Birmingham Away Build Up

[DannyMan2006]

Well yes i will say what i like, much like what you do.

I just don't see how at first he seemed to be playing two defensive midfielders then changed it to playing none. I'm not having a go at Roy for the sake of it but surely you can see that he made an absolute balls up from the start which was compounded by his inability or reluctance to change it when it was apparent very early it wasn't working.

For the last time Masch dropping out did NOT force him to change it.

Flurry of chances? You are joking right? We hit the post twice in one move but that was it....absolutely toothless display. Roy may have felt this, that or the other but the fact is he got it wrong.

You say masch dropping out didn't force him to change it. Hmm. You see that logic I don't understand. Because originally when masch was available we were down as 4231. When masch dropped out he went to 442. You can spout all the rubbish you like, but that is black and White - mascherano ruling himself out was the sole reason for the change in formation.

The rest of the argument is up for debate. Could he have played Poulsen? From what I saw against trabzonspur I think probably not. Could he have played Spearing? Would have been a risk but so was 442.

Anyhow as I've always stated, the three goals all came from agger not being up to scratch at lb - possibly down to concussion. In hindsight we should have gone with fabio at lb (who played at lm) and also gone 4231. But that's life. All I say is that it is clear he wanted to play 4231, but that after losing his best holding player he took a gamble. The gamble failed.

[DannyMan2006]

Deleted.

[Ben_Itez]

You say masch dropping out didn't force him to change it. Hmm. You see that logic I don't understand. Because originally when masch was available we were down as 4231. When masch dropped out he went to 442. You can spout all the rubbish you like, but that is black and White - mascherano ruling himself out was the sole reason for the change in formation.

The rest of the argument is up for debate. Could he have played Poulsen? From what I saw against trabzonspur I think probably not. Could he have played Spearing? Would have been a risk but so was 442.

Anyhow as I've always stated, the three goals all came from agger not being up to scratch at lb - possibly down to concussion. In hindsight we should have gone with fabio at lb (who played at lm) and also gone 4231. But that's life. All I say is that it is clear he wanted to play 4231, but that after losing his best holding player he took a gamble. The gamble failed.

We don't know for sure that he initially planned on playing 4-2-3-1, just internet rumour (albeit one that had got the team right for the previous two games). It isn't Black and White at all. Please don't patronise like you are some kind of football sage....you're not.

The fact remains, whatever the circumstances, a 4-4-2 for that game was the major reason why we were so comfortably beaten. City never had to get out of second gear and really taught us a lesson.

Blaming all three goals on Agger (though he did have a poor game, no doubt in part to his recent concussion) shows your refusal to admit or lack of understanding of why we were so comfortably outplayed. City were able to shift the ball around the midfield with impunity. Nobody got near them and a couple of simple square passes across the pitch exposed our numbers in midfield forcing our wide players inside to prevent City simply waltzing through the middle.....cue one extra pass out wide leaving our full backs exposed one on one time and time again. Roy ****ed up simple as.

[gentingfrmhell]

Anyways, back on track.

------------------Reina------------------
Johnson----Carra--------Agger--------Kon
------------Gerrard---Meireless-----------
Maxi-------------Babel----------Jovanovic
----------------Torres--------------------

I'd also consider

------------------Reina------------------
Johnson----Carra--------Agger--------Kon
------------Gerrard---Poulsen-------------
Maxi-----------Meireles---------------Babel
----------------Torres---------------------

Or maybe even switch Gerrard and Meireles around.

I like the first formation. or i feel we could go with the following:

------------------Reina------------------
Johnson----Carra--------Agger--------Kon
------------Lucas-----Meireless-----------
Maxi-------------Gerrard----------Pacheco
----------------Torres--------------------

[Slinky Skills]

Sunday is officially the start of our season I reckon. I believe we'll put in a good performance and fingers crossed bang in a few goals too which will be good for the confidence and then we can start climbing that table.

Think the team will gel quickly now and we'll become a decent team again in the not too distant future.

Most of the players will have had a nice break, Torres didn't play the other day which is a massive boost and he'll be raring to go on Sunday! I don't think Raool Meresh will play Sunday tbh, think we'll go with Lucas and Gerrard sitting deep with Jovanovic, Poulson and Maxi just in front of them and Torres on his own up front.

C'mon Liverpool!!!!


Legoooooooo!!

[Craig_H]

Hope you're right mate. With Old Trafford next weekend, we desperately need not only the points, but also a confidence lift from Birmingham.

A win on sunday, followed by another against Steaua on Thursday, sends us into next weekend with momemtum and real belief.

By hook or by crook, we really need to pull out a win at St Andrews.

[Mostar]

Hope you're right mate. With Old Trafford next weekend, we desperately need not only the points, but also a confidence lift from Birmingham.

A win on sunday, followed by another against Steaua on Thursday, sends us into next weekend with momemtum and real belief.

By hook or by crook, we really need to pull out a win at St Andrews.

St Andrew's Ground is a difficult place to get a win.

I know we all would like to see 3 points there but I personally would be content with a point.

Game vs. Steaua is a completely different kind of game. If we win with style, the confidence should be just high enough to put us in a good mental state for the game against scum.

[Craig_H]

In terms of the specifics of Birmingham away, yeah a point isnt at all bad.

I just feel though, from the position our season is currently in, in terms of uncertainty (both off the field, and on it, from the perspective of us lot still not being sure how we will play etc), we could really do with the feel-good factor of a win. Especially with next weekend's game unlikely to yield 3 points (or is that too negative?).

Maybe i am naive, but despite Birmingham being a tricky prospect at their place, i still overwhelmingly think that we have VASTLY better players and that, from this starting point, setting up a system and style of play that will enable us to take advantage of our superior quality, shouldnt be beyond us, or beyond our expectations.

In situations such as this, as well as the obvious point of getting the system and style of play right, i'd just seek to tell our players simply 'trust your ability'. Really and truly, if we play well, we should generally win this game - so if we can get the confidence and belief into them, and remove the nervousness & pressure, i dont think asking for a win is too much.

[banditos]

Sunday is officially the start of our season I reckon. I believe we'll put in a good performance and fingers crossed bang in a few goals too which will be good for the confidence and then we can start climbing that table.

Think the team will gel quickly now and we'll become a decent team again in the not too distant future.

Most of the players will have had a nice break, Torres didn't play the other day which is a massive boost and he'll be raring to go on Sunday! I don't think Raool Meresh will play Sunday tbh, think we'll go with Lucas and Gerrard sitting deep with Jovanovic, Poulson and Maxi just in front of them and Torres on his own up front.

C'mon Liverpool!!!!


Legoooooooo!!

If Poulson lines up in a more advanced midfield role than SG, I will eat my own cock.

[Slinky Skills]

If Poulson lines up in a more advanced midfield role than SG, I will eat my own cock.

Eat your own cock you will then!!

Sorry, got the positions mixed up there slightly. Poulson will sit back while Gerro will sit in the middle of the other three.

[-V-]

3 points are a must. You can't go to places like birmingham one week before old trafford and settle for a point. **** that. If we draw at brum and then lose next week then we will only have 5 points from 15. That would be horrific.

Birmingham will fight hard but we are still much superior to them and we should never ever be settling for a point. We will beat them.

[Baracus]

I agree with Slinky, Sunday is the start of the season for me. With all the stop start of europa qualification, pre-season games, international games, over and done with we can finally just concentrate on us.

[Gibbo]

Wash 'N' Go shampoo, ring any bells?

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyZ7TfC5shU"]YouTube - JIMMY BULLARD CELEBRATES WASH & GO'S 21ST BIRTHDAY.mov[/ame]

[Fernandinho]

LOL Poulsen playing AM. FYI Poulsen is as DM as they come, it would be like playing Masch there but worse.

[Mostar]

3 points are a must. You can't go to places like Birmingham one week before old trafford and settle for a point. **** that. If we draw at brum and then lose next week then we will only have 5 points from 15. That would be horrific.

Birmingham will fight hard but we are still much superior to them and we should never ever be settling for a point. We will beat them.

I agree that win on Sunday would certainly be a big stepping stone but I'm concerned albeit we are in the different universe in terms of quality of players individually, as a team I don't think we have any advantage.

Bunch of our guys never or rarely played together and I am worried we'll be very sloppy and hesitant to push forward from the get go.

Too many times last year we had tendencies to start pressing when it was already too late to either come back or take a lead and the beginning of this season, so far, does not look much different.

Imo we'll need to get more possessions and better ball control and ball distribution as we have so few scoring chances and that aspect of our game will need an instant improvement.

I also think we will have to finally get some luck on our side cause that seems to be working against us.

On the note that 5 out 15 points would be a disaster I would consider that in the context of games we played and next 9 games coming.

We'd play 3 out of 4 top teams (don't think Spurs will have a great season) in first 5 weeks and for me 5 next games (Sunderland, B'pool, Everton, Blackburn and Bolton) will have much greater impact on this season.

If we get 15 out of 15 in those 5 games (I see no reason why we shouldn't) we will have 20 out of 30 (if we only get a point vs Brum and Scum), which should put us easily in top 4-5 and give us a lot of confidence for the game against Chavs, which we play at home.

3 games after Chelsea are against Wigan, Stoke City and Hammers and we could easily win all those games too and then you never know.

My point is that we cannot ride off the season so early if we only get a point on Sunday and lose to Mancs.

If would be great if we get more out of those 2 games but imo it would not be that horrific if we only get a single point.