Our style of play

[Norbs]

I was thinking yesterday, regardless where we finished last season, Suarez would still have left, we're still not in London, and Sturridge would still have been made of glass

Can you imagine if this was our 'defence' of the title?

[Camble]

So if the team had no injury problems at the moment is this the ideal team to put out given the players we currently have:



Mignolet (or is Jones a realistic option here until someone else is brought in?)

Moreno

Sakho

Toure

Flanagan

Lucas (as the only genuine holding midfielder we have)

Henderson

Lallana

Sterling (at the tip of the diamond - or Coutinho or possibly even Gerrard)

Sturridge

Balotelli

I'd put Lambert and Borini ahead of Balotelli. That's not me jumping on the Anti-Balo Band Wagon, but for our style of play.

It'll be interesting to see what Flanno is like once fit.

Also I like Allen in our team when setup correctly to press, fast movement and fast passing although Lallana can do a lot of this.

[baitman]

we have all noticed that we cannot continue leaking 50 goals a season, mostly because we are no longer able to go up the other end and smash in 100+ goals. the days of our gung-ho footy are over...

we all poo pooed the thought of signing bony as a part replacement for suarez. he isnt fast and mobile enough, etc... and we were right. he wouldnt have fitted in to our style of play as it was.

but times they are a-changing. cue the mouth organ.

posted in the post match after the leicester away game tonight;

Bony may not be as technical and flashy as many like but he is a very effective striker & he scores goals. Is he what we need? At the start of the season i would have said our fast paced counter attacking style wouldn't suit his game.. but sure it seems we don't play like that anymore. He is big,strong, very quick & is a clinical finisher... I would maybe rather have Higuain as my first choice & Martinez will cost huge money and is 28.. but I wouldn't say no to Bony...he's only 25 too.

it seems we have had a seismic shift.
suarez gone, sturridge unavailable for ages, sterling with the weight of all our expectations dragging him down...
we are not going to be that team again. not for a long time.

we now have gerrard away from DM duties, thank ****. lucas adds an element of control and the centre backs know he will be in front of them. things look slightly more settled. mig still has brain farts and looks **** scared of coming off the line at times. we still look **** at defending set pieces, but little steps, we hope to improve, but still this was only leicester.

better to see gerrard following the strikers into the box. midfielders supporting the strikers, about time too. still have a couple of players going missing at times but hopefully we can drop or move a few on soon.

tonight we have conquered the mighty leicester. three points
a couple of times we were wide open. we need to be so much tougher in defence and midfield. we need to press better when we loose possession. we need to move the ball forwards quicker and stop pissing about.

[danperkins]

we have all noticed that we cannot continue leaking 50 goals a season, mostly because we are no longer able to go up the other end and smash in 100+ goals. the days of our gung-ho footy are over...

we all poo pooed the thought of signing bony as a part replacement for suarez. he isnt fast and mobile enough, etc... and we were right. he wouldnt have fitted in to our style of play as it was.

but times they are a-changing. cue the mouth organ.

posted in the post match after the leicester away game tonight;



it seems we have had a seismic shift.
suarez gone, sturridge unavailable for ages, sterling with the weight of all our expectations dragging him down...
we are not going to be that team again. not for a long time.

we now have gerrard away from DM duties, thank ****. lucas adds an element of control and the centre backs know he will be in front of them. things look slightly more settled. mig still has brain farts and looks **** scared of coming off the line at times. we still look **** at defending set pieces, but little steps, we hope to improve, but still this was only leicester.

better to see gerrard following the strikers into the box. midfielders supporting the strikers, about time too. still have a couple of players going missing at times but hopefully we can drop or move a few on soon.

tonight we have conquered the mighty leicester. three points
a couple of times we were wide open. we need to be so much tougher in defence and midfield. we need to press better when we loose possession. we need to move the ball forwards quicker and stop pissing about.

We blitzed teams last season & we cannot do that anymore. The pressing machine is gone, Suarez is gone, Sturridge is injured, Henderson is way off form, Sterling has been good in the last 3 games but we've piled pressure on him & Coutinho has been poor this season.

We don't seem to have a style of play yet, occasionally we'll counter and it looks ok, but we seem a much more lethargic & predictable side. How many times tonight did Sterling burst away down the left, to have absolutely no support or options. So our counter attacking has gone out the window.

When Rodgers came here originally we tried to play death by football.. unfortunately or fortunately this was abandoned as we didn't have the players to suit that style of play, so high intensity pressing & a fast paced counter attacking team was born.

With the new players Rodgers brought, the fast paced counter attacking style went out the window & now we are left with a dysfunctional team that seem to be trying to grind out results. The new signings have been hit and miss to say the least and the likes of Balotelli,Lambert & Lallana were never going to fit a fast paced, counter attacking style anyways.

So this new style with Lucas in there to protect the backline has come to pass, should have been been brought in about a dozen games too late, but thank god Rodgers has finally binned this ridiculous quarter back bull**** with Gerrard in there. I didn't think Stevie was great but sure at least he scored from open play & maybe it's something to build on.

At the moment I don't think we have a style of play or an identity, IMO we are simply, going back to basics, trying to grind out results & build from there. Stopping the rot was priority. Come January it is imperative that we get at least GK & CF. It will be interesting to see what Rodgers does with Lucas.. think that's his 4th excellent performance in a row. Also it will be interesting over the next month when Lucas hopefully gets full match fitness just to see how he progresses. Maybe this month will determine whether we go in the market for another DM.

So style of play?? Not a ****ing clue but sure whatever gets us the results

[ChrisDR1968]

Always liked Bony when I've seen him play for Swansea. I know plenty on here don't but I do

25 goals in 48 appearances last season in all competitions say it all really and we already know he can do it in the Premier League which is not the case if we sign a striker currently playing in a European league who hasn't played here in the past

By the way I got the impression that Rodgers wanted to sign him in the summer but the transfer committee rejected the idea. I've no evidence for that but that's the impression I got at the time. If we can sell Balotelli in January and if Bony is still available for £19m I'd be happy if LFC pulled the trigger for him.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Always liked Bony when I've seen him play for Swansea. I know plenty on here don't but I do

25 goals in 48 appearances last season in all competitions say it all really and we already know he can do it in the Premier League which is not the case if we sign a striker currently playing in a European league who hasn't played here in the past

By the way I got the impression that Rodgers wanted to sign him in the summer but the transfer committee rejected the idea. I've no evidence for that but that's the impression I got at the time. If we can sell Balotelli in January and if Bony is still available for £19m I'd be happy if LFC pulled the trigger for him.

If we have £19m or something in that ballpark available for a new striker in January, then I would prefer if we waved it at Lyon to see if Lacazette is available so that we could bring some pace and trickery back into our front man options.

[ChrisDR1968]

For the United game why not put as much pace into the side as possible? For all it's faults our squad does have a number of very fast players.

How about this line-up for thinking outside the box...


.................Markovic.....................Ster ling

................................Coutinho

..............Lallana............................. .....Can

..................................Lucas

Moreno............Skrtel...............Toure...... .........Manquillo

................................Mignolet


Obviously Rodgers will never play this line-up and formation but in theory could it be an effective team until we have effective strikers available again?

[RedRum]

For the United game why not put as much pace into the side as possible? For all it's faults our squad does have a number of very fast players.

How about this line-up for thinking outside the box...


.................Markovic.....................Ster ling

................................Coutinho

..............Lallana............................. .....Can

..................................Lucas

Moreno............Skrtel...............Toure...... .........Manquillo

................................Mignolet


Obviously Rodgers will never play this line-up and formation but in theory could it be an effective team until we have effective strikers available again?

Very attacking but with Man united being so **** it could work. I think Gerrard will start, would rather he does not

[Gray]

I don't see the point playing a striker when they're so ****. Just go false 9 and duberstein them with constant interchanging flowing football.

[Fosterbloke]

Sterling needs to start in the middle. He's blunted on the wing.

[spud_gun]

[Fosterbloke]

Complete turd. Not even a few long rangers to test the keeper.

[Maxiedge]

It's absolutely abysmal. Honestly, if you could write a horror story before the start of the season of how badly things could go wrong, we are living it.

I started to believe again over the past couple of weeks and I've always been a staunch supporter of Rodgers but that lineup and tactic on Wednesday was unforgivable. I still can't fathom it. It's wrong in so many ways and not even right in one.

Gerrard, Lambert, Allen, Henderson, Lucas in the same team all Basel had to do was double up on Sterling to take away any attacking threat. It's not rocket science, it's obvious for everyone to see EXCEPT Brendan Rodgers and his masterplan. Basel should have been 3 nil up first half, which is ****ing atrocious considering we were trying to keep it tight.

I'm so offended by that, I want him gone ASAP.

[Kenneth]

We have a goal difference of zero. ****ing zero.

[baitman]

looks like we have remembered where the 'how to attack' handbook was left.

our pressing and work ethic looks much better. a bit feeble finishing off though.
defence is still a joke.