It's all a load of nonsense.
Our team isn't mentally fragile, or if it is, it's largely irrelevant; it is footballingly fragile.
Suarez has been relied upon the entire season, and he absolutely should not have been playing against Oldham, in my opinion. Rotation was given some weird connotation by the idiot press, but you never see criticism from the other side of it. Suarez is not sharp because he's completely fucking exhausted. Too much of our play relies on Suarez, and his featuring on the left the other day completely burned him out given the run of games and international play. Many teams have players that contribute a massive percentage of their goals, but these players need their game time managed, as they are our most precious resource.
Without him, our attacking threat comes from our width, as Shelvey isn't capable of the same kind of interplay with Suarez as Sturridge is, particularly when Suarez is off. Speaking of that width, while Downing looked good today, if we're relying upon Downing, Sterling, Johnson, et al to score goals, we'll often be disappointed. It's a story we've seen before.
The reason why we are flat track bullies is because we play a fairly expansive attacking style that if we can get a goal up, or are given some space, begins to take on a momentum of its own as the opposition chases the game or gives up. Against decent teams, unless we get a goal, discipline and pressing can frustrate us. We don't have the technical ability to constantly retain the ball, and our passing tempo is frustrated by better defenders.
Worse, when we lose the ball, we can be carved open by the most basic of counter play. There is ample space behind our midfield when our possession breaks down, and our one on one defending, which is not a position you want to be in anyway, is god awful. Even worse, we are easy to score against with any sort of set piece.
If you don't have enough depth in attacking talent, and are overreliant on the form of one or two players, and you are easy to score on on the counter or from a set piece, there's only one to play against you. West Brom did it this time, but there have been too many humiliations to even remember at this point.
Our team isn't mentally fragile, or if it is, it's largely irrelevant; it is footballingly fragile.
Suarez has been relied upon the entire season, and he absolutely should not have been playing against Oldham, in my opinion. Rotation was given some weird connotation by the idiot press, but you never see criticism from the other side of it. Suarez is not sharp because he's completely fucking exhausted. Too much of our play relies on Suarez, and his featuring on the left the other day completely burned him out given the run of games and international play. Many teams have players that contribute a massive percentage of their goals, but these players need their game time managed, as they are our most precious resource.
Without him, our attacking threat comes from our width, as Shelvey isn't capable of the same kind of interplay with Suarez as Sturridge is, particularly when Suarez is off. Speaking of that width, while Downing looked good today, if we're relying upon Downing, Sterling, Johnson, et al to score goals, we'll often be disappointed. It's a story we've seen before.
The reason why we are flat track bullies is because we play a fairly expansive attacking style that if we can get a goal up, or are given some space, begins to take on a momentum of its own as the opposition chases the game or gives up. Against decent teams, unless we get a goal, discipline and pressing can frustrate us. We don't have the technical ability to constantly retain the ball, and our passing tempo is frustrated by better defenders.
Worse, when we lose the ball, we can be carved open by the most basic of counter play. There is ample space behind our midfield when our possession breaks down, and our one on one defending, which is not a position you want to be in anyway, is god awful. Even worse, we are easy to score against with any sort of set piece.
If you don't have enough depth in attacking talent, and are overreliant on the form of one or two players, and you are easy to score on on the counter or from a set piece, there's only one to play against you. West Brom did it this time, but there have been too many humiliations to even remember at this point.
