Thing is though, they aren't even getting the basics right, at the end of the day if you don't know what to do with the ball then just hoof the f**ker clear.
There was a point in the first half against Madrid tonight where Lovren chased the ball down, going towards our own corner and he could have gotten it clear down the line a bit (would have still gone for a throw but would have been cleared). However, this wasn't the easiest choice, the easiest choice would have been to play back to Migs but instead he ended up dallying on the ball, nearly getting tackled and then awkwardly putting it out for a throw. That moment really highlighted how little trust there is within the defence and Migs and for a player who cost £20mill and is supposed to be our main defender now, I expect a lot better.
We all love the attacking football when it is going to plan, smashing in the goals for fun but your luck will run out, you can't really rely on just smashing in the goals in the mindset of "you may score 3 but we will score 4 or 5", we rode our luck doing that last season and with Suarez gone and Sturridge injured we were never going to be able to do that again this season because we didn't sign a top striker to do so. I'd happily see out a game 1-0 38 times a season if it means we get the 3 points. You need to build the team from the back, a good keeper and a reliable defence will stand you in good stead and we were building from the back with Rafa, his defence was very good and we even put together 11 consecutive clean sheets. From there you build into your attack. This season we have come unstuck, we have a dodgy defence and virtually no attack in terms of goal scorers.
After 3 years of BR being in charge now, myself and I think everyone else would have expected to have seen us build a pretty decent defence by now, especially when you take into account the amount we have invested on defenders and a keeper. However it's not the case, if anything we are looking worse defensively then we were 3 years ago, we can't even manage a clean sheet unless we play Spurs. I remember when we used to go into games and I'd be confident that we would keep a clean sheet as well as get the win. Now when we go into games I am confident the opposition will score at least 2 and we might be lucky to scrape a win, regardless of who it is against!
I don't know what the lads do in training but I would love to be a fly on the wall and see because it's clearly not any defending and if they are doing defending in training then surely alarm bells would be ringing that they still aren't improving, surely BR has noticed that whatever it is they are doing just isn't working and they need to change things, be it staff or training methods.
Given that Rodgers worked with Jose I'd have thought he'd have some clue about defending given that Jose usually sets his teams up quite well defensively to see out a game or to hold a team at bay and then take advantage of any attacks that arise (i.e. our defeat to them at the end of the season).
Is it a case of pride? he doesn't want to basically admit he has gotten things wrong and hoping it will improve, can the club in some strange world not afford a decent defensive coach or is it a case that they genuinely believe that the set up they have at the moment is working?
Whatever is going on though needs changing because we have become an utter embarrassment defensively, some of the goals we concede are goals you'd be ashamed to be letting in playing Sunday league.
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