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the_khl
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The spine of Reina, Agger, Gerrard and Suarez are all players with a rather well-developed winning mentality. Some mention Johnson and whilst not arguing to much here I don't think he's in the same bracket as the mentioned four players when it comes to the mental part of the game.
The new boys are still, well, new, so early days, but perhaps Allen over time could develop into a player with both responsibility and eargerness to succeed. I liked his comments after the Oldham game at least and he certainly doesn't give in no matter how crap he's played.
Rodgers mentioned a while back that we lack communication in the team and that's probably the main issue. Lucas, Henderson, Allen, Shelvey and even Gerrard aren't exactly the vocal types at least not when it comes to organizing and getting spirits back up. Perhaps there's a little leader hidden somewhere in Henderson but there's still more than a few question marks here.
The new boys are still, well, new, so early days, but perhaps Allen over time could develop into a player with both responsibility and eargerness to succeed. I liked his comments after the Oldham game at least and he certainly doesn't give in no matter how crap he's played.
Rodgers mentioned a while back that we lack communication in the team and that's probably the main issue. Lucas, Henderson, Allen, Shelvey and even Gerrard aren't exactly the vocal types at least not when it comes to organizing and getting spirits back up. Perhaps there's a little leader hidden somewhere in Henderson but there's still more than a few question marks here.
Yeah - I'd go with that - injuries permitting - and the exception being if Coutinho is good enough to dislodge Downing.
We need a SM with drive who can dictate our game. He need energy, vision and hunger. We only have Gerrard that can look like that today, and he really has shown improvement in form over the last month. But we need another who can help him out. The rest is simply not cutting it at the moment.
Allen - Nowhere near a solution to our midfield. See Rodgers were praising for the Oldham game. I saw nothing from him except that refløected shot. Misses simple passes, seem to lack the energy to drive the team, and is piss poor in his pressing of oposition.
Henderson - Been better the last few weeks. Seem to have the hunger, but is more the sergeant helping out and not the leader who take the ball, win it back and drive it through their midfield.
Lucas - Unfortunately he has a long way to go before he recover his match freshness. Smart player defensively, but not driving the team at all.
Shelvey - Has the potential, but has still some way to go before he can claim that role. it is a demanding role, and Shelvey need to gain more experience before he start dictating the pace of games. Can do it every now and then but is far from being a constant contributer. Still one with a huge potential.
Our problem is that Rodgers don't know what he wants from his midfield. He keep on changing and shuffle it, but that is not for rotation it is more because he can't find his best midfield. He has a real wish for Allen to fit in, something that hampers the development of Shelvey and Henderson who clearly should be ahead of Allen in the cue. And seeing who he brought in for midfield positions I am not sure if he is the man to find the solution at all. We are extremely unbalanced when it comes to steel and skill and we keep on adding to that balance sheet.
Allen - Nowhere near a solution to our midfield. See Rodgers were praising for the Oldham game. I saw nothing from him except that refløected shot. Misses simple passes, seem to lack the energy to drive the team, and is piss poor in his pressing of oposition.
Henderson - Been better the last few weeks. Seem to have the hunger, but is more the sergeant helping out and not the leader who take the ball, win it back and drive it through their midfield.
Lucas - Unfortunately he has a long way to go before he recover his match freshness. Smart player defensively, but not driving the team at all.
Shelvey - Has the potential, but has still some way to go before he can claim that role. it is a demanding role, and Shelvey need to gain more experience before he start dictating the pace of games. Can do it every now and then but is far from being a constant contributer. Still one with a huge potential.
Our problem is that Rodgers don't know what he wants from his midfield. He keep on changing and shuffle it, but that is not for rotation it is more because he can't find his best midfield. He has a real wish for Allen to fit in, something that hampers the development of Shelvey and Henderson who clearly should be ahead of Allen in the cue. And seeing who he brought in for midfield positions I am not sure if he is the man to find the solution at all. We are extremely unbalanced when it comes to steel and skill and we keep on adding to that balance sheet.
Some good points there, but for my money you badly underrate the shift Allen put in. A lot of responsibility was put on his and Henderson's shoulders with the formation Rodgers picked (which I was never happy with, not for a game like this one) and I thought the pair of them did as well as could be expected in the circs.
I agree that there were huge responsibility put on their shoulders. But again we were outmuscled in the engine room. We cant cope physically with other teams, and to be fair, this team was not exactly world beaters. I appreciate that our style is to keep the posession and paly around them, but to do that we need to put our physical presence on the game first. We are severly lacking in that department. The defence get a lot of stick, but the help they have received from midfield this season has been a joke.
It's not about that though. If you go down those lines, your full backs don't cross the half way line. If you have a good defensive midfielder, it allows people to shift positions and they will know they will have cover. It's about taking the defensively responsibilities away from more people and leaving it on one, allowing you team to be more fluid and attacking. It only works if you have a top class one.
With the additions of sturridge and coutinho it's become even more pressing for us to get a dm in.
Whether we persist with a fast-becoming outdated 4231 or Rodgers favoured 433, the inclusion of more genuinely exciting fantasy players demands a consistent and imposing defensive pivot underpinning the fluidity up front.
People hark on about Barca being a small team, but their recent success has always been inclusive of a physically dominant defensive midfielder (Toure/Busquets/Masher etc) sitting in front of the back 4.
Whether we persist with a fast-becoming outdated 4231 or Rodgers favoured 433, the inclusion of more genuinely exciting fantasy players demands a consistent and imposing defensive pivot underpinning the fluidity up front.
People hark on about Barca being a small team, but their recent success has always been inclusive of a physically dominant defensive midfielder (Toure/Busquets/Masher etc) sitting in front of the back 4.
it is also a different sport to meet La Liga teams where the opposition try to keep the ball, and just fall back when they lose it. Even in CL they meet the more cultivated teams from other leagues. To play a pure lightweight team in PL and think the likes of Stoke and WBA will wait for you to roll over them is a tad different and to be honest quite naive. These teams need to feel your strength as well.
We have lost of height over the last 12-18 months which makes us rather shit at defending anything that comes into our box, well that and the fact we apparently don't do any defence coaching. Agger and Skrtel are decent in the air, nothing more. Our entire forward line and most of our first choice central midfield, i.e. Allen and Lucas aren’t the tallest or the most physically imposing players we have seen. I'm not advocating the Hodgson approach to footie where you buy big donkeys and lump the ball to them, but our next centre half signing and DM signing should be excellent in the air.
We definately need more height. I remember one of the CL matches were we were reported as a Basketball team arriving in South Of Europe.
But under the current circumstances we need to close down the services given to opposition strikers. We let in far to many crosses. We like our full backs to attack and double up on flanks, but it all has a price. The physical presence is not only aboutr height and muscles, but also ability to run that extra mile to cover lost territory when the opposition hits us on the counter. Mascherano was THE monster for this. And he was 4 foot tall or something.
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