and here we go...what did the BOSS say, eh
Southampton: Post Match
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It may all come down to GD with City - who knows - so we really do need to take very opportunity and fuck sentiment.
The haters will hate. Lovers will love.
You seriously can't compare those two performances today - we were so narrow most of the time, especially with Flanno diving in and leaving himself stranded on a few occasions, so that meant that Shaw had the virtual freedom of the wing, whereas Johnson was teamed up on 2-3 men at a time (almost everyone has mentioned Southampton's superb pressing today) and was frequently under huge pressure without the support of Gerrard/Allen who really went missing in the first half particularly.
As to being caught too far upfield. Well we played a Midfield Diamond FFS. Which means the FBs are supposed to overlap and the space behind them covered by the midfielders.
"Liverpool’s ninth League match without defeat, a fourth successive victory and a first win at St Mary’s since 2003."
I actually think we didn't set up correctly for this game, but it seems I might be in the minority. I mentioned this at half time - our setup was too narrow and it gave us problems on both ends. It wasn't helped by us being piss poor in passing in the first half. I've some sympathy for Johnson and Flanagan, in that they were expected to provide the width going up and yet had to defend alone as well quite a fair bit, as they were missing dedicated cover ahead of them.
With Coutinho way off his game, Allen and Henderson were busy trying to defend both the centre and help on the sides, resulting in our midfield getting spread sideways. Gerrard then stepped in to fill the gaps they left, and charged around to help close down holes, which then exacerbated the issue because now the midfield was being pulled left, right and forwards, leaving gaps all over. Suarez and Sturridge then had to step back deeper than usual to either get the ball or even help defend. Sturridge, especially, was way deep in our half quite a few times.
In the second half, with Sterling coming in, everyone lifting their game, and Soton not being able to keep up their intensity, especially after our goal, we fared much better. I think if Soton had managed to keep playing the way they did in the last 30 minutes of the first half, things might have a lot less comfortable and we'd probably have had to revert to a more familiar system.
It does underscore again what Pepe Mel said in the West Brom game against us - pressing is a team game and you need everyone who is involved in the scheme to execute in order for it to work well. We were very good in the first 15 or so minutes, but after we'd scored, Coutinho started getting sloppy and that set off a chain of events that led to us being overwhelmed. On the other hand, it also shows in our second half improvement that even if our guys aren't individually stellar on the day, we're still capable of playing solidly as a unit; whole being greater than the sum of all parts or some saying like that, I guess.
Wish we hadn't had a break now. This was an inspiring result and we could've used the momentum and feel good factor going into the next game right away.
With Coutinho way off his game, Allen and Henderson were busy trying to defend both the centre and help on the sides, resulting in our midfield getting spread sideways. Gerrard then stepped in to fill the gaps they left, and charged around to help close down holes, which then exacerbated the issue because now the midfield was being pulled left, right and forwards, leaving gaps all over. Suarez and Sturridge then had to step back deeper than usual to either get the ball or even help defend. Sturridge, especially, was way deep in our half quite a few times.
In the second half, with Sterling coming in, everyone lifting their game, and Soton not being able to keep up their intensity, especially after our goal, we fared much better. I think if Soton had managed to keep playing the way they did in the last 30 minutes of the first half, things might have a lot less comfortable and we'd probably have had to revert to a more familiar system.
It does underscore again what Pepe Mel said in the West Brom game against us - pressing is a team game and you need everyone who is involved in the scheme to execute in order for it to work well. We were very good in the first 15 or so minutes, but after we'd scored, Coutinho started getting sloppy and that set off a chain of events that led to us being overwhelmed. On the other hand, it also shows in our second half improvement that even if our guys aren't individually stellar on the day, we're still capable of playing solidly as a unit; whole being greater than the sum of all parts or some saying like that, I guess.
Wish we hadn't had a break now. This was an inspiring result and we could've used the momentum and feel good factor going into the next game right away.
I'm not! Hope you keep being right!
Stop looking down. ... it's up we're heading
I think Saints showed they have a good team... and the way we closed them down in 2nd half was strong. Beast of a victory!
I'm rather bemused at the stick Johnson is getting. He's had a horrendous season so far (though how much of that is down to the injury niggles who knows) but yesterday he was okay.
There were a few dodgy moments but overall I would say those numbered less than some of his team-mates who aren't coming in for quite as much stick. For example, I can barely recall one thing Coutinho did right in that game and yet somehow Johnson was our worst player?
Johnson, for the most part, defended okay and was actually quite composed in possession I thought. It feels like he's been judged for his season on the whole rather than his performance yesterday.
There were a few dodgy moments but overall I would say those numbered less than some of his team-mates who aren't coming in for quite as much stick. For example, I can barely recall one thing Coutinho did right in that game and yet somehow Johnson was our worst player?
Johnson, for the most part, defended okay and was actually quite composed in possession I thought. It feels like he's been judged for his season on the whole rather than his performance yesterday.
What 2 performances?
Coutinho won back possession in our half and dribbled past two people (before giving it away cheaply).
I think that's literally the only good thing he did yesterday, everything else was shite
I totally forgot about Coutinho, he was our worst player by a distance.
Still, I don't think Johnson had a partiucarly good first half. In the 2nd he was fine. I'd give him a 5/10 first half. 6/10 second half. But I was looking at Shaw and thinking, if we got CL money, we should be definitely looking at paying 15 odd million for him. Southampton play a similar game to us, so I think he'd be a perfect signing.
Shaw & Johnson. The two mentioned in your post.
It wasn't a problem though. He learned he was shit very quickly and so let the other players take up the slack. In the past we've had players who were shit, yet continue to get on the ball and demonstrate their shiteness for the entire game resulting in defeat, and that is pretty much why we've rarely been able to win games when we played like shit.
Yeah, only problem was when he tried to hand over responsibility to someone else by passing it to them, he passed to the opposition.
I fucking love him, but he was proper shit. As keni said, nothing went right for him
It could be true of the top 5 leagues, but I'd also like to see a source.
Coutinho's tailed off at the moment, but I have every confidence in the lad to get back to his best. He's a special talent.
Absobloodylutely - in the circumstances he coped well, our fullbacks were targeted by their very impressive pressing.
Yup. Love Coutinho, but as Macca has said a couple times he needs to work on his sharpness, which seems to come and go. Not sure if that is something you can work on or what you would do to work on it but he'd surely be a strong candidate for their WC squad if the consistency was there.
Ah ok.
I wasn't actually looking for similarities. I said Shaw was awesome and Johnson was bollocks. I was hardly comparing them in the traditional sense.
He isn't stupid, he knows he ain't going to the World Cup unless he poisons Lucas, goes in two footed on Oscar, and sends a death threat to the other Lucas' family. To put it in perspective, Sterling was awful for half of last season as well as the start of this season. Coutinho has been awful for one game.
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