Wheels on/Wheels off

[Silver Sean]

We seem to be specialists in extremes. We are either unplayable and on a ridiculous run where we can't be beat, or we are completely rudderless and can't buy a goal or win a game.
For sure the semi team with Sturridge, Sakho and Lucas in it probably wins that game but it can't be down to just injuries that we look so bereft of plan, tactics, decisiveness and guts.
All very odd.
Would you trust Rodgers with more cash this summer?

 

[gkmacca]

Well he seems to be reprising that old Little Britain sketch: 'I want that one'. He asks for players, they arrive, then he seems to suggest they're not the ones he asked for. Unless they do okay. From the outside it's hard to work out the culpability.

 

[Buddha]

Well he seems to be reprising that old Little Britain sketch: 'I want that one'. He asks for players, they arrive, then he seems to suggest they're not the ones he asked for. Unless they do okay. From the outside it's hard to work out the culpability.

To be fair to Rodgers, the glaring issue this season (ie. lack of goals) is in a large part down to replacing Suarez with Balotelli. By all accounts it seems likely Mario would not have been Rodgers choice at all.

If we'd signed a top-level striker of the ilk of Sanchez etc I maintain we'd be firmly in the the top 4 right now.

That said, our other back-up strikers, Lambert and Borini - both Rodgers signings it seems - have offered sweet fuck all either.

 

[gkmacca]

I think we lack a spine, in both senses of the word.

 

[Frogfish]

I want to know what went on in BR's mind to revert back to 4 at the back .. when 3 had been working just fine and had pulled us out of the mire. And why he seems determined to stick with it.

 

[Jack D Rips]

I think Skrtel's suspension and Sakho's injury had something to do with it, but he could have reverted to the 3 when Skrtel came back.

 

[gkmacca]

Also, what the heck DID happen to Flanagan? He had fluid on his knee in September. Then it was reported he'd be out until November after an operation. Then silence until recently. And still no sign of him back on the bench. Quite odd.

 

[cloggypop]

FSG were hiding him until we had the shirt sponsorship sorted out.

 

[Hansern]

We've scored nearly 50% less goals then last season. Replacing Suarez with Balotelli and Lambert cost us badly.
We've also signed to many players that havent made an impact. That is understandable given their age.

I saw a stat earlier today. The 10 games Balotelli has started have resulted in 9 points, 0,9 pr game.
The other 24 have given us 49 or 2,04 pr game.

Its a massive fuck up no matter how you look at it. Balotelli seems like a decent lad but he doesnt fit in with how we play.

You can only say what if in regards to us signing Remy instead of Balotelli.
That would have probably given us enough points to be close to top 4.

 

[Hansern]

To be fair to Rodgers, the glaring issue this season (ie. lack of goals) is in a large part down to replacing Suarez with Balotelli. By all accounts it seems likely Mario would not have been Rodgers choice at all.

If we'd signed a top-level striker of the ilk of Sanchez etc I maintain we'd be firmly in the the top 4 right now.

That said, our other back-up strikers, Lambert and Borini - both Rodgers signings it seems - have offered sweet fuck all either.

Evertons defence have scored more goals than our strikers. That really makes you want to cry.

 

[Judge Jules]

Also, what the heck DID happen to Flanagan? He had fluid on his knee in September. Then it was reported he'd be out until November after an operation. Then silence until recently. And still no sign of him back on the bench. Quite odd.

Haven't there been suggestions of his allegedly dabbling in mind-altering substances?

 

[Hansern]

Flanagan is at least back in training now

 

[Jack D Rips]

Haven't there been suggestions of his allegedly dabbling in mind-altering substances?

I heard that too. And a fondness for alcohol as well.

 

[Red Mullet]

We've scored nearly 50% less goals then last season. Replacing Suarez with Balotelli and Lambert cost us badly.
We've also signed to many players that havent made an impact. That is understandable given their age.

I saw a stat earlier today. The 10 games Balotelli has started have resulted in 9 points, 0,9 pr game.
The other 24 have given us 49 or 2,04 pr game.

Its a massive fuck up no matter how you look at it. Balotelli seems like a decent lad but he doesnt fit in with how we play.

You can only say what if in regards to us signing Remy instead of Balotelli.
That would have probably given us enough points to be close to top 4.

One was sold for 75million, the other was bought for 16million. So one is 5 times better than the other.

 

[Red Mullet]

The wheels on / wheels off theory fits my star trek movie analogy.

 

[Frogfish]

Here's another horrific stat on our strikers : Liverpool's specialist strikers (Daniel Sturridge, Mario Balotelli, Rickie Lambert and Fabio Borini) have scored eight Premier League goals between them this season. Everton's back four (Leighton Baines, Seamus Coleman, Phil Jagielka and John Stones) have scored nine.

 

[Frogfish]

I want to know what went on in BR's mind to revert back to 4 at the back .. when 3 had been working just fine and had pulled us out of the mire. And why he seems determined to stick with it.

Echo :
To dismiss a system to replace it with the one scrapped in November is a sure way of regression. What could have been a small setback against the better sides has now become something bigger after the decision to change.

 

[mark1975]

Echo :
To dismiss a system to replace it with the one scrapped in November is a sure way of regression. What could have been a small setback against the better sides has now become something bigger after the decision to change.

What system have we reverted to? We had to use a back four recently because of injury and suspension, but that's it. What a retarded, lazy point. The system worked fine last year. We've regressed because it didn't paper over our lack of goals for too long, dips in form to Markovic and Moreno, coupled with injury to Sakho has been a big issue.

 

[jexykrodic]

The wheels are off because we can't score goals.

That's it.

The wheels will be refitted when we get a goal scorer, as will confidence, as will the Managers reputation, even The Lying Rag will shine. Fickle fans will again forget the bad times and on we'll go convinced of our rightness.

 

[MomoWASright]

What is the point in having a goal scorer in the box when we are so slow getting the ball in to the box the opposition have time to get 9 of their own men in to the same area?

 

[Frogfish]

What system have we reverted to? We had to use a back four recently because of injury and suspension, but that's it. What a retarded, lazy point. The system worked fine last year. We've regressed because it didn't paper over our lack of goals for too long, dips in form to Markovic and Moreno, coupled with injury to Sakho has been a big issue.

Is it ? He went to 4 at the back during the match vs Villa and went to 4 in subsequent games not because he doesn't have the players for 3, despite the injuries/suspension (Johnson can and has played in a back 3), but because we all know it is his preference. There are numerous reasons for our poor performance over this season but dips in form to Moreno and Markovic ? You mean a FB and a substitute for the most part affected our form ? he could have used Johnson at LB earlier if he was concerned about Moreno.

I agree we've missed Sakho, he is the most progressive of our CBs, but it's not as if Lovren has been a disaster since coming back in, it's actually coincided with Lovren's best games of the season. And to say 'lack of goals' is pretty much as self-evident as it gets. The sky is blue. To have said he failed to find the players and system to replace Suarez is more pertinent, though just as obvious.

I agree with Kristian Walsh (I believe it was his article I quoted).

 

[mark1975]

When we were flying earlier in the season, we had Moreno and Markovic as fullbacks, it coincided with Markovic's short run of good form. He started to let it slide around the time of the Chelsea game. We lost Skrtel to suspension, Sakho off and on to injury while Can also had his own dip in form a few weeks ago. So yeah, the 4 at the back was more or less forced on us. Three at the back wasn't working particularly well against Villa, he reverted to four and went for it but fucked up, you win some you lose some.

So tell me how your brilliant article justified it's point that we've reverted to four at the back and that it somehow explains our shortcomings? It simply doesn't. Three at the back got the best out of us for a short time, because it tightened things up when things weren't going our way on the attacking front, we had been inviting too much pressure and getting hit on the break too easily, so he changed it and it worked for a while, but ultimately the lack of goals in the team came back to haunt us. It's got fuck all to do with the system. Blame Rodgers for the lack of goals, by all means, but like I said, the blaming of the system because of a couple of games where we've *had* to change it is just lazy journalism and selective reasoning for you laying into Rogers. There's plenty of reasons to lay into him, but this subject is just dead in the water.

The sky is blue - So an obvious point is less valid than a half arsed one? I know what our shortcomings are because they're fucking obvious to everyone and it's the main reason we're well short of where we were last year, anyone with an ounce of knowledge about us knows it's THE reason. The system is neither here nor there. A surefire sign of a side with a glaring hole in its makeup is a manager constantly changing tack to try to tackle it. It's the crux of our fuck up. Kristian Walsh's article is typical of modern sports journalism, lazy and badly researched - and then we get idiots eating it up and hailing it as genius. It suits your agenda because it lays into Rodgers, talk about failing to see the wood for trees, like there isn't a million other reasons to have a go.