The change I'd like to see us make particularly in light of Sturridge being unavailable again, is a bit more radical that when Gerrard plays and it's to be much more direct. I'm not talking about lumping it at every opportunity, but I am talking about not being afraid to hit Balotelli and get around him should teams decide to go for a high press. You can pretty sure if you try and swarm Chelsea that they'll hit Costa and get Hazard/Oscar in around him, we should take off the shackles as far as hitting Balotelli with Coutinho/Sterling getting close is concerned.
I'm absolutely convinced that our dogmatic determination to play it out regardless of the pressure is making us a poorer team both going forwards and backwards. It's draining our confidence as a defensive unit and adding to the "gander" of the opposition as they force us into hurried errors. Not only that, but they know they can press with absolute impunity because we NEVER mix it up and go long right now, not in the sense that we get anybody around the player we are looking to hit anyway.
Lets play the game in the opposition half for a bit, clear our lines and play to the strengths of the one striker we do have.
I am not so sure we will reap much joy out of that mate. For me neither Balotelli or Lambert are much above average in the air and when we have "lumped" it forward it tends to come straight back. Certainly neither is in the same class as Carroll aerially and we got little joy even with him.
Secondly, I think if you are going to play that way you need players around the striker who will win the second ball and I don't really see our players as winners of many 50/50's in the way that the likes of Wimbledon, Bolton, or even Villa did.
I think it is an option we could use more, variation of play and all that, but as a tactic I don't think it is the answer.
I do think the absence of Sturridge and Suarez has made us too slow in getting the ball forward and it is something we need to redress, but I prefer it if we could get back to passing more aggressively and quickly rather than "hit and hope." We need players with the confidence to make forward runs, create options with movement rather than expecting our 2foot 6inch players (Sterling, Allen, Lallana, Coutinho) to battle for 50/50 second balls.
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