So let’s cut to the chase here.
He’s been shite for the first two games of the season.
He fucked me off to high heaven’s with that first half performance the other night, and so far he seems to have escaped relatively criticism-free for the 2 games he’s played this year, which have frankly been well below par. This isn’t a guy we bought in July remember. He’s been here for a few years now, adaptation time is over.
An aside though… So rightly, the focus has been on the defending (or lack of it) for the goals conceded the other night, and Clyne’s tackle-free saunter the week before. I’ve been as analytical as anyone about dissecting the reason behind the goals, but it almost seems to be the go-to discussion point after every game these days. As if nothing else that happens on a football pitch is of equal significance. I’m blaming Carragher & Neville for this. Hear me out here; two great defenders, two fairly fucking solid pundits, and plenty of minutes n screen n arrows to highlight and embarrass shite defending. All fine, no issues. But that seems to be all we’re getting, and the narrative is now centred for those 8 minute-analyses and the ensuing week-long support/forum-led discussion on why Skrtel wasn’t closer to Lovren blah blah blah. Not that they're not important, but you've got to score goals in games of football too.
Imagine it wasn't Carragher & Neville on there. Let’s say the two biggest pundits on TV were, I dunno, Bergkamp and Zidane. Say Bergkamp and Zidane ran Monday Night Football, interactive chalkboards n all. What would they have said about the performances of David Silva and Coutinho the other night? What would they have picked out from that game? That would have made for fascinating discussion if you ask me. To be blunt, they’d have highlighted and exposed an incredible waste of great possession and opportunities on Coutinho’s part. They’d have demonstrated time and again how he had great ball in the 10 position, how space had been created for him by Allen, Henderson, and to a lesser extent Gerrard working their collective cunts off to get the ball back quickly. By Sterling and Sturridge dragging centre backs out and up, and by the full-backs bombing forward to occupy Zabaleta and Clichy. That’s what good midfield and systems do – you have half a dozen blokes cuntning themselves to be able to get the ball to your creative man, and to give him space. He’ll do it for you then. Vieira talked about this brilliantly in that 'Keane V Vieira' documentary a few months back. Pires gave them fuck all defensively, offered up zilch. But they knew if they worked their arses off that the favour would be returned going the other way. The yin to the collective yang.
If your workers fashion up the ball for you, and your forwards create space for you, and you're in the ‘hole’ with the ball, then your job (if you're a player like Coutinho) starts there and then. That’s what you are in the side for. That's why you're picked. That's why teams work their arseholes off on the training ground. To break the opposing team's system, and to allow you the freedom you crave. Ball at your feet, defensive midfielder hasn’t got there in time, Sterling and Sturridge making darting runs, facing goal, you have got to do something.
Silva does it. In fact Silva goes one better than that, cos he also takes on the responsibility of creating the space for himself too. Silva’s my hero by the way. I’d kill to have a player like him in our side, in fact I’d go so far as to say we’d win the league if we had him. But anyway, we don’t, we’ve got Coutinho. Who wasted countless opportunities the other night. Time and time again in that first half he was in the position Brodge and his team would want him to be in. Space, 30 yards from goal, central, ball at his feet, runners everywhere. And not once did he make something happen. He amazingly made the wrong decision everytime. And lost the ball.
I mentioned it in the post-macth thread, and it’s harsh, but it reminded me of Pennant in the ’07 CL final. Never has one player seen so much of the ball and been given such space in a European Cup final. Never has one player made less of it. That was our Phil the other night. You don’t get much space against Fernando, Yaya and Kompany – they’re pretty good at tightening the gaps and not getting turned. You get 4 or 5 openings against them and make fuck all from it, then that’s an issue. That's what happened. I'd have loved two attacking analysts to have run the slow-mo video over that. Here's why you didn't win, because yeah your defence fucked up, but on the flipside you managed to get in behind the Champions defending midfielders - and you did nothing with it.
Same goes for Southampton at home. Wanyama had him all tucked up in his pocket. That’s another issue – if you can’t find space and lose your man against a mid-table side, then what are you giving us? The way we play with a combo of Hendo/Lucas/Allen/Can/Gerrard in the supporting midfield roles, there’s even more reliance on the number 10 (in this case, Coutinho) to be the creative one, cos those 4 or 5 supportive types I’ve just mentioned aren’t getting it done on their own offensively. That puts a lot of the pressure on Coutinho yeah, but that's the fucking job. We're not flighting to be good again, we're fighting to win leagues. Silva gets it done, Messi, Scholes used to, that's the level were at. Almost isn't cutting it.
So, we can highlight Skrtel, and Moreno, and the gap between centre halves, and Glenjo’s remarkable dip in form, but for me Coutinho hasn’t done anything near his role in the opening 2 games. And in a team shy of Suarez’s brilliance, there’s even more reliance on guys like him to create something for us.
He's been here 2 years now. Time to get it done.
He’s been shite for the first two games of the season.
He fucked me off to high heaven’s with that first half performance the other night, and so far he seems to have escaped relatively criticism-free for the 2 games he’s played this year, which have frankly been well below par. This isn’t a guy we bought in July remember. He’s been here for a few years now, adaptation time is over.
An aside though… So rightly, the focus has been on the defending (or lack of it) for the goals conceded the other night, and Clyne’s tackle-free saunter the week before. I’ve been as analytical as anyone about dissecting the reason behind the goals, but it almost seems to be the go-to discussion point after every game these days. As if nothing else that happens on a football pitch is of equal significance. I’m blaming Carragher & Neville for this. Hear me out here; two great defenders, two fairly fucking solid pundits, and plenty of minutes n screen n arrows to highlight and embarrass shite defending. All fine, no issues. But that seems to be all we’re getting, and the narrative is now centred for those 8 minute-analyses and the ensuing week-long support/forum-led discussion on why Skrtel wasn’t closer to Lovren blah blah blah. Not that they're not important, but you've got to score goals in games of football too.
Imagine it wasn't Carragher & Neville on there. Let’s say the two biggest pundits on TV were, I dunno, Bergkamp and Zidane. Say Bergkamp and Zidane ran Monday Night Football, interactive chalkboards n all. What would they have said about the performances of David Silva and Coutinho the other night? What would they have picked out from that game? That would have made for fascinating discussion if you ask me. To be blunt, they’d have highlighted and exposed an incredible waste of great possession and opportunities on Coutinho’s part. They’d have demonstrated time and again how he had great ball in the 10 position, how space had been created for him by Allen, Henderson, and to a lesser extent Gerrard working their collective cunts off to get the ball back quickly. By Sterling and Sturridge dragging centre backs out and up, and by the full-backs bombing forward to occupy Zabaleta and Clichy. That’s what good midfield and systems do – you have half a dozen blokes cuntning themselves to be able to get the ball to your creative man, and to give him space. He’ll do it for you then. Vieira talked about this brilliantly in that 'Keane V Vieira' documentary a few months back. Pires gave them fuck all defensively, offered up zilch. But they knew if they worked their arses off that the favour would be returned going the other way. The yin to the collective yang.
If your workers fashion up the ball for you, and your forwards create space for you, and you're in the ‘hole’ with the ball, then your job (if you're a player like Coutinho) starts there and then. That’s what you are in the side for. That's why you're picked. That's why teams work their arseholes off on the training ground. To break the opposing team's system, and to allow you the freedom you crave. Ball at your feet, defensive midfielder hasn’t got there in time, Sterling and Sturridge making darting runs, facing goal, you have got to do something.
Silva does it. In fact Silva goes one better than that, cos he also takes on the responsibility of creating the space for himself too. Silva’s my hero by the way. I’d kill to have a player like him in our side, in fact I’d go so far as to say we’d win the league if we had him. But anyway, we don’t, we’ve got Coutinho. Who wasted countless opportunities the other night. Time and time again in that first half he was in the position Brodge and his team would want him to be in. Space, 30 yards from goal, central, ball at his feet, runners everywhere. And not once did he make something happen. He amazingly made the wrong decision everytime. And lost the ball.
I mentioned it in the post-macth thread, and it’s harsh, but it reminded me of Pennant in the ’07 CL final. Never has one player seen so much of the ball and been given such space in a European Cup final. Never has one player made less of it. That was our Phil the other night. You don’t get much space against Fernando, Yaya and Kompany – they’re pretty good at tightening the gaps and not getting turned. You get 4 or 5 openings against them and make fuck all from it, then that’s an issue. That's what happened. I'd have loved two attacking analysts to have run the slow-mo video over that. Here's why you didn't win, because yeah your defence fucked up, but on the flipside you managed to get in behind the Champions defending midfielders - and you did nothing with it.
Same goes for Southampton at home. Wanyama had him all tucked up in his pocket. That’s another issue – if you can’t find space and lose your man against a mid-table side, then what are you giving us? The way we play with a combo of Hendo/Lucas/Allen/Can/Gerrard in the supporting midfield roles, there’s even more reliance on the number 10 (in this case, Coutinho) to be the creative one, cos those 4 or 5 supportive types I’ve just mentioned aren’t getting it done on their own offensively. That puts a lot of the pressure on Coutinho yeah, but that's the fucking job. We're not flighting to be good again, we're fighting to win leagues. Silva gets it done, Messi, Scholes used to, that's the level were at. Almost isn't cutting it.
So, we can highlight Skrtel, and Moreno, and the gap between centre halves, and Glenjo’s remarkable dip in form, but for me Coutinho hasn’t done anything near his role in the opening 2 games. And in a team shy of Suarez’s brilliance, there’s even more reliance on guys like him to create something for us.
He's been here 2 years now. Time to get it done.
