Usually after a night to sleep on it, you wake with a bit more of a rational head and take the good points from a game before you move on.
Not this time. Im not sure what I find more distressing;
Rodgers continually getting his tactics wrong. His complete change of tactics last season. His persistence with 1 up top. His playing a full starting 11 when the league should be our priority.
The defences continual mistakes. Playing the man as opposed to the ball.
The lack of pace in our game - Markovic, Sterling, Manquillo, Coutinho and Balotelli are all meant to be bullets. Not one of them looked like it last night, and certainly didnt play that fast game together.
The lack of Pressing done by the players. Seriously like. Hunt in numbers high up the pitch? Where has that gone? Forget about new players bedding in - this was a philosophy last season and we have completely lost it.
The lack of control, passing and moving. Unreal. We played so well with the 3 man triangle last season, everyone moving into a position that ALWAYS provided a pass for the player on the ball and more likely than not a 1 touch pass. Recycling the ball when the pass was not on. Where? We are now hoofing the ball uptop and losing it continually. Is this because Balo is meant to be a great hold up player? GOD AWFUL tactic.
The lack of Goals. We are apparently creating the 2nd most chances and our conversion rate is horrendous. Yes we have Sturridge injured but we knew that would happen. Borini was meant to be sold so he is non existent. Lambert is awful whether that is due to his mindset or lack of talent I cant tell yet. Looks like a Mid table team player at best. Balo is awful. He does nothing well and we do nothing well with him as a target man. Yes he may take time to come up to speed but he is and has always been a 1 in 3/4 goals per game player. Shocking for what we need to get top 4. Where are the Sterling, Hendo, Lallana, Gerrard and our CBs contributions? All our hopes are riding on Studge.
We are at a cross roads here - 1 more game like that and we will have so much work to do to get top 4. Top 4 this year is more important than last year. Its treble the prize money for CL. We will not get back in if we don't get there this year. That is exactly why UTD have shelled out 200Trillion on players they wouldnt have got. It pains me to say it but we are fu**ed if they get CL ahead of us.
What do we do? Go back to everything we did last season. Seriously like. Forget hoof ball. Play we disregard and pace. Hunt in packs. Pass and move. Counter. Want to win every ball and every game. Tempo Tempo Tempo. And if you cant do that then F**k OFF.
FURIOUS at every part of that team down to the groundsmen for f**king up what was so hard to rebuild.
Ye I know some of the above is an over reaction but F**k IT. I'm fuming!
Good post.
I don't understad BR's persistence of playing Balotelli on his own up front. That is never going to work. We have seen it already in the last few games.
Playing Sterling along side Balotellu doesn't work. He is best suited behind the front two.
Why not play two up front - Balotelli - (god forbid) Borini or Balotelli and Lambert? What has he got to lose? He should have brought on Lambert early in the 2nd half to give him a chance. OK. I understand, that Balotelli and Lambert are similar but what the heck - do something different to get a goal.
BR is putting all his eggs in one basket - Sturridge. Very dangerous thing to do. We know Sturridge gets injured regularly.
At this rate we will have to but at two strikers in January and I don't think FSG will be willing to spend big money.
Quite frankly, I don't care much about CL at this stage because we are not going to go too far (with this team). Yes, it would be nice to qualify for the next round but our
priority should be top 4 in PL. At this rate, I don't think we will make top 4 unless something drastic is done.
Also, we need to find a defensive coach. Even last year, we were shipping loads of goals. BR should be practical and look at finding a different defensive coach. I know Colin Pascoe is his friend.
Rant over.
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