So, has our dip in form anything to do with Paco leaving?

[El Jefecito]

OK Speedy, 10 missed passes and 450 missed shots

Surely, you are thinking of JAR, he's the only one that misses that many shots

[Red Chilli]

Surely, you are thinking of JAR, he's the only one that misses that many shots

Well if they weren't passes they must have been shots from the little chef.

[El Jefecito]

Well if they weren't passes they must have been shots from the little chef.

[yukpo]

*rotation

*arrogance after derby game

[Morph]

Like you say, his tackling is awesome and his passing isn't much worse than that.

his passing was ****ing **** the last 2 matches he played, I don't care what stats or other 'facts' you come up with, i watch a game with my eyes not a pen and paper, and my eyes tell me his passing was ****.

[lfcruleus]

I have a source for my info? Do you? Or are you just pulling it out of your ass? BTW My stats were only for the game against Brum, and I stand by them.

Does it count as a completed pass if the ball goes into touch cos thats the only way those stats are right. He was brilliant in the tackle on Sat but constantly gave them the ball back, in one phase he won it gave it back won it again, gave it back then fouled the player it was hilarious.

[lfcruleus]

Why do we need a poll for that? It has been atrocious.

And on the origonal subject, no. Torres not starting and the injury to Xabi has been the main reasons behind our dip in form.

interesting as everyone was saying Xabi was ****e 2 weeks ago.....

[The Glove]

his passing was ****ing **** the last 2 matches he played, I don't care what stats or other 'facts' you come up with, i watch a game with my eyes not a pen and paper, and my eyes tell me his passing was ****.

Does it count as a completed pass if the ball goes into touch cos thats the only way those stats are right. He was brilliant in the tackle on Sat but constantly gave them the ball back, in one phase he won it gave it back won it again, gave it back then fouled the player it was hilarious.

He tackled 2 of them after his 3 mistakes. Crowd went from moans to applause then to moans then applause then moans then laughing.

[carlton]

I think theres somthing in Pako leaving that having a detrimental affect. Football players having such fragile egos need constant reassurance and they wont get that from Rafa. Pako was the 'good cop' in this relationship by the sound of things so perhaps thye are missing him a bit.

[Guest]

As regards to passing, I've watched Carrick for manure yesterday night and I was thinking he was arguably the best passer of a football in England at the moment. Xabi used to be fantastic but he's let his standards drop and I don't think he's better than Carrick at the moment.

Together with Scholes (who hardly loses a ball), they form a formidable central midfield pairing (albeit a little lacking in recuperating the ball) but superior to what we're offering passing wise from this position at the moment.

[Kenneth]

As regards to passing, I've watched Carrick for manure yesterday night and I was thinking he was arguably the best passer of a football in England at the moment. Xabi used to be fantastic but he's let his standards drop and I don't think he's better than Carrick at the moment.

Together with Scholes (who hardly loses a ball), they form a formidable central midfield pairing (albeit a little lacking in recuperating the ball) but superior to what we're offering passing wise from this position at the moment.

Tut tut.

[Iceman]

I cant believe no one has mentioned this (apologies if someone has)

Our recent dip in form is due to the absence of one player Daniel Agger, he is the only footballing centre half we have, Carra and Sami are great defenders, but as mentioned tend to hoof it out of defence, Agger is a ball playing CB (similar to Hansen) and can dribble the ball out of defence, once he crosses the halfway line we have an extra midfielder and the opposition are outnumbered in midfield. His pace also allows us to play a higher line meaning the 3 parts of the team are much closer together.

With Sami's lack of pace we obviously have to play a bit deeper and any hoofed clearance goes into a midfield where we are matched 1-2-1 or outnummbered if they are playing 4-5-1

[Morph]

I cant believe no one has mentioned this (apologies if someone has)

Our recent dip in form is due to the absence of one player Daniel Agger, he is the only footballing centre half we have, Carra and Sami are great defenders, but as mentioned tend to hoof it out of defence, Agger is a ball playing CB (similar to Hansen) and can dribble the ball out of defence, once he crosses the halfway line we have an extra midfielder and the opposition are outnumbered in midfield. His pace also allows us to play a higher line meaning the 3 parts of the team are much closer together.

With Sami's lack of pace we obviously have to play a bit deeper and any hoofed clearance goes into a midfield where we are matched 1-2-1 or outnummbered if they are playing 4-5-1

Don't agree with this at all to be honest, he played v Pompey so lets count that out, and there was no way I can see that Agger would have helped the performance v B'ham. Our problem wasn't at the back, and we had all the time in the world on the ball, so I don't think we'd have noticed any difference.

We possibly might have seen a difference v Porto, because we needed to retain and pass the ball better i nthat match, but Hyypia was fine doing this in that match.

[Iceman]

to clarify my point I was referring mainly to last saturday

Against Porto and Portsmouth we were the away team and therefore expected to be put under some pressure, Brum came solely to defend and get players behind the ball, my point was if Agger had played all the 3 sections of the team would have been more compact and his dribbling out of defence would have given us the extra midfielder

[Marky]

Why do we need a poll for that? It has been atrocious.

And on the origonal subject, no. Torres not starting and the injury to Xabi has been the main reasons behind our dip in form.

As well as Stevie Gerrard's inability to get us out of this little rut we'r experiencing.