Allens: Resurrection

[dantes]

Gerrard can't play that role because he will concede possession by trying to force an attack. I wouldn't describe it as defensive midfield when all your are really doing is keeping possession and eating away the minutes until everyone gets so bored that they run around and start leaving spaces.

 

[dantes]

There was an interview a while ago where the person had the balls to politely ask Rodgers about Joe Allen and passing sideways. His response was "I will never criticize a player for keeping possession". Then he gave some lecture designed to excuse Allen and Lucas for being shit. But he has a point, a shit player who keeps possession is going to get us more points than a good player who gives possession away to a far better opposing player. Its simples.

 

[gkmacca]

This thread is not going sideways, it's going backwards.

 

[dantes]

I would never criticize a poster for keeping the thread on topic.

 

[gkmacca]

Allen wasn't bought for passing sideways all the time. Rodgers doesn't rate him for passing sideways all the time. Let's not be facetious.

 

[FoxForceFive]

Allen wasn't bought for passing sideways all the time. Rodgers doesn't rate him for passing sideways all the time. Let's not be facetious.

If we're all gonna stop being facetious we'll only have a few posts left.

 

[DHSC]

How long did Carrick take to establish himself at Utd? I see a similar path for Allen.

 

[ILD]

Rodger said that we can take a rest WITH the ball by playing it sideways from time to time.

Death by football innit.

 

[ILD]

How long did Carrick take to establish himself at Utd? I see a similar path for Allen.

Tricky one. They won the league in his first year though.

 

[dantes]

He doesn't pass sideways all the time. It's like an algorithm.

1. Get into space to collect ball from defender, whilst on the half-turn
2. Get ball, turn and look forwards.
3. If it is on, pass the ball to Coutinho
4. Else, pass ball to Gerrard
5. Else pass ball to Enrique or Johnson.
6. Else pass the ball to Agger or Toure, goto 1.

In any given game, 6 will happen several dozen times more frequently than 3 or 4.

 

[dantes]

Allen is one of the few players around with sufficient patience and a threshold for monotonous boredom to play in that role for Rodgers.

If we have someone who tries a pass when one is not on, it's suicide. It's exactly what Aston Villa were sitting there waiting for us to do and as a result they wasted 45mins in which they could have had us beat.

 

[DHSC]

Tricky one. They won the league in his first year though.

We'll win the league in Allen's second year though.

 

[DHSC]

As many posters have said, I feel that a Lucas-Allen midfield does not bring the best out in Allen.

 

[King Binny]

My main gripe with him being moved further forward is his sheer lack of goals. I can see why he would have a lot of the right abilities to be applied in an advanced position, I just don't think you can afford in todays game to have a player with so few goals to his name possess such a pivotal position.

I agree that he will probably not start to deliver until he is utilized in the same position week in week out.

PS As I am not familiar with his assists stats at Swansea, it would be appreciated if anyone could dig this up? @Binny

His 2011/12 stats at Swansea, compared to midfield partner Leon Britton

Passing

Defensive work

Creativity

Shooting

 

[Oncy]

Yup. A like for the thread title. Im happy to see this level of effort and hope that I have sparked some kind of snowball effect with regards to really trying with thread titles and not being fucking Idle.

I loved (yes i know it was my own) 'How do you solve a problem? Di Maria.' the other day, I laughed as I typed it.

 

[Dreambeliever]

Like Hendo did last year Allen is going to have to earn his place back and play himself into a confidence streak

 

[gkmacca]

It would be interesting to see stats regarding Allen's interchanges with Britton, rather than just a bald comparison between them. Quite often for Swansea I'd see Allen get the ball, find Britton and enable him to pass forward. Now in pure statistical terms that would show up as Allen passing sideways and Britton passing forwards, but that would not tell you really what was going on. Last night, similarly, Allen was moving across the pitch, exchanging several short return passes with the defence, because he was waiting for our static forwards to actually MOVE. Again, the pure data would just suggest he was 'failing' to pass forward often enough. We need to be a bit more sophisticated when we look at these kinds of comparative charts.