No Sissoko = bad news

[Shaggy]

It was the defense that was ****e last night. Nothing to do with not having Sissoko in the centre of the park.

Sissoko is a big part of our defending. He isn’t a holding midfielder who sits in front of the back four, sure, but he is crucial to our defending by the way he presses all over the park and wins the ball back for us time and time again. It had everything to do with his absence.

[Depth_Charge]

Also why did we leave Aurelio out there being skinned - we've all spotted that he's ****e at stopping crosses and they were exploiting it.

To be fair - he wasn't getting much assisitance down the left from Garcia - I thought we should have brought Momo on for Garcia at half time and played Stevie in Garcia's position to prevent the onslaught that eventually came.

Still - it was an exciting match...

[Shaggy]

Yep. I also thought last night offered evidence why Garcia should never play on either flank for us. We get destroyed down whatever side he’s playing. He is a 2nd striker, and a very good one at that, or an impact sub to change a game. I really don’t wanna see him playing wide midfield again.

[Dhav]

I see the point, and I tend to agree we are a much stronger defensive unit with Momo in the side, but all their attacks were coming down the flanks with Finnan and Aurelio constantly getting caught out of position and leaving loads of space for them to exploit. To me that was more worrying than how we coped without Momo.

[Parm]

agree 100% you don't mess with the spine of the team, asking for trouble

[Neil Young]

Yep. I also thought last night offered evidence why Garcia should never play on either flank for us. We get destroyed down whatever side he’s playing. He is a 2nd striker, and a very good one at that, or an impact sub to change a game. I really don’t wanna see him playing wide midfield again.

Come on, it's not like we always lose when Garcia plays wide. The whole team was set up for attacking - Aurelio bombed forward at every opportunity and we didn't have control in the middle of the park. I agree Garcia is not a good defender but it wasn't only his fault they had so much joy down our left side.

[Rich]

All this talk about Gerrard being able to perform like Sissoko - really don't think that is the case. Sissoko breaks up attacks and hounds the opposition midfield better than just about anybody I've seen - reason for his? His stamina, telescopic legs, and his recovery speed.

Sissoko is just about the ultimate destroyer - just needs a wise Hamann-type understanding of the game, which will develop as he gets older.

[CAD]

I've read various people on the internet saying we should leave Sissoko out of the team for home games against teams we should beat, because "we don't need him for that". Tonight proved that theory to be a nonsense.

To play cohesive, attacking football you still need someone to win it for you in the first place. We had no-one breaking up play, no destroyer. It's no coincidence that every time Xabi & Stevie play as a pair we offer way more goalscoring opportunities to the opposition than we do when Momo plays.

Tonight we were soft-centred. Not only has tonight's game offered us the evidence that Momo should be one of the first names on the team-sheet, it also sticks two fingers up at cretins like Andy Gray who bleat about Stevie playing right midfield. Sorry, but while we have Momo & Xabi fit and well, Gerrard plays on the right. End of.

I couldn't agree less. As long as Gerrard/Alonso and Carra/Agger had the strength to cover for Luis and Fabio we controlled the game. The first 45 mins we played them into the ground with power football. As the second half progressed the "back3" suffered from the "Fabio/Garcia effect" and substitutions should have been made. That's when Momo was needed. After 55 mins and not before.

The leftside was a defensive disaster last night but created so much in the first 45 mins going forward that we didn't suffer that much from it. The Turks had their chances with crosses from their RM in the first half as well because Fabio was not to be seen out there. Poor Agger. It's Sami and Traoé all over again.

If Rafa had thrown Riise or even Warnock in after 55 mins and subed Garcia with Momo the two goals would never have happend.

[cobain]

Hey you're learning son! Spot on that Shaggy mate. Gerrard may be more effective in the middle - but the team benefits when he's wide right and Momo and Xabi are in the centre.

That's exactly what I wanted to say!

+ I think Rafa should put Momo in after Crouch scored that spectacular goal! When it was 3-2 it was a bit late... However, at the end of the day, we are the winners and we have 4 points after two games. Not bad, not bad at all!

[Bob]

Come on, it's not like we always lose when Garcia plays wide. The whole team was set up for attacking - Aurelio bombed forward at every opportunity and we didn't have control in the middle of the park. I agree Garcia is not a good defender but it wasn't only his fault they had so much joy down our left side.

Yet both goals came from wide play, as did most of the dangerous attack play from the opposition. Both Garcia and Pennent were culpable. Your right in pointing out that Aurelio was also at fault for our problems down the right.

Lets not downplay Galatasaray's players too much - some of them Suker, and Sabri in particular were excellent!

[Neil Young]

Yet both goals came from wide play, as did most of the dangerous attack play from the opposition. Both Garcia and Pennent were culpable. Your right in pointing out that Aurelio was also at fault for our problems down the right.

Lets not downplay Galatasaray's players too much - some of them Suker, and Sabri in particular were excellent!

Sure the goals came from wide play, like most of their chances. From what I remember though it wasn't like most of these moves just came down one flank from one end of the pitch to the other, they were usually caused by switches in play through central midfield. And quite a few times the central defence looked all over the shop.

All the defending was a bit off although it improved substantially after Sissoko came on which I suppose was the original point of this thread.

You make a good point about Galatasaray. (Talking of which, are there any other words which feature the same letter so many times with such neat spacing?)

[Maestro]

You make a good point about Galatasaray. (Talking of which, are there any other words which feature the same letter so many times with such neat spacing?)

Nerd

:whatever:

[Neil Young]

Oh yeah. h:

[Bob]

You make a good point about Galatasaray. (Talking of which, are there any other words which feature the same letter so many times with such neat spacing?)

I've always like bananas and McManaman for that very reason

[Red_Polo]

Bananarama

I think Gerets saw Aurelio as an unprotected weak link and so told the still excellent Hasan Sas to rape the poor fellow.