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The sub

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iseered

iseered

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http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/latest-news/rodgers-explains-tactical-change

Brendan Rodgers has explained the tactical shift that helped Liverpool overrun Wigan at Anfield on Saturday.

His side went on to dominate the second half, with Luis Suarez collecting his 12th and 13th goals of the season and Jose Enrique bagging his first for the club in a 3-0 win.The Reds were playing out an even first half when, 10 minutes before the interval, the manager decided to swap the impressive Suso for Jordan Henderson.

It is not the first time in recent weeks that an early tactical switch has paid dividends, with Liverpool improving after moving to three at the back at half-time in the derby and equalising after deploying a 4-2-3-1 formation at Stamford Bridge last weekend.

On his latest piece of in-play tinkering, Rodgers said: "I felt that the organisation at the front end of the field wasn't what I wanted really, and you make a decision in the game.

"You can let it run but I always try to use my intuition and what I feel is best for the team at that moment. Suso had some nice touches, he nearly scored but that's a part of the game. I just felt that I'd flip the triangle around.

"We were playing two and one, and I felt that it wasn't so good for us when we didn't have the ball. Then just flip the triangle round and two players going to join in, and that seemed to work well for us."

Match Stats — Team Stats
 
When was the last time we, or anyone for that matter, made a tactical sub in the 36th minute? Very encouraging too see, especially when it works out so perfectly. Wigan nullified us up until the sub, then fast forward half an hour after it and we are 3-0 up. I know it was only Wigan (who beat us at Anfield last year) but still think Rodgers deserves some praise.
 
iseered said:
When was the last time we, or anyone for that matter, made a tactical sub in the 36th minute? Very encouraging too see, especially when it works out so perfectly. Wigan nullified us up until the sub, then fast forward half an hour after it and we are 3-0 up. I know it was only Wigan (who beat us at Anfield last year) but still think Rodgers deserves some praise.
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I was thinking the same. I thought he got injured but apparently not. Good to see.
 
StevieM said:
The cynic would say most other managers might have got the starting lineup right instead of waiting until the 36th minute. ;)
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People keep saying this. Football isn't played on paper, it's played on the pitch and until it kicks off and unfolds, you can't account for absolutely everything, like how individual players shape up against their markers, areas we can exploit, areas we may need to protect more. You can watch the opposition, go off previous games and make alot of guess work, but until you step out there it's all theory. All managers, even the best, have to make decisions within games. Recognising we weren't getting a foothold in midfield was brilliant, because by sacrificing an attacking player for a defensive one, we became more stable and more effective and positive as an attacking force.

The same point has been made countless times on here of late, "he should just get it right from the start", well the start of matches hasn't been disastrous, we've just needed the occasional tweak to get the best from our squad, horses for courses and all that. Cut him some slack. It's amazing. He plays us the usual way and he 'doesn't have a plan B', he makes us go more direct and suddenly it's not easy enough on the eye, or he should have got it right in the first place, so ergo, he doesn't get the credit.

Yeah it's cynical, and incredibly selective.
 
There are things Rodgers has impressed me with this season, one of those being what Mark highlights, and the other being his consistent preference for players with skill and technique over those with experience or pure graft.

But there are things he's been massively annoying me with as well, the biggest being his inability to a strong-set functional midfield on any sort of consistent basis. Lucas' injury hasn't helped, but he needs to put some serious thought behind this and recognise that his playing philosophy will mean fuck-all without a coherent midfield. Especially when our attacking options are so painfully limited.

It's central to good football, and and despite what many are claiming, I'm not seeing much difference to how we were playing last season, and it's for primarily the same reason - a lack of coherent organisation of the front six.
 
The balance is just horribly wrong in midfield. I think a big part of that is a lack of Lucas and the fact that by adding Henderson to the mix, he's leaving two or three very good players further down the pecking order. There seems to be a bit of not wanting to upset the apple cart by dropping/moving Gerrard, I think the best option right now would be to drop Suso and play Gerrard on the right, freeing up a different option then for behind Suarez. So then you have the possibility of trying Suso/Shelvey/Şahin there and letting one of them try to cement their place in that role for the longterm.
 
yeah fair play to rodgers , he's made tactical changes in the last few games that have worked and earned points . And as mark said , sometimes you can't predict what the opposition are going to do or how things will pan out until you're mid game .
We do need to improve our overall play right from the start though , we're been pretty average but got away with it recently . We don't want to keep taking that gamble because we will be punished for it .

Anyway that's 7 league games unbeaten now . We still need to kick on though with these next 9 games until United , games which on paper are much easier than our first 11 (up to the chelsea game ) .
 
I love how when a manager sticks with his initial formation, it's "there's no plan b", yet when he makes the required changes, it's "well, he should have gotten it right from the start".

Speaking only of yesterday's selection, how many of us would have chosen Henderson over Suso to start that match..?
 
He's made a lot of good tactical decisions lately. 1. Playing Suso in his best position. Excellent. 2. Playing Henderson in his best/only position. More excellence. 3. The fluke discovery that Enrique is a good winger.

He has also resisted the urge to put Johnson back on the right or to put Sterling on the left. That has solved the two biggest problems in our first team so it's good he hasn't managed to fuck that up whilst correcting the other problems. The only thing he needs to correct now is Andre Wisdom. Martin Kelly is fucking useless right now, I would consider pumping him up full of steroids to get him fit again. The worst case is he fails the drug test and big deal, the ban would be no longer than his injury spell.
 
If it had been known at the time that the substitution was purely tactical I doubt anyone would have agreed with it. There was a lot of headshaking in the match thread.
 
I honestly didn't understand it at the time... But I guess that's why I'm not paid millions to do make those decisions
 
iseered said:
If it had been known at the time that the substitution was purely tactical I doubt anyone would have agreed with it. There was a lot of headshaking in the match thread.
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It was wrong in the sense that he lacked the courage to take off Wisdom, tell Gerrard to play right back, and kept Suso on the pitch. Then our team would have been stronger than the one he opted for.
 
I was gobsmacked.

I like that though. Kenny made te same choice I would have time & again, but it didn't work.

Rodgers is not doing the obvious, but it's usually effective.
 
Last year I actually thought our problem was that we didnt change things around until very very late in the game. Even if things were clearly not working after the first half.
 
FoxForceFive said:
I was gobsmacked.

I like that though. Kenny made te same choice I would have time & again, but it didn't work.

Rodgers is not doing the obvious, but it's usually effective.
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Exactly.

Considering we're short of strikers, rodgers is thinking outside the box.

I love it
 
dantes said:
It was wrong in the sense that he lacked the courage to take off Wisdom, tell Gerrard to play right back, and kept Suso on the pitch. Then our team would have been stronger than the one he opted for.
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Yet right in the sense we won three nil.
 
mark1975 said:
The balance is just horribly wrong in midfield. I think a big part of that is a lack of Lucas and the fact that by adding Henderson to the mix, he's leaving two or three very good players further down the pecking order. There seems to be a bit of not wanting to upset the apple cart by dropping/moving Gerrard, I think the best option right now would be to drop Suso and play Gerrard on the right, freeing up a different option then for behind Suarez. So then you have the possibility of trying Suso/Shelvey/Şahin there and letting one of them try to cement their place in that role for the longterm.
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That's basically what I want to see. Only instead of dropping Suso, he can compete with Shelvey (not Şahin who should play deeper) for the #10 position. Maybe Cole can also be in the mix. But the most important idea is that we HAVE to have one defensive midfielder on the pitch. If not Lucas, then Henderson. Gerrard, Şahin or Allen are not defensive midfielders. I think people who said who said we cannot drop one of our "good" midfielders in favor of Henderson should watch the Wigan game again. Hendo gave us balance and suddenly our attack was rejuvenated.

I agree that Rodgers should have gone with this formation from the start. But I'm glad he had the guts to change it mid-game.
 
Well done BR, I can't think of many occasions our last two, maybe three managers have made a tactical switch before the 60th minute.

regards
 
Having only seen highlights and not a full game for a while, how long do you all think it will be before the captain is hooked as the result of a similar tactical change?
 
Peter said:
Having only seen highlights and not a full game for a while, how long do you all think it will be before the captain is hooked as the result of a similar tactical change?
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Hopefully not too long
 
Hopefully, he shouldn't be immune on sentimental grounds, however i am pretty sure Rodgers wouldn't have the balls to do that.
 
Wasn't this obvious already?

And I didn't think it made much difference until Wigan gifted us a goal.
 
Didn't Mourinho make three tactical subs at HT before??

Can't recall the opposition.
 
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