Could have also called this the kneejerk thread.
I've been livid with how we've played the last couple games. Most of the criticism I see seems to center around a lack of application, or perhaps running the shine off some of the legs we bought this summer.
For me, I just don't see a system that produces goals in possession in a balanced way. The counterattacking goals aren't an issue, we have lots of midfielders who can turn and pass. We have one incredibly fast player, and the rest aren't slow. We look fine down a man. And that's the thing, I bet we'd have done better if Endo was sent off in this game, genuinely, because the idiots who just want to attack would be forced to have it in their mind to be more disciplined, and we'd counter.
Also, a man down, we couldn't have afforded the luxury of giving Trent that "quarterback" role. There's a reason that term has an American football name by the way. It's a stupid, inefficient thing for a team to do. When we shat on teams from a great height, VVD had that outlet ball. It didn't need to crack a defense, because that's always going to be low percentage stuff. It was during the Gerrard to Owen days, and he was a better finisher than all of our lot now. A CB can do what a "quarterback" can do. Having a different long passing deep lying midfielder confers only a marginal improvement, and removes that player from the game elsewhere. It's the opposite of total football. When Xabi Alonso did that for us we weren't a well-balanced, cohesive football team, and he was a midfielder. Now that we are doing it with a right back our team looks stupid on paper and on the pitch.
Trent goes there now, and we have what? A double pivot and two AMs? Perversely, in this new dildo formation on the ball, we are easier to beat down the middle somehow. I don't have a problem with it as a rule, but I do have a problem with it being a rule! It's a shape we should morph into when we are completely swanking a game and have possession. It's something we should try to change things up. It's supposed to be a flexible way of us getting different options, but instead I think it's as though we've abandoned some of the simple play that actually won us a lot of things down the flanks.
Harvey has got all sorts of credit for his performances, especially coming into games. He's been fine. Just fine, but part of why he attracts the eye is because he plays for a fucking cross sometimes, and isn't averse to using the flanks. Trent, especially in the last match, but also in this one, had fucking acres to exploit. Perhaps that isn't the plan, but if you are congesting the center so much, if you've got Salah inside right now, and not hugging wide, then someone has to use that space. That used to be the space we were trying to make with our system. Now we are given it and we won't take the gift.
When Salah does stay out right, he is fucking woeful. He can't do anything from there. Nothing. He isn't running down the wing. He's getting dispossessed. But who is out there for him to play off now that he can't beat a fullback? No one is having any fun with him at all. It's utterly one dimensional and pointless.
That someone can't be harvey elliot every time. It could be Szoboslai, who has good delivery, and good mobility, despite trailing along a gaggle of pundits constantly sucking his dick for some reason I can't discern. As pedestrian as Henderson was on the ball, and by god he was limited, at least he knew where the party was at. He'd hip it over there and play with the other much better players when we had to. He'd do a little dribble, bless him. They'd all create space and drive a cross. Nope, when Szobo receives the ball on the wing, it's deeper and only to gain the opposition half. Once we are there, his instinct is to go all AM-y, or take a really powerful, really low percentage shot. Mac Allister doesn't want to go out there, and just behind it all, it's the trent show, where we see an astonishing range of passing from his wonderful right foot.
And, even though he hailed a taxi while his man ran by him clear through onto goal, and even though he has the same attacking bias that imbalances our midfield throughout, there's no doubt that even on a bad day, his right foot is something to behold. He's got it all and it's all so effortless. My god, that's it, we've cracked it. How about he heads over, from time to time, of course, to the giant fucking vacuous space on the right and hits a cross at 900mphs onto someone's head?
Why can't he be a hybrid player on both ends of the pitch. Why does he go from RB to "Deep lying playmaker" but doesn't go from CM when pressed up into RW? It's not like his crosses don't look lethal when he's doing it. It's not like we don't have finishers in the box. We have two decent headers in Nunez and Jota. Why wouldn't we want a historically good crosser crossing balls? Why wouldn't we want defenders to have hard decisions to make? Toulouse basically had to defend everything from one side of the box to the other, all centrally, and they near enough fucked that up, but it was an easy ask. Same for Luton.
It's not even like we are reinventing the wheel here. It's like we forgot how we roll.
I've been livid with how we've played the last couple games. Most of the criticism I see seems to center around a lack of application, or perhaps running the shine off some of the legs we bought this summer.
For me, I just don't see a system that produces goals in possession in a balanced way. The counterattacking goals aren't an issue, we have lots of midfielders who can turn and pass. We have one incredibly fast player, and the rest aren't slow. We look fine down a man. And that's the thing, I bet we'd have done better if Endo was sent off in this game, genuinely, because the idiots who just want to attack would be forced to have it in their mind to be more disciplined, and we'd counter.
Also, a man down, we couldn't have afforded the luxury of giving Trent that "quarterback" role. There's a reason that term has an American football name by the way. It's a stupid, inefficient thing for a team to do. When we shat on teams from a great height, VVD had that outlet ball. It didn't need to crack a defense, because that's always going to be low percentage stuff. It was during the Gerrard to Owen days, and he was a better finisher than all of our lot now. A CB can do what a "quarterback" can do. Having a different long passing deep lying midfielder confers only a marginal improvement, and removes that player from the game elsewhere. It's the opposite of total football. When Xabi Alonso did that for us we weren't a well-balanced, cohesive football team, and he was a midfielder. Now that we are doing it with a right back our team looks stupid on paper and on the pitch.
Trent goes there now, and we have what? A double pivot and two AMs? Perversely, in this new dildo formation on the ball, we are easier to beat down the middle somehow. I don't have a problem with it as a rule, but I do have a problem with it being a rule! It's a shape we should morph into when we are completely swanking a game and have possession. It's something we should try to change things up. It's supposed to be a flexible way of us getting different options, but instead I think it's as though we've abandoned some of the simple play that actually won us a lot of things down the flanks.
Harvey has got all sorts of credit for his performances, especially coming into games. He's been fine. Just fine, but part of why he attracts the eye is because he plays for a fucking cross sometimes, and isn't averse to using the flanks. Trent, especially in the last match, but also in this one, had fucking acres to exploit. Perhaps that isn't the plan, but if you are congesting the center so much, if you've got Salah inside right now, and not hugging wide, then someone has to use that space. That used to be the space we were trying to make with our system. Now we are given it and we won't take the gift.
When Salah does stay out right, he is fucking woeful. He can't do anything from there. Nothing. He isn't running down the wing. He's getting dispossessed. But who is out there for him to play off now that he can't beat a fullback? No one is having any fun with him at all. It's utterly one dimensional and pointless.
That someone can't be harvey elliot every time. It could be Szoboslai, who has good delivery, and good mobility, despite trailing along a gaggle of pundits constantly sucking his dick for some reason I can't discern. As pedestrian as Henderson was on the ball, and by god he was limited, at least he knew where the party was at. He'd hip it over there and play with the other much better players when we had to. He'd do a little dribble, bless him. They'd all create space and drive a cross. Nope, when Szobo receives the ball on the wing, it's deeper and only to gain the opposition half. Once we are there, his instinct is to go all AM-y, or take a really powerful, really low percentage shot. Mac Allister doesn't want to go out there, and just behind it all, it's the trent show, where we see an astonishing range of passing from his wonderful right foot.
And, even though he hailed a taxi while his man ran by him clear through onto goal, and even though he has the same attacking bias that imbalances our midfield throughout, there's no doubt that even on a bad day, his right foot is something to behold. He's got it all and it's all so effortless. My god, that's it, we've cracked it. How about he heads over, from time to time, of course, to the giant fucking vacuous space on the right and hits a cross at 900mphs onto someone's head?
Why can't he be a hybrid player on both ends of the pitch. Why does he go from RB to "Deep lying playmaker" but doesn't go from CM when pressed up into RW? It's not like his crosses don't look lethal when he's doing it. It's not like we don't have finishers in the box. We have two decent headers in Nunez and Jota. Why wouldn't we want a historically good crosser crossing balls? Why wouldn't we want defenders to have hard decisions to make? Toulouse basically had to defend everything from one side of the box to the other, all centrally, and they near enough fucked that up, but it was an easy ask. Same for Luton.
It's not even like we are reinventing the wheel here. It's like we forgot how we roll.
