Chelsea ratings and tactics
- Thread starter rurikbird
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And all before he has reached 18 years of age. My God! Kids these days eh?
Shit. I forgot. Thanks.
Tell that to Di Mateo and other managers who change the way their team plays to double up on him .. incredible respect for a 17 year old.
i would like to see Sahin play the allen role for a game. curious how he would do.
I think he's excellent for his age. And in a few years time he might offer a cutting edge to the first team, at the moment, he doesn't.
I'd like to see Brendan bring in a couple of create, goalscoring forwards in the next couple of windows, then we could use Sterling from the bench.
*Bangs head against wall *
One of the PL's most exciting, creative talents, good enough for England but you'd use him as a sub ?
The reason is that Sterling, Suarez and the new forward will leave no obvious place in the team for Gerrard. And some fans desperately need to have the new guy in the team because that is the supposed solution to our problems. Therefore Sterling is somehow being re-imagined as a magical super-sub, purely in order to allow Gerrard to start games alongside this new player who will solve all of our problems.
It's a type of self-delusion. The fact is the new guy isn't going to improve us because he'll be a step down from Suarez and Sterling. We're shit, and our problems are down to half a dozen players being in the wrong positions, compounded by out of form goalkeepers, full backs, and shit marking. Just an all round shiteness in every position bar the attacking ones.
Rodgers should be addressing that right now, with the squad he has. It's possible. Instead he is deferring any responsibility until such time as he is allowed to sign this magical new guy. It's almost funny. Almost. It's actually Ostrich like stupidity by our manager.
I get the points you're trying to make, but I don't see how it's particularly worrying. We've said for a while that the one thing he needs to show is that he isn't stubborn in trying to shoehorn players into roles. If anything, we've chosen to be more direct in the games you mentioned (particularly Everton, Chelsea and Newcastle) and got more clear cut opportunities from it. Let's not forget aswell, the directness you mentioned was after us passing the ball around for a good 60 minutes and tiring the opposition, which I think is true of those three games - all three sides lost their grip on the game around the same point.
People berate him for a lack of a plan B, but then criticise us for going long or direct when it's worked and got us goals of late. So he doesn't have a alternative option one minute then when we adopt a different style and score, it's not pleasing enough on the eye to be credited. It smacks of being a tad too selective with the criticism.
I was never one to moan about us grabbing a point or a smash and grab win under Ged and Rafa in the bigger games, it's got us points and we got the most out of what we had and what limitations we had. The difference now is that by and large, we've tried to be more expansive in the lesser games. With a few additions that will be the key, the football that we're playing will hopefully have a cutting edge and we'll get the points against the smaller sides, and against the big guns, well if we have to see another roled up sleeves jobby and backs against the wall to frustrate and battle our way to the point(s), then we'll be a bit of a force to reckon with, and right there will be the elusive plan B that everyone keeps insisting we don't have in us.
Lol!
Yes, yes I would.
And btw, 1. he's not played for england's first team yet, and 2. I could get a game for them as they're shite.
I think he could be great one day, but for me, he's not doing enough as of right now. But if Brendan can't get anyone in, then fair enough, put him out there. But if we get to the end of the season and he's got 1-2 goals, and 2-3 assists, and he's played 30+ games, do you think that'll be a good return and was worthwhile starting him every game? As at the moment, he's played pretty much 10 full games and has 1 goal and 2 assists. I'm sure that's on par with bloody downing :s .......
You'd have Assaidi start ahead of him though, based on what? We nearly won the game because of his run across the backline and layoff to Suarez. He's 17 and already looking like he's played for us for years, his pace and skill will frighten defences and create opportunities inadvertently, and the more experience he gets the more decisive he'll become.
Look, I don't think it was me who criticized Rodgers for lack of plan B. Actually I don't think I've criticized him at all until this point. I can appreciate a pragmatic manager who can instill great tactical discipline in his players and win games by making smart tactical adjustments. I can also appreciate a manager who refuses to adjust to the opposition and is instead 100% focused on building his team's strengths and letting the opposition adjust to them. I thought Rodgers is the latter type, but now he seems more like the Mourinho disciple. And for me the difference is, if the team's playing style is moving in the direction of Barcelona with every week, I am willing to overlook poor results. But if we stop halfway and start moving in the direction of Stoke - and still get only a bunch of draws as a reward - I would be much less patient. If we are playing more direct, then what's the point of playing the likes of Suso and Allen (who looks horribly unsuited for this type of game anyway), why not go back to Downing and Henderson? They are better at this. Enrique is also better at this, that's why he looked out of place when we tried to play possession game against Chelsea, but transformed into maybe our best player when the game opened up.
Barca is like a wrestler type MMA fighter who tries to suffocate and subdue his opponent slowly but surely. Players like Enrique and Gerrard are like the fighters who are better at exchanging kicks and punches than wrestling on the ground. Rodgers started to train the team in wrestling and now we are going back to kicking and punching.
I think Swansea, with their style of play, will cause us as many problems as the Chavs.
That said, we just went to the home of one of the most talented teams in Europe and came away with a share of the points.
I thought we were slower than the last few weeks, too cautious (even for Chelsea) and, while Rodgers claimed the system suited the players I thought they looked confused by it.
With all that we still got a point, could have won it near the end with Suarez (and Suso) but could have lost it twice with Mata.
Their front 4 looks frightening on paper so hat's off to the back line for (largely) controlling them.
At this juncture I think a quote from a journo I don't particularly like for his self-opinionated column but his was one of three similar pieces, all in the same vein and having the same conclusion I read after the Chelsea game :
Yet who is so unmindful of those currents in football that spring up with arresting force on the most unlikely of occasions that they could ignore the significance of Liverpool's latest declaration that they, too, are on the mend?
It may be a long job and one ultimately decided by the willingness of their American management to back seriously the vision and the nerve of their young manager Brendan Rodgers, but in the meantime there is no reason to ignore the force of his team's recovery at Stamford Bridge yesterday. For some time Rodgers, despite a run of unbeaten Premier League games, seemed to be still locked in impossible odds against a team for whom the midfield axis of Juan Mata, Oscar, Eden Hazard and Ramires is promising new levels of superior touch and coherence. But then something remarkable happened. Liverpool, buoyed by another strike from – who else? – Luis Suarez, not only started to play immeasurably better football; they also looked distinctly like, well, Liverpool.
A Liverpool from a somewhat different age, that is. A Liverpool who could create authentic momentum and who on this day, which had for some time threatened a discouraging descent into futility, had more than the extraordinary Suarez to conjure a little belief in a brighter future.
Steven Gerrard, passing milestones of longevity as he anticipates his arrival in England's club of centurion cap winners, found again moments of striking influence. Raheem Sterling's startling precocity has rarely looked so securely moored to a remarkably old head. Jose Enrique supplied width and craft as the course of the match switched sharply in Liverpool's direction – and if this was just possibly a crossroads for the Rodgers project, who better bravely to signpost new possibilities than the near superannuated hero Jamie Carragher?
If it is his first season, how could it not be a new manager then?
He played under Kenny last year, who was instrumental in his signing and watched him many times
He didn't know rodgers at all
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