Well Well Well Doom Merchants

[dww]

Personally I would class Swansea as a much much better side than both of those sides are there absolute best, the winger on the right hand side and there midget in the center of the park have genuine talent.

But hey ho, we did for sure let Swansea into the game in the 2nd Half and it is possible the one glarring area we need to work on, instead of soaking up pressure we should be piling it on ala the Scum

I kind of agree that Swansea are better than those teams but in part that is an aesthetic thing. They have nice short passing and a couple of very exciting looking players in midfield. In some ways though they remind me of a Hodgson team - their best work is often done in areas where they can't hurt the opposition and they don't commit men consistently into areas where they might score. In that regard Blackpool where much more adventurous.

My balanced view is that while there are many good parts of our team/squad we have two considerable problems which have recurred throughout the season.

1. We have almost no game management and consequently if the opposition changes anything at half time it seems to bamboozle us and we take a considerable period to get our equilibrium back.

2. As identified by Lecter, we are not clinical enough.

[Nicey]

I kind of agree that Swansea are better than those teams but in part that is an aesthetic thing. They have nice short passing and a couple of very exciting looking players in midfield. In some ways though they remind me of a Hodgson team - their best work is often done in areas where they can't hurt the opposition and they don't commit men consistently into areas where they might score. In that regard Blackpool where much more adventurous.

My balanced view is that while there are many good parts of our team/squad we have two considerable problems which have recurred throughout the season.

1. We have almost no game management and consequently if the opposition changes anything at half time it seems to bamboozle us and we take a considerable period to get our equilibrium back.

2. As identified by Lecter, we are not clinical enough.

Yep would not disagree with any of that

[breffniboy]

I'm happy we're going in the right direction, with the caveats being our lack of finesse in front of goal and heavy dependence on Suarez for that bit of stardust to turn a tight game. Downing has a lot of convincing to do too, although Henderson is now showing little flashes here and there, but both these players need to build their confidence from off the bench because we have better starting options at the moment.
We have things to iron out it's clear, but we're roughly about where we should realistically expect to be at this stage operating under relatively new owners/manager/playing personnel and general philosophy, and the curve is upward.

We can't expect miracles, lets settle for progress instead.

[danperkins]

I kind of agree that Swansea are better than those teams but in part that is an aesthetic thing. They have nice short passing and a couple of very exciting looking players in midfield. In some ways though they remind me of a Hodgson team - their best work is often done in areas where they can't hurt the opposition and they don't commit men consistently into areas where they might score. In that regard Blackpool where much more adventurous.

My balanced view is that while there are many good parts of our team/squad we have two considerable problems which have recurred throughout the season.

1. We have almost no game management and consequently if the opposition changes anything at half time it seems to bamboozle us and we take a considerable period to get our equilibrium back.

2. As identified by Lecter, we are not clinical enough.

[Nick77]

I'm not a doom merchant BUT just because we've beaten the Chavs away that doesn't mean our season has now all of a sudden turned into a successful one. How many times over the years have we beaten the top teams only to lose or draw against the lesser teams & finish WELL behind the leaders?

[~LFCHistory~]

I'm not a doom merchant BUT just because we've beaten the Chavs away that doesn't mean our season has now all of a sudden turned into a successful one. How many times over the years have we beaten the top teams only to lose or draw against the lesser teams & finish WELL behind the leaders?

If Downing, Carroll and Carragher are kept on the bench and we stick with more or less the same 11 that won on Sunday then I'm confident we will begin to play well consistently.

[Nicey]

I'm not a doom merchant BUT just because we've beaten the Chavs away that doesn't mean our season has now all of a sudden turned into a successful one. How many times over the years have we beaten the top teams only to lose or draw against the lesser teams & finish WELL behind the leaders?

Table does not lie and by it we are not in bad shape at all, we just have to accept its going to be tough, the only way we will get into Europe is if we play like we are going for the title .. these next string of games will be vital .. it we manage to get 1 draw 1 loss and 4 wins out of the next 6 We will be in the Hunt going into 2012

[Fredo]

Re: game management point raised by dww. I think the way we dealt with the Chelsea onslaught (albeit after getting through 20 minutes of considerable pressure) did go quite well with the changes we made (Henderson then later on Downing).

[Nicey]

Yep both those subs changed the game especially Hendo ... maybe .. just maybe .. Kenny and Steve might know a thing or two about this football lark

[Fredo]

Thing is, Rafa used to sit and wait a bit before making changes when things were going against us as well rather than making rash decisions. We were controlling the game before Chelsea got back into the match. When Sturridge came on he played quite deep, picking up the ball and freeing up space for Mata and Malouda in their final third. Took us a bit of time to adjust.

[dww]

Re: game management point raised by dww. I think the way we dealt with the Chelsea onslaught (albeit after getting through 20 minutes of considerable pressure) did go quite well with the changes we made (Henderson then later on Downing).

I think in General given a bit of time Dalglish has been able to change the way we are playing either through instruction or substitution. However the players on the pitch seem not to have the combination of flexibility and game reading to react appropriately without considerable input from the bench.

Obviously there are limits to what players can do but in recent years Alonso and Mascherano were excellent at it and other teams like United and Chelsea have had better balance in their midfields to do these things.

[Arn]

Thing is, Rafa used to sit and wait a bit before making changes when things were going against us as well rather than making rash decisions. We were controlling the game before Chelsea got back into the match. When Sturridge came on he played quite deep, picking up the ball and freeing up space for Mata and Malouda in their final third. Took us a bit of time to adjust.

Rafa didn't exactly sit and wait. He had a game plan. He played with a very hard working XI from the start to tire out the opposition and then he almost always took off a couple of the hard workers and replaced them with quicker more skilful players, better goal threats.

One season he almost always substituted Lucas after 60 minutes. Happened very very often. He replaced him with a more attacking player.

Fergie very often use the same tactic. Solskjear is a very good example of that and now Hernandez. They replace a hard working player and score(d) a lot of goals because they play(ed) against a tired team.

[BootRoom]

We have to finish those lesser teams off though and that for me has been our problem for many years

This season the problem is even more obvious because we are creating enough chances to drub some of these but we are not clinical enough

The problem with this forum is that things are only ever black and white when its probably more likely to be several different shades of grey

For me the panic from some posters (over the last few weeks) has been laughable but equally to paint everything as rosey is delusional

We are a work in progress and we can definitely improve in a number of areas not least putting the ball in the back of the net

Irony alert

[BootRoom]

If Downing, Carroll and Carragher are kept on the bench and we stick with more or less the same 11 that won on Sunday then I'm confident we will begin to play well consistently.

Only make changes through injury/loss of form. Improve competition by making players fight for their place.

[BringbackBiscan]

Only make changes through injury/loss of form. Improve competition by making players fight for their place.

Something no club does anymore. Squad rotation is part and parcel of the modern day game.