New Tactics for 2010/2011?

                        Reina

Kelly      Carragher        Agger     Konchesky

                        Poulsen

             Gerrard              Meireles

   Pacheco                                Cole
                         Torres

Thats the formation I would go for.

Fair dos Don but what tactics would you deploy?

Fair dos Don but what tactics would you deploy?

I would like us to play at least 30 yards higher up the field than we have done the last few years, especially at Anfield. We seem to struggle to truely get teams camped in their own half because the CB's hardly ever get near the half way line.

Obviously i would like us to play a patient passing game but with a cutting edge which we have lacked recently. I also feel we need to develop a ruthless streak and go for the throat when we have a team on the ropes.

Overall I would like the team to have a more attacking mentality from the outset in games. This has not been evident in recent years. All too often its only when we are losing we seem to up our game and our energy levels. Last season we did not up our game even when we were losing.

This season we have started games very slowly. I want us unleashed from the off and not let teams settle. The Liverpool pass and move game is still what we need to be producing. We used to make it look easy. Truth is that it looked easy because of the hard work on the training ground.

I would like the players to be allowed to express themselves and enjoy what they are doing. All too often recently we have seen unhappy players, in a rigid formation with no flexibility, stuck in a defensive mentality. Let go out there, play with responsibility but also with freedom to show what they can do.

I feel a 4-3-3 or a 4-1-2-3 gives us that flexibility. 4-2-3-1 for me is not a formation condusive to retaining posession as we sit too deep, get suffocated and often resort to long balls upto isolated forward players.

I would like us to play at least 30 yards higher up the field than we have done the last few years, especially at Anfield. We seem to struggle to truely get teams camped in their own half because the CB's hardly ever get near the half way line.

Obviously i would like us to play a patient passing game but with a cutting edge which we have lacked recently. I also feel we need to develop a ruthless streak and go for the throat when we have a team on the ropes.

Overall I would like the team to have a more attacking mentality from the outset in games. This has not been evident in recent years. All too often its only when we are losing we seem to up our game and our energy levels. Last season we did not up our game even when we were losing.

This season we have started games very slowly. I want us unleashed from the off and not let teams settle. The Liverpool pass and move game is still what we need to be producing. We used to make it look easy. Truth is that it looked easy because of the hard work on the training ground.

I would like the players to be allowed to express themselves and enjoy what they are doing. All too often recently we have seen unhappy players, in a rigid formation with no flexibility, stuck in a defensive mentality. Let go out there, play with responsibility but also with freedom to show what they can do.

I feel a 4-3-3 or a 4-1-2-3 gives us that flexibility. 4-2-3-1 for me is not a formation condusive to retaining posession as we sit too deep, get suffocated and often resort to long balls upto isolated forward players.

How you want all those things to happen and still believe Woy is the right man for the job is F***ing beyond me.

Incidentally, to suggest a formation can give you flexibility is a common misconception about football philosophy.  Playing 3 up front isn't more attacking than playing 2 upfront because if it were true, the '2-3-5 of old' would be incredibly attack minded when the reality of the situation is you'd be starved of the ball by teams who would play high up the pitch and exploit the middle leaving you without the ball and if you don't have the ball, you can't attack. 

No one formation has one purpose as such although certain formations do have strengths and weaknesses and most are usually better suited to a particular style of play - more often than not though, it's merely a basic form of expressing relative positioning on the pitch which conversely dictates what you can do when attacking/defending/in transition etc.

I bumped this because I'm majorly concerned about a distinct lack of direction in terms of tactics.  Don't get me wrong, that can be a tactic in itself with the right tools but the problem is we don't have them.  Does anyone here think Hodgson has a master plan, if so what is it?

I genuinely think this is our best formation :

                                         Reina

Kelly             Carragher                      Agger                 Konchesky

Johnson          Meireles                       Gerrard          Babel/Maxi/Jovanovic

                                         Cole

                                         Torres

I shall start with the back four. Kelly looks much more sound defensively that Johnson. Carragher, well, 150% commitment, never say die and can read the game really well. Agger, well comfortable on the ball and has a wicked shot when he can strike from 35 yards. I usually love to play Aurelio but he has been missing this season after only one game.

I think this midfield of Johnson, Meireles, Gerrard and either one of Babel, Maxi or Jovanovic is a non-negative one. Johnson looks like a proper winger than a RB. Let's give him a run there. He may excel like Gareth Bale. Meireles, well he reminds me of Alonso in terms of how he always makes himself available for passes. Also strikes on goal when he has space and seems to play some really nice air balls instead of the usually grounder sideways and backwards. Probably not on par with Alonso in the passing and vision range, though.

That is compensated by Steven Gerrard. The world's most complete footballer can do anything, even the playmaking job which we lack ever since Alonso left. With him playing central, he'll be sitting around the edge of the box when it's played into it instead of making a run into the box when he plays support to Torres and we know how dangerous he is from the edge of the box.

It should be Johnson at right back when Kuyt is available. I really don't know who to put on the left but it's definitely not Joe Cole. Maxi had a good 2nd half against Steaua but was very quiet last night. Babel can tend to do things but he's very inconsistent. Jovanovic is strong, fast but he doesn't know what to do with the ball after running with it at times.

It's definitely no Lucas-Poulsen for me. I don't mind having one starting at worst but never play both at the same time but I'd prefer Lucas actually.

Joe Cole in the hole, enough said. In all of his games where he has played there, he's done really well. Even in the Europa League matches, he didn't have players of Gerrard's and Torres' quality around him and yet he was very impressive. He certainly can't do much from the left. It was his pass from the centre to Torres that eventually got us the penalty last night. Also played a nice through ball to Johnson from the centre.

Torres up top for me. World's best forward and I think he will benefit alot from Cole's silky skills and creativity from behind. Also add to that Gerrard's creativity from the centre, not only Torres will benefit but so does Cole and the wide players.

Tactics

We seem to be very low on confidence at the moment after what happened last season so we can't go out with a negative approach. The best team should always be played from the start and make changes around the hour mark. This way, you change things quickly and you give the substitutes more time to make an impact.

I think it's pretty wise to start with an attacking line up whenever and whoever we play. Let's say, if we're leading by 2 goals at least around the 65-70th minute, we can probably bring on one holding midfielder to be slightly more defensive. It's much better to go out all attacking from the start and maybe take off some gas after a comfortable lead, than to set out negatively and then chase the game once we've gone behind.

The fact that we lack the aeriel threat in both ends of the pitch and proper wingers, we should try to score more goals coming from the sides where a ball is played to the wings and the player brings it to the byline and squares it in low (not a cross) as seen when Gerrard set up for Kuyt against Stoke last season or when Babel scored that winning goal against Man United back in 2008/2009.

I don't think that that there's a one size fits all when it comes to tactics in regards to both formations, personnel and in which way they're deployed - we really need to play to our strengths.  People who want higher lines can't be playing Carra in the back four without taking that into consideration or at least assessing the risk vs reward effects and the same is true about the Johnson/Kelly and the RB conundrum. 

My major concern is the lack of trying to adjust things during a match - this is a very double edged sword however.  I hate constantly mentioning our last manager but seeing as he bought a good 90% of the players that Hodgson currently has at his disposal, I feel it's very relevant.  Rafa bought a particular type of player more often than not - they were usually lacking in technique and dynamism but often intelligent, hard-working and very good at listening to particular instructions.  The shackles have been lifted and I'm not 100% sure that these players know what to do. 

What I'm trying to get at is that the creativity pretty much came from the drawing board and touchline instructions.  Players were asked to play a particular way, things were fine tuned constantly and the initial formation was very rough but player roles weren't.  Hodgson seems to want to keep striving to create that perfect set and forget formation with player roles a little more relaxed but the initial formation more rigid.  Given time, I don't think that it's a bad idea but there's a major obstacle in the way.  He doesn't have the players for it and time is against him.

Before you say anything, I'd like to implicitly say that neither way is right or wrong, but I think it would be in our best interests if given the current situation we'd play to the strengths of what personnel we do have.  It's a rash observation but has anyone noticed how Lucas has been giving the ball away more?  Statistically our best passer last year and now he's trying too many forward passes, he's actually becoming the player everyone thought he was last year. 

Now hear me out, before this turns into a Lucas thread (it was his game I'd noticed that had most changed this year, hence using him as an example).  People often complained he'd pass backwards and sideways too often but it wasn't so he could showoff to the rest of the team after the season and claim he was #1 in the optastats index.  It was all about ball retention for a number of reasons: 1) denying the opposition of the ball and not allowing them to attack; 2) an effort to draw opposition players out of position to allow someone else space in between their lines.

Both managers are defensive but in different ways - Rafa's defensive game was to make sure the pass was safe from being intercepted and countered through the middle  before worrying about going forward but he played a much higher midfield line relative to Hodgson.  Hodgson's defensive game is to create the passes from a deeper midfield line and encourage them to try more forward because if it doesn't come off, it's ok we've got men behind them.

Look at Maxi, he thinks he's a winger now.  Last season he drifted infield frequently and came deeper to get the ball and be involved in build up play.  If he did it well enough, Johnson would always overlap and provide the additional width.  Even the critics of Johnson admit he's quality getting forward but the basis of their argument is that he should defend better and that he would be better suited to a right midfielder or winger position prompting many to shift him there in their preferred formation. 

I disagree with that notion, but I can see their reasoning for it and to be frankly honest it makes perfect sense.  I sometimes engage in discussion about it and try and highlight my reasoning for being in favour of Johnson staying at RB, as opposed to being played in a RM role.  It's not that I'm against Johnson playing there, but I have a preference for him playing at RB, the same way many others have a preference for him being at RM.

I'd like to continue babbling on but the next few things I want to mention(illustrate) require a chalkboard of some sort, so I'm off to go find an online one and make some food but don't worry I will be back with an utterly useless, long-winded unnecessary post with some pretty pictures to hopefully make you less bored than reading through a wall of text.

The only formation which fits the the current players we have is the wingback system. There's no point in us playing a 4-2-3-1 which relies on quality wingers as don't have any. A 4 at the back system only works if you have good full backs - we don't have any. a 2 up front system only works if you have 2 good strikers - we only have one. Our strength is in midfield and this is where our best players should be playing in their natural positions in order to support and provide for torres. Johnson and Aurelio aren't excellent defenders, neither are they excellent wingers - however, with the wingback formation, their defensive limitations are less obvious as they would be dropping back to a make a 5 man defence. Likewise, their attacking limitations would less of an issue when joining up to make a 5 or 6 man midfield instead of providing the width in a 3 or 4 man midfield. The wingback formation also enables us to play our 3 strongest centre backs. Could someone forward this on to mr hodgson please?


......................re ina

............carra...agge r...kyrgiakos

johnson................. ................aurelio

..........gerrard...luca s...meireles

.......................c ole

......................to rres

The only formation which fits the the current players we have is the wingback system. There's no point in us playing a 4-2-3-1 which relies on quality wingers as don't have any. A 4 at the back system only works if you have good full backs - we don't have any. a 2 up front system only works if you have 2 good strikers - we only have one. Our strength is in midfield and this is where our best players should be playing in their natural positions in order to support and provide for torres. Johnson and Aurelio aren't excellent defenders, neither are they excellent wingers - however, with the wingback formation, their defensive limitations are less obvious as they would be dropping back to a make a 5 man defence. Likewise, their attacking limitations would less of an issue when joining up to make a 5 or 6 man midfield instead of providing the width in a 3 or 4 man midfield. The wingback formation also enables us to play our 3 strongest centre backs. Could someone forward this on to mr hodgson please?


......................re ina

............carra...agge r...kyrgiakos

johnson................. ................aurelio

..........gerrard...luca s...meireles

.......................c ole

......................to rres

I agree with this I would also like to see if
we could play the following

                                 Reina

Johnson            Skertl                Agger                 Aurelio

                Gerrard              Lucas              Meireles

                         Kuyt                      Cole

                                        Torres

I think we could support the fullbacks and defence as well create support for Torres.

I reckon we should try something a bit different;

Reina
Johnson                    Carra                        Skrtel                    Aurelio
Agger
Meireles                                Gerrard
J. Cole
Kuyt                        Torres

I'm a big fan of the 4-1-2-1-2 diamond and I reckon it could work with the players we have and it would also get the best out of the likes of Torres and Cole. Torres could have some pressure taken off him with an extra striker next to him (which I said was needed in the Torres thread, at least until his injury problems get better) and Joe would be able to play in his "favored position" in the hole.

The back four would be Johnson, Carra, Skrtel and Fabio. Glen would just edge Kelly for me, same with Fabio and Konchesky (although with Fabio's injury problem's you'd probably see Konchesky more) Carragher and Skrtel would take the CB spots. I'd usually prefer Sotis over Skrtel but how slow would a back two of the Greek and Carra be? Needs a bit of pace in there.

I'm someone who is always sick of players played out of their position but I'd really give Dagger a try at the anchor man role at DM. He can tackle for starters, which is already an improvement on Poulsen and he can pick a forward pass really well too. Gerrard and Raul in the center of the park. Gerrard getting more forward of the two whilst Raul would stay back a bit. Cole would operate in the hole behind the front men.

I'd stick Kuyt next to Torres, he's good in the air, can hold the ball up and has a good understanding with Torres, he'd most likely use his cleverness to drag defenders away whilst Nando would make runs to try and get in behind the defence.

The problem with a diamond formation has always been the lack of width, but alternatively when the width is needed we could change to a 4-4-3 and stick Cole and Kuyt on the wings interchanging. Or we could even have Fabio and Glen bombing forward whilst Danny fills the gaps at the back:

Reina
Johnson - Carra - Skrtel - Aurelio
Agger
Raul - Gerrard
Joe Cole - Torres - Kuyt
 
Or:

Reina
Carragher - Skrtel - Agger
Raul - Gerrard
Johnson - Joe Cole - Aurelio
Kuyt - Torres

   

Another problem you could say with the diamond is the squad players like Babel, Jova, Maxi, Dani etc, where would they all fit in? But most of them in that list can play upfront or behind the striker so no biggie there.


I think I've been playing too much FM.  

“If you’re in the penalty area and don’t know what to do with the ball, put it in the net and we’ll discuss the options later.”   Sir Bob Paisley

I know we have seen in Fernando Torres' first couple of season how lethal his partnership was with Steven Gerrard but it does not work anymore. During those times, Gerrard and Torres and Xabi Alonso who was the playmaker of the team and we have now lost a playmaker with the formation we play after Alonso's departure. For the good of the team, the Gerrard-Torres partnership has to be broken up.

Gerrard is a complete player and is therefore able to be a playmaker with his vision and passing range. Joe Cole has shown he's more than capable of filling up Gerrard's role inthe hole and that should always be his spot.

However, I doubt we will see the Meireles-Gerrard central pairing much or even once unless Roy Hodgson comes out and say "I made a mistake signing Poulsen".

It appears Hodgson is testing out a new 4-4-2 formation.

We're most likely to see Poulsen in DMF and Meireles/Cole/Stevie in the hole and wings.

Call me old fashioned but Ive always thought that no matter what formation you play the idea is to score goals, more then your opponent, and the best way to do that is keep the ball and work an opening to have a shot. If that takes 40 passes to create that opening fine.

So if I was boss my simple tactic would be

A) Get the ball
B) Keep the ball by passing to a man in the same shirt as you
C) Work ball towards the opposition goal
D) Shoot at the net if no shot is on keep passing the ball 

Apologies in advance, this post is all over the shop and poorly structured and articulated.  Also, sorry carheex to borrow your formation as such, but I was having fun playing around with it and wanted to go into a little more theoretical depth about it, no matter how unrealistic it is.  Also 4-2-3-1 doesn't rely on good wingers and wingback is a player's role not a formation.

Fellow Aussies, you're going to love this.  It's modelled on the Australian formation at the 2006 WC where we punched way above our weight.  From here forward it's referred to as the "Aussie Guus" formation, it's a highly unconventional 3-6-1.  I've conveniently left out that many clubs in the 1990s used it in the Bundesliga and that the USA attempted, albeit with little success to adopt this system during their dismal 1998 WC campaign where IIRC they finished dead last out of the 32 teams.  Truth be told, they were horrible because they were too lazy and this system in fact thrives on hard work and high fitness levels.  We invented it and were the first to play it.

It's setup to aim for teams to punch above their weight, but still allows for 2 or 3 very outstanding individual players, sound familiar?  Well keep reading.  Does anyone remember when Rafa gained control of the youth academy?  I can't remember for the life of me, but somebody who spoke in depth with him was saying that he maintained a massive emphasis on counter-attack.  This is perfect.  If you're not already bored, please read on!

The idea behind this formation is to clog up the midfield, maintain possession and be ready to counter-attack intelligently, swiftly and in numbers if need be.  The six man 'midfield' (which includes 2 wingbacks and a holding midfielder) means it's possible to switch between a defensive shape and an attacking shape fairly easily.  Now I know what you're thinking, why isn't this a 5-4-1 with 2 very attacking wingbacks who are part of the 5 man defence?  There are two constants in this system: 3 defenders stay back at all times.  1 striker is up front at all times.  The major obstacle to implementing this system is that Hodgson doesn't bark orders at the team from the touchline enough to switch between defense/offense/counter/possession etc. (and of course the obvious, learning a whole new system).

It is a primarily defensively-minded formation that with a lot of movement can become more offensive but that is quite draining on the players.  A lot of movement and interchanging between the more attacking units of the team can yield very little and we could have just exhausted our players and have very little to show for it.  Worth noting is that this formation will fail miserably if you don't give 100%, but Rafa loved his hard workers and is best played quite fluidly which is another thing that Hodgson doesn't like to do, but it's not like he logs on here anyway.  If I didn't enjoy theorycrafting, I wouldn't do it, right?

The problem with a three-man defence is that it rarely works well against anything other than two strikers, lucky for us though nothing is more quintessentially British.  In terms of man-marking with this system, a three-man defence would utilise two-man markers with the spare man to track any opposition midfielders that get forward in addition to our hardworking back-tracking midfield 6 (although not all of them drop back of course).

Set up like so:

                     Reina
     Carragher Kyrgiakos Agger
Johnson         Meireles          Aurelio
         Gerrard            Cole
                     Kuyt
                    Torres

As you can see, the formation is quite narrow.  Agger and Kyrgiakos swap positions regularly to balance between man marking their strikers, having our aerial threat in the best area and allowing Danny Agger to be ready to cover and sweep up any players that have beat their man.  We exploit Dirk Kuyt's high work rate by running him predominately from side to side to support any attacks instigated by the wingers, which won't be too many but being the workhorse he is, he will no doubt backtrack and attempt to press opponents bringing the ball into our midfield, where he is then met by 2 very good defensive units in Meireles and Gerrard and any attacks with width will be dealt with by Aurelio/Konchesky (don't trust Aurelio's fitness) and Johnson and we've still got 3 CBs.

Going back to Dirk Kuyt (as he's quite possibly the most important cog in this system).  In attack he and Gerrard or Cole are completely interchangeable allowing him time to sit back and take a breather but be there if necessary and allow Gerrard and Cole quite a lot of time on the ball from deep.  If they can beat their man, they will be in quite an advanced position with time and space on the ball.

I'm going to post a few pictures in a few minutes of how the system would look in a couple of different but relatively common scenarios. As you will see it freely morphs from a 3-4-2-1 to a 3-3-1-3 a la Chile this world cup but coming from deeper.  Take note of how Brazil destroyed the ultra-attacking Chile by hitting them on the counter when their very own defenders refused to play into Chile's attacking line.

The back 3 play quite deep due to a lack of pace and by using Kuyt instead of Cole, he will use his brain to get involved in link up play if he's isolated which Cole doesn't seem to want to do.  Looking at it now, it's almost identical to the system carheex posted, but Lucas has a lot of responsibility in his setup and I've given it to Meireles as I feel he's better suited to the job.  Also, I've used Cole in a different position as I feel he's too lazy/not strong enough to hold the ball up and act as the link between Torres and the midfielders.

These types of systems (3 blocks of 3 with a floating player) are all modelled on the "Swiss bolt" which is where hardwork and intelligence reign supreme in order to allow teams to punch above their weight with only few actual good players.  In our case: Gerrard, Torres, Johnson/Meireles (from deep, together they count as 1) and Cole/Kuyt (more advanced, together they count as 1).

We also don't have a big enough squad for this system because we're clearly overstaffed.  It was fun thinking how I'd play this system out though.  Also, LMs and RMs who are somewhat half decent at defending are often employed as the wingbacks (Emerton, Chipperfield) because their primary role isn't defending but attacking.  Actually, scrap those F***ing pictures, I'm going to draw up a practical formation for what we've currently got and something that we could use.  The more I think about it this, the less feasible it becomes

Back to the drawing board.

I have a really foreign sounding tactic that we haven't heard for a while. Now bare with me for a second because it may sound crazy, but here goes:

F***ing ATTACK! Don't F***ing give it to Poulsen, or Skrtel, or Carra, give it to someone who knows what to do with it and let them F***ing do it.

I have a really foreign sounding tactic that we haven't heard for a while. Now bare with me for a second because it may sound crazy, but here goes:

F***ing ATTACK! Don't F***ing give it to Poulsen, or Skrtel, or Carra, give it to someone who knows what to do with it and let them F***ing do it.

That would involve some new thinking from our attacking players though, like moving into space so they can be passed to or playing on the shoulder of their marker, enabling a ball to be put over the top on which they can run on to. Now that would be novel.

Very similar to my idea a few posts up. The biggest advantage of the "wingback" formation considering our current personnel is the roles played by Johnson/Aurelio.

Normally, with 4 at the back the 2 fullbacks support attack leaving 2 centre backs. With "our" idea it would leave 3 centre backs, negating the need for 2 "holding midfielders" and the subsequent dross playing style that goes with it.
Normally, with 4 at the back....you have 4 at the back! With the "wingback" formation there would be 5 at the back when defending.

Another advantage is that it enables us to play more 1st team players in their natural positions. It also gives us a fantastic 3 man central midfield which can easily be adapted to 4 by dropping Cole back or even 6 by aligning the wingbacks.

Now, we all know the email addresses of every decision maker in the banking world but does anyone know how to get this in to "Bricktop" Hodgson's inbox??

Very similar to my idea a few posts up. The biggest advantage of the "wingback" formation considering our current personnel is the roles played by Johnson/Aurelio.

Normally, with 4 at the back the 2 fullbacks support attack leaving 2 centre backs. With "our" idea it would leave 3 centre backs, negating the need for 2 "holding midfielders" and the subsequent dross playing style that goes with it.
Normally, with 4 at the back....you have 4 at the back! With the "wingback" formation there would be 5 at the back when defending.

Another advantage is that it enables us to play more 1st team players in their natural positions. It also gives us a fantastic 3 man central midfield which can easily be adapted to 4 by dropping Cole back or even 6 by aligning the wingbacks.

Now, we all know the email addresses of every decision maker in the banking world but does anyone know how to get this in to "Bricktop" Hodgson's inbox??

I did edit that in up the top because I mentioned it somewhere down the bottom and thought you deserve a little more credit for the general idea.  No matter any which way we look at things, the personnel we've got are really only set up for a few limited formations and we really lack squad depth to do anything too drastic.  I was thinking about how we've really downgraded our players lately and was wondering what systems we could use to punch above our weight and how to implement them, so to speak.

The 3-6-1 ticked more boxes than the Swiss bolt, which is probably a little too archaic these days and the other ones that came to mind we simply lacked the right players.  I've also got reservations about that system because if Torres gets injured, I can't see N'Gog leading the line by himself in that formation as it's invariably harder than the 4-2-3-1 which he can do a decent job of leading the line.  Also, given that Kuyt is probably the focal point of my adaptation of it, with him out, nobody could even consider that role.  An injury or two and we'll be looking at the likes of Poulsen, Lucas, Babel and Jovanovic trying to work a quite complex system.  It's just not gonna happen.  Far too much workload for a small squad IMO.

As always though, a pleasure talking tactics and I intend to continue with a brand new plan that actually suits the players at our disposal and not too much variation from what we're currently doing

edit: Fair play mate, remember when we had Alonso and Mascherano as our 2 DMs, you can't call that playing style dross - it was magnificent to watch.  Any formation can be made to look good or bad, I've seen 5-4-1 look pretty and 4-3-3 look horrible, it's all in how you play it and the roles given to the players and that.  We didn't look half as bad as people made out that we did last year.

Hodgson tactics so far have been shocking, there is a lot of sitting off and not pressing the ball something done under Benitez.

Hodgson sets his teams up hard to break down, compact, something in my opinion which suits a Fulham side but does not suit a Liverpool side.

Getting the ball forward quick playing off the target man. 

Hodgson sets his teams up hard to break down, compact, something in my opinion which suits a Fulham side but does not suit a Liverpool side.

That's because Hodgson's main target seems to be 'Don't lose the game' rather than 'Win this game'. So like you say it suits a Fulham side, because teams like Fulham aim for around mid table and will be more than happy to take a draw.

And the reason he has such a low away win record, 7 in all his time in the premiership. Fulham fans are already saying at least Hughes tries to win games.

A mate of mine, who's pally with Roy and his family; asked Roy (yesterday) what tactics he would use for the Northampton game.

Roy told him (and I sh*t you not): "Just the usual minty ones"  

Once again.

This should be our starting XI at least for now.

                                    Reina                                                                                                         Reina
 
Kelly     Carragher/Skrtel               Agger              Konchesky                             Kelly      Carragher/Skrtel            Agger          Konchesky
                                                                                                or
Johnson         Meireles                   Gerrard                Kuyt                               Johnson         Meireles                Gerrard                Cole

                                    Cole
                                                                                                                                     Kuyt                    Torres
                                  Torres

Play the best attacking team we have. Get the goals early and if we are sitting comfortable around the hour or 75th minute mark or initial strategy isn't working, ring the changes, whichever comes first.

If we're leading 2-3 goals, bring in defensive cover like Poulsen or Lucas to protect the scoreline and our main players.

Don't start with that crap where we start with a defensive midfielder and suddenly need to chase the game with little time left.

We are Wimbledon mark 2.