you run around in circles I think it counts less than running in straight lines Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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