Worst start to a season for 100 years ?
- Thread starter Rosco
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Maybe it's just me but I feel better going through this pathetic record than when we went through the worst in 25 years run under Hodgeson.
It's called Hope I reckon.
With Hodgson there was none but with Rodgers there is hope and expectation that we are on an upward curve again, despite initial appearances
It's all about perception isnt it?
Nobody was willing to give Hodgson a chance, people want to give Rodgers one so despite us being worse presently than we were under Hodgson we won't see the same level of vitriol.
True.
It's just that our overall play under Hodgson was pretty dire, and you could see his brand of anti-football (more so than previous regimes) wasn't going to get us far.
Our current team play dire at times, particularly when defending as a team and the non-imagination in the final third, but you can see how the style of play being implemented may well pay dividends over the course of Rodger's time with us, perhaps beyond that as well.
If we continue to lose for another few games, not sure I'd feel the same way though.
It's just that our overall play under Hodgson was pretty dire, and you could see his brand of anti-football (more so than previous regimes) wasn't going to get us far.
Our current team play dire at times, particularly when defending as a team and the non-imagination in the final third, but you can see how the style of play being implemented may well pay dividends over the course of Rodger's time with us, perhaps beyond that as well.
If we continue to lose for another few games, not sure I'd feel the same way though.
It's not perception though, otherwise that's quite a myopic way of looking at it. It's about perspective more than anything else. People were on Hodgson's case because we were flat and not showing any style or cohesion. He might have been unfairly treated in respect to the ghost of Dalglish hanging over him, but that's a separate issue. The style of football and the ability to see us doing anything wasn't there. This is different, the frustration is that we're still playing relatively good football but lack a striker. It's also a period of transition, lets not forget, we're four games in. Hodgson wasn't getting resounding abuse at this stage, that came later. We've had a tough start in terms of fixtures, the real hole in the head was the WBA game where it just went wrong on so many levels, some of it our fault, some of it out of our hands. On paper a draw against City wasn't bad, Arsenal have humped us enough times over the years to know that it doesn't matter how well or poor we're playing, if they turn up in form they'll punish us, and they did. As for Sunderland away, it's a notoriously tight affair whenever we play there. We need a run of easy fixtures to get it together and then hopefully that will spur us on. If I could criticise Rodgers for anything, it'd be for not putting a striker on the bench, that's just criminal, he's the one banging on about not going for Owen because it's fairer to give a young lad a chance, well come on then, show it.
Yeah Rosco, that's exactly what I was saying.
We've had a difficult run of fixtures that's made it hard to get it together, it's not that difficult to work out.
Probably, but throwing Arsenal and City at us (and Sunderland away, where we struggle more often than not) hasn't helped.
But surely they're the games we needed for this system?
We're learning a new system so I'd rather we play the good teams early to force the players into giving it their all. Worked against city (less so arsenal). If we had reading qpr etc, and then played city I'd have no doubt we'd be like"shit! We're being picked apart" as we'd had it too easy for months.
50 years
Do you not remember preseason?
This whole debate was pretty inevitable given our start to the season. I think - and did think, as a club, we need some stability and Rodgers is here to stay. We've had a terrible start points wise really. Apart from the Arsenal game we've pretty much on top of games in the league but, same as last season, we're failing to convert such games into wins. Even less so than last year. We've a couple of silly mistakes that have cost us this year already and we're also conceding goals far too easily. Sunderland scored from their first attack and that's a scenario that we've seen far too frequently in recent seasons.
Our biggest problem still remains players that can score goals though. Apart from Suarez, Borini (yet to score in the league) and Gerrard (playing far too deep) I dont see where our goals are coming from. Suarez needs to many chances to score a goal. Considering he's scored something like 7 in his last 11 EPL games - if he could be more clinical he'd could be up with the top strikers quite easily. I also think he needs a bit of help at times which he isn't getting. Borini needs a bit of luck. We should have patience there. And Gerrard is far too deep. It makes no sense to me.
Our biggest problem still remains players that can score goals though. Apart from Suarez, Borini (yet to score in the league) and Gerrard (playing far too deep) I dont see where our goals are coming from. Suarez needs to many chances to score a goal. Considering he's scored something like 7 in his last 11 EPL games - if he could be more clinical he'd could be up with the top strikers quite easily. I also think he needs a bit of help at times which he isn't getting. Borini needs a bit of luck. We should have patience there. And Gerrard is far too deep. It makes no sense to me.
Think it was 65 actually
We lack margins. Big time. But we lack them because we don't deserve them. Sloppyness doesn't create good margins. And we are extremelly sloppy in both ends of the pitch. I am not sure if ity is all down to lack of skills or it is all down to low self confidence, but it doesn't look like people believe they will score, and it looks like we accept defensive errors as part of our game.
The system itself is not going to help us climb the table, not now and not in the next 6 months either. it is down to the players and they have to do their job better. It is a huge task for Rodgers, and I must say he need to act quick. Forget all that hype about a system, as the system alone doesn't win you anything. You have to use the players you have and they need to be utilized to their strengths. So far the socalled system has removed any rythm we had in attack and any strength we had defenisvely from last season. It went out with Maxi, Kuyt and Carrol among others, hence we need to rely on others now.
We should have had three points in the last three games, but have given it away. Sloppy defending, lack of margins and lack of clinical finishing have cost us. These issues need to be adressed now. We have enough players to drop players who lack freshness or fitness. So far the freshness seem to be a bigger issue.
The system itself is not going to help us climb the table, not now and not in the next 6 months either. it is down to the players and they have to do their job better. It is a huge task for Rodgers, and I must say he need to act quick. Forget all that hype about a system, as the system alone doesn't win you anything. You have to use the players you have and they need to be utilized to their strengths. So far the socalled system has removed any rythm we had in attack and any strength we had defenisvely from last season. It went out with Maxi, Kuyt and Carrol among others, hence we need to rely on others now.
We should have had three points in the last three games, but have given it away. Sloppy defending, lack of margins and lack of clinical finishing have cost us. These issues need to be adressed now. We have enough players to drop players who lack freshness or fitness. So far the freshness seem to be a bigger issue.
Dammit, you're right! I forgot that shocker against Blyth Spartans!
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