Generally when you look at our squad it appears that the central area/spine is the strength. This is true in terms of personnel and it has held us together at times this season, however in the last two games I think we have started to see the limitations of the Alonso - Mascherano - Gerrard triumvirate. The weaknesses are in both attack and defense.
Defense: Both seem to leave the area in front of the centre backs free too often and teams on occasion exploit this and when one or more of our defenders (usually on the left hand side) push up we often get caught on the break. It is almost as if both players feel the other will be covering and they are not.
This is more of a problem with Agger in defense as he is more prone to moving up field meaning that the deep midfielders are more often the last line of defense.
Attack: None of the players regularly get into the area near the D where the ball so often come out to. Alonso is the most prone to be their but he is often slow to get there so when he does the opportunity is harder. Lampard (and in the past Scholes) have scored many goals making runs onto balls coming out into these areas. I think this is one of the areas where a more dynamic player (like for example Barry) would benefit our team.
Essentially I think our midfield is short of one more goal threat which we need in order to win the league. It is possible that the balance of the wide players is a contributory factor but I really think that with the exception of Christiano Ronaldo there are no wide players around who would significantly add systematically to how well we used the type of possession we seem to generate at the minute.
Defense: Both seem to leave the area in front of the centre backs free too often and teams on occasion exploit this and when one or more of our defenders (usually on the left hand side) push up we often get caught on the break. It is almost as if both players feel the other will be covering and they are not.
This is more of a problem with Agger in defense as he is more prone to moving up field meaning that the deep midfielders are more often the last line of defense.
Attack: None of the players regularly get into the area near the D where the ball so often come out to. Alonso is the most prone to be their but he is often slow to get there so when he does the opportunity is harder. Lampard (and in the past Scholes) have scored many goals making runs onto balls coming out into these areas. I think this is one of the areas where a more dynamic player (like for example Barry) would benefit our team.
Essentially I think our midfield is short of one more goal threat which we need in order to win the league. It is possible that the balance of the wide players is a contributory factor but I really think that with the exception of Christiano Ronaldo there are no wide players around who would significantly add systematically to how well we used the type of possession we seem to generate at the minute.
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