Post Match Thoughts: Swansea - Liverpool

[gkmacca]

It is something we can work on and we know that they're capable of better than they're showing now so there is definitely room for improvement... however... I think dmish has a point. There is a glass ceiling for that improvement because one or two of them are never going to be quite good enough for the role they're being asked to perform. We're crying out for players like Molby and Hamann in midfield but I don't think we're going to turn the likes of Gerrard and Henderson for example into them - they're all about the guts and glory.

Very true, yes.

 

[gkmacca]

I'm really feeling like people are overstating Mignolets passing deficiencies

He's not Gerrard, but he's hardly a fucking scoper

True, yes, and for all of Reina's ability to bowl the ball out accurately, we used to end up leaving him to boot the ball upfield just as often, and usually with similar results. For years the back four seem to have thought that, so long as they faff about for a couple of minutes at the back, they have done their job with that tiresome football thingy and can thus pass it back to the keeper to dispatch it as far away as possible. We're definitely heading in the right direction now, but it's going to take a while!

 

[nealmac]

As well as poor distribution, he puts himself under pressure a lot of the time when he receives a back pass. I don't know how many times I screamed at him to just get fucking rid of it.

 

[StevieM]

I think it's a "mental" problem.

We've been in winning positions.

The midfield drops deeper to protect - gets disconnected to the forward line - the opposition push up, and there is no easy "roll out" pass because the opposition is on top and pressing.

The tendency to lump it over the congestion is understandable if very hodgesonesque - but it ultimately fails because its a brutal solution.

 

[Judge Jules]

If that's right, in principle it *should* be easy to remedy - don't drop back to protect winning positions. In practice that's going to demand even more from the players than is demanded of them at the moment, both physically and mentally. If we CAN make it work, though, we'll be going places.

 

[Spionkop69]

What a really hard search that was

Why do these videos have to be accompanied by some really shit backing track. The normal commentary is just fine, not shot that makes my ears bleed!

 

[Jack D Rips]

We need to watch what the U21s did in midweek and copy it. Apart from getting a man sent off of course

 

[mark1975]

Very true, yes.

Hopefully it's just a case of hitting a bit of a physical trough after all the hard work put in over preseason, keeping up the pressing game is physically and mentally demanding, no team can maintain it for 90 minutes, week in, week out, we need to start preserving energy in games by keeping the ball more, that's a major part of the problem (which we knew last season). We need to win the ball back and we need someone who will put their foot on the ball and calm things down, control the tempo. We lack that big time and we need to either mix it up in the middle, or start looking to January already.

 

[tony]

Hopefully it's just a case of hitting a bit of a physical trough after all the hard work put in over preseason, keeping up the pressing game is physically and mentally demanding, no team can maintain it for 90 minutes, week in, week out, we need to start preserving energy in games by keeping the ball more, that's a major part of the problem (which we knew last season). We need to win the ball back and we need someone who will put their foot on the ball and calm things down, control the tempo. We lack that big time and we need to either mix it up in the middle, or start looking to January already.

Bit pretentious to quote myself from last season but this problem has been going on for ages - I don't think it could be attributed to preseason​

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In every match, even winning games, the team is running on empty after 75 minutes and our peformance dips. WTF are our fitness and conditioning coaches doing, we never used to look like a team of geriatrics late in a game before, something has changed for the worse.​

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Southampton looked fitter than us and this despite their high energy pressing in the first half which you would expect to effect them later in the game​

tony, Mar 16, 2013

 

[rurikbird]

Yes. But we can work on it. What I really admire about Rodgers' approach is that it's what football should be but rarely is: simple but intelligent. You should hate to give the ball away.That's also why I always loved watching Molby and Hamman. They showed you CAN keep the ball and use the ball without making it look like the most hazardous ordeal going. And within that philosophy, a keeper just belting the ball upfield surely represents that most common problem. At the peak of the great sides of the past we had four men at the back who could all actually bring the ball out. Hansen could do it, Lawrenson could do it, Nicol could do it, Neal could do it. We also had forwards who could deal with the long kick as well, but that's another story. You're quite right that we lack that caliber at the back today, but they can do so much better. Too often at the moment, especially in the second half, we get an exchange of passes across the back, then back to Mignolet, then he punts it upfield. They can do better than that.

I didn't really get to watch Molby, but I couldn't agree more with your point in bold. This is what I also admire about the great German national teams from 70's and 80's, the way the passed the ball really illustrated the point that the ball travels faster than a player. The recordings I watched of the great Liverpool teams of those years also show a similar style - a simple but irresistible pass-and-move. I really hope Rodgers can bring this back.

 

[gkmacca]

Yes. Of course, the great device for controlling tempo and keeping possession that the old teams exploited better than any other team was the back pass that the keeper could pick up. There were times, as we edged towards titles, when that was pretty much all that happened in the last ten or fifteen minutes. So obviously its tougher now, but we seem to lapse into a habit when we go through the motions at the back twice, and it's the second time, as the other team presses up, that we basically create a problem that should never exist. The back four passes the ball around, then taps it back to Mignolet, who passes it back out - fine, there's nothing wrong with that. But then they do it again, and Mignolet ends up with a forward charging in at him, with the pass either side cut off, and he has to blast it anywhere sharpish. That's the bit that drives me crazy these days! And what makes it worse is that the other teams expect it and know exactly what to do.