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Burnley (H) - Sat 15:00

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It’s happened about 5 times in the league. When i get time i can bring the receipts.

Fulham was one. Newcastle away another. Palace game too i think. Off the top of my head. All games we had to change in order to get a winner.

This line that you & @Hansern are pushing most is looking at two things (1. Trent starting at RB and 2. LFC top of the league) and assuming that correlation equals causation, without actually watching how we are changing our tactic mid game frequently.
Well it's a debate for tomorrow as I'm off to bed - it's after 03.00 here! I'd love to see stats though ( @King Binny ) because it seems my brain forgets details rather too quickly for my liking nowadays!
 
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Trent playing at RB or inverted RB - everyone can see he's not a very good defender and we have a problem on that side. Sure, his attacking prowess has more than often outweighed/papered over his defensive problems, but it doesn't mean it's the only/best answer to just keep flirting with danger. The answer has been obvious for ages, we just keep taking risks and then when it doesnt pay off we try to fix it in game. Rather than, you know, having the best of both worlds and playing a proper RB and Trent from the off.

When Klopp leaves it will for me be the one blemish on his time with us. Something he's never truly got to grips with and sorted 100%. To think otherwise is just a CDNW mentality.
 
It’s happened about 5 times in the league. When i get time i can bring the receipts.

Fulham was one. Newcastle away another. Palace game too i think. Off the top of my head. All games we had to change in order to get a winner.

This line that you & @Hansern are pushing most is looking at two things (1. Trent starting at RB and 2. LFC top of the league) and assuming that correlation equals causation, without actually watching how we are changing our tactic mid game frequently.

I’m more in the 2 losses in 34 games and 3rd best defence in the league camp in regards to why a mid season shift in position wont happen.
Trent is key for us from RB. Been so for 300 games. No need to change before the run in.

The talk of him being a bad defender is over exaggerated to the extreme btw.
 
Right, I am moving into 'goldfish' mode and forgetting about the shit show from yesterday.

We have a week to prepare for our bounce back. I hope part of this involves assessing the flaws in our tactics, but I actually have no faith in that and think we will be back to inverted full backs who have been quite detrimental to our play this season. I expect Gomez to cover for suspended Konate, but maybe Quansah will get the call up as Gomez probably needs a rest.

Alisson

Trent
Quansah
Virgil
Robbo

Endo (Hallelujah)
Jones
Szobo

Diaz
Jota
Nunez

If Bradley is back in training, I really think he needs to come back. We had a beautiful 4 weeks of forgetting about our inversion system that we had to change mid game in almost every match prior.

We didn’t forget about inversion - Gomez inverted on the left instead.

We need that extra man in the midfield or the DM gets overrun.
 
The inverted FB is essential to how we play, so the only way it’s going is if we play a double pivot at the base of the midfield.

If we do that in order to play a “proper fullback” then either pick which one of the 3 forwards you’re dropping or go with significantly weakening our forward press by pulling one of the other midfielders out.
 
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I don't think it's essential at all Stevie, I think people have become blindly obsessed with it. We did alright throughout January without it, then fell down like a pack of cards when trying to reincorporate it.
 
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Right, I am moving into 'goldfish' mode and forgetting about the shit show from yesterday.

We have a week to prepare for our bounce back. I hope part of this involves assessing the flaws in our tactics, but I actually have no faith in that and think we will be back to inverted full backs who have been quite detrimental to our play this season. I expect Gomez to cover for suspended Konate, but maybe Quansah will get the call up as Gomez probably needs a rest.

Alisson

Trent
Quansah
Virgil
Robbo

Endo (Hallelujah)
Jones
Szobo

Diaz
Jota
Nunez

If Bradley is back in training, I really think he needs to come back. We had a beautiful 4 weeks of forgetting about our inversion system that we had to change mid game in almost every match prior.
Excuse me, we lost! Your thread starting privileges have surely been revoked!!
 
Excuse me, we lost! Your thread starting privileges have surely been revoked!!

I'm fighting on four front hombré. It was a hectic Christmas period, too many scotches and not enough squatses. I am almost rejuvenated and ready for the run in.

Although if I have to start many more threads saying "i wonder if we'll learn from the last game and play a right back at right back" I might lose my mind.
 
I'm fighting on four front hombré. It was a hectic Christmas period, too many scotches and not enough squatses. I am almost rejuvenated and ready for the run in.

Although if I have to start many more threads saying "i wonder if we'll learn from the last game and play a right back at right back" I might lose my mind.
If you need me to avoid defeat against City just let me know. 😉
 
I don't think it's essential at all Stevie, I think people have become blindly obsessed with it. We did alright throughout January without it, then fell down like a pack of cards when trying to reincorporate it.

That’s the point though - we didn’t go through January without it.

The system we play has one full back inverting while the other gets further forward.

While Trent was out, Gomez inverted on the left allowing Bradley to get up and down.

When Trent inverts then Gomez, Robbo or Tsimikas play as a more traditional LB.

Gomez even inverted when he played RB.

It works because the inverted player gives us an overload in the centre, which means we can play through opposition press more effectively.

In theory that’s supposed to give us more control and make it harder for other teams to play through us. It also means the only way the opposition can match us for numbers in the centre is by pulling one of their wide players inside.
 
I mean, we saw last season what happens when you go with a single DM against teams in the Premier League - too much space for one person to cover and too few passing options to play through a well drilled press.

Our problem is more the risk/reward of playing a more direct style and trying to get the ball forward fast to catch teams in transition and utilise Darwin better.

We give up control when we move the ball fast and direct. We give up opportunities when we slow things down and give opposition time to re-set and we can’t catch them out in transition.

That’s modern football for you.
 
Referee and VAR team confirmed for this one.

Tim Robinson - ref
Stuart Atwell - VAR
Marc Perry - AVAR
 
I mean, we saw last season what happens when you go with a single DM against teams in the Premier League - too much space for one person to cover and too few passing options to play through a well drilled press.

Our problem is more the risk/reward of playing a more direct style and trying to get the ball forward fast to catch teams in transition and utilise Darwin better.

We give up control when we move the ball fast and direct. We give up opportunities when we slow things down and give opposition time to re-set and we can’t catch them out in transition.

That’s modern football for you.

The start of the second half against arsenal, there was clear instruction for jones to drop deeper to aid macca. Personally, i don't know why we don't just try the traditional double pivot, with 2 flying full backs?


Bradley ibou vvd robbo
endo trent

Macca can drop in for endo or trent, and we have szob, jones, elliott, gravy (urgh) who can all drop in as the 10. To be honest, the way mo plays cuttin inside, he's pretty much a secondary 10 anyway. Effectively play a 4-2-2-2? but with the inversion coming from the winger to the number 10 position rather than reduce defensive stability
 
All these discussions about inverted fullbacks like it’s something radical.

Some of you younger ones probably don’t know much about total football then.

Pep, Klopp, Xabi, De Zerbi and many of today’s modern managers who favour a high press all play some brand of what was once known as total football. Tiki taka, gegenpressing, false 9 - call it whatever you want - total football has been around for decades. Its basically where every outfield player is skilled enough to take up any position on the pitch and still be able to contribute to the collective whole. Nothing new under The Lying Rag.

I think in the PL, City comes closest to playing that sort of football. Any player can come in and slot in easily into any position and still be effective.

The Dutch used to produce some of the most talented players ever. Whatever happened to them now ?
 
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All these discussions about inverted fullbacks like it’s something radical.

Some of you younger ones probably don’t know much about total football then.

Pep, Klopp, Xabi, De Zerbi and many of today’s modern managers who favour a high press all play some brand of what was once known as total football. Tiki taka, gegenpressing, false 9 - call it whatever you want - total football has been around for decades. Its basically where every outfield player is skilled enough to take up any position on the pitch and still be able to contribute to the collective whole. Nothing new under The Lying Rag.

I think in the PL, City comes closest to playing that sort of football. Any player can come in and slot in easily into any position and still be effective.

The Dutch used to produce some of the most talented players ever. Whatever happened to them now ?

It different to total football. Everyone moves around and fills in for each others positions; here it's just Ibou covering for 2 positions and hoping trent can bother his arse to run back

If it was total football we'd see less of these issues, but other different problems
 
The start of the second half against arsenal, there was clear instruction for jones to drop deeper to aid macca. Personally, i don't know why we don't just try the traditional double pivot, with 2 flying full backs?


Bradley ibou vvd robbo
endo trent

Macca can drop in for endo or trent, and we have szob, jones, elliott, gravy (urgh) who can all drop in as the 10. To be honest, the way mo plays cuttin inside, he's pretty much a secondary 10 anyway. Effectively play a 4-2-2-2? but with the inversion coming from the winger to the number 10 position rather than reduce defensive stability

Like I said earlier, then you lose one of the forwards and you have one less player in the forward press.

Having Mo drop into the 10 position completely fucks our forward press - it’s the two 8’s - normally Curtis and Dom - that lead our press - Mo just isn’t good at that and it’s not going to make best use of his skills.

I think it’s a possible (or even likely) future formation when Mo leaves, but even then I’d give it 2 games against low block teams before the threads start about going back to 3 up front because we can’t score.

We’ve had an amazing set of results since employing a an inverted full back system - I don’t see why we need to change it on the back of one bad result.
 
Like I said earlier, then you lose one of the forwards and you have one less player in the forward press.

Having Mo drop into the 10 position completely fucks our forward press - it’s the two 8’s - normally Curtis and Dom - that lead our press - Mo just isn’t good at that and it’s not going to make best use of his skills.

I think it’s a possible (or even likely) future formation when Mo leaves, but even then I’d give it 2 games against low block teams before the threads start about going back to 3 up front because we can’t score.

We’ve had an amazing set of results since employing a an inverted full back system - I don’t see why we need to change it on the back of one bad result.

We've had a great set of results but it's always the exact same issue; the defence is stretched due to Trent not getting back to help ibou.

In games against a counter attacking side it hinders is, as we're short at the back against pace on the right side. Against more sensible sides they just hound our 6, like arsenal did, like city did, like Brighton did.

Our best period of success was when we had a right back behaving like a right back.

I'd argue that we've had a great period of results in spite of the inversion, rather than because of it
 
You wonder when we are going to learn that Martinelli will exploit the space vacated by our right back...
 
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