We're slowly coming back to our best

[dww]

Cant be a coincidence that we come back to last season's defensive solidity since Glenn Johnson went out. It was an experiment that didn't work.

I'd consider him as a right midfielder but we can't have him at full back except v smaller teams at Anfield

I don't agree that he is a right midfielder and I think that he will grow to be an excellent fullback for us. It took at least 6 months before Evra fitted the team at United for example.

I do however think that along with changing the CM positions and style and the injuries we had it was a step too far to also introduce such a change at fullback. I'll put my hand up and say I think the change in approach did have a negative impact and part of what has got us back on track is a back to basics approach in defense. That doesn't mean that long term we shouldn't be looking to evolve the way we play though.

[Exiled_red]

It's an interesting point about Johnson, our improvement for me has coincided with us getting the defence sorted out, this isn't a coincidence, but I'm not sure about the Johnson situation. I think that the defence has definately benefited from a relative amount of stability in the last few weeks, earlier in the season due to injuries and suspensions we were making numerous changes every game, for the last few weeks we've had a settled back four and only really made the odd change to it.

I do think however that having Carragher at right back has added to this solidity in that he's not as prone to forward runs as Johnson and hence is not caught out of position as often (this is inevitable to some extent with attacking fullbacks). However we have seen an improvement in Insua's game mostly going forward so there are benefits to the attacking fullbacks. Although the presence of Carragher at RB could help defensively as when Insua is forward and we lose the ball we have 3 defenders rather than two back. I think when Johnson comes back we need to ensure that there is sufficient cover at the back maybe meaning when one fullback goes forward the other stays back. Earlier in the season both would be forward at the same time making us vulnerable and resulting in us being caught out too often

[pezzzer]

Honest to god the two faces some posters have on here!! A bad half a season and they are calling for rafas head, and a win against neverton gets them back supporting the manager ffs

so many plastic fans

[Guest]

I dont think Johnson was the problem. I think using Kyrgiakos and Agger FINALLY coming back from being broken for so long has really helped us. Skrtel just needs a very long rest. Our biggest problem is taking control of anything in the air. Skrtel and Carragher dont do that well. Agger and Kyrgiakos to this extremely well. They're a perfect centre pair.

I'm actually surprised Mascherano did so well at right back. Certainly better than any game Johnsons had for us.

But Agger only played yesterday, it was Skrtel and Kyriagos in central defence all the time.

[vlahka]

Most of the games we had were Carragher and Skrtel in the centre. Once Kyrgiakos got in there we started doing alot better.

[Mattshark]

It's an interesting point about Johnson, our improvement for me has coincided with us getting the defence sorted out, this isn't a coincidence, but I'm not sure about the Johnson situation. I think that the defence has definately benefited from a relative amount of stability in the last few weeks, earlier in the season due to injuries and suspensions we were making numerous changes every game, for the last few weeks we've had a settled back four and only really made the odd change to it.

I do think however that having Carragher at right back has added to this solidity in that he's not as prone to forward runs as Johnson and hence is not caught out of position as often (this is inevitable to some extent with attacking fullbacks). However we have seen an improvement in Insua's game mostly going forward so there are benefits to the attacking fullbacks. Although the presence of Carragher at RB could help defensively as when Insua is forward and we lose the ball we have 3 defenders rather than two back. I think when Johnson comes back we need to ensure that there is sufficient cover at the back maybe meaning when one fullback goes forward the other stays back. Earlier in the season both would be forward at the same time making us vulnerable and resulting in us being caught out too often

Can't agree with that, we have not been caught on the break, we were caught at set pieces.