Young Boys Post Match

[Lecter]

Whilst Gerrard did poorly in the final phase his movement seemed to create a lot of space for us. He seems capable of only offering something in attack OR defence but not both. The balance of the CM trio was all wrong at the end but I guess they haven't played much together and sometimes previously Shelvey has been asked to play deeper, so may have all or even mostly been Gerrard's fault.

The balance in midfield hasnt been right all season

I genuinely dont think anyone knows who should be holding and who should push on

When someone like Allen steps out nobody fills in, when Gerrard steps forward, Allen goes all headless chicken at times etc...

Lucas coming back is massive but I still cant help feeling that we should be getting more out of our midfield than we are doing in terms of shape, pressing etc...

[Lecter]

I think most of people would be reasonably happy for this season to be one of continuous improvement (gradual or otherwise, but demonstrable).

In your opinion, do you think the team is generally improving, stagnating, or receding?

I personally think there has been some demonstrable improvement. There are generally fewer goals conceded, and fewer mistakes leding directly to goals. The unbeaten run we are on is also the best we have had for quite some time, for example.

Ball retention/possesion play is improving

Attacking play / penetration hasnt not gone anywhere imo

Defensive play has regressed

[Mostar]

I'm not convinced that Henderson was really out of position - he was running back and misjudged the last pass but he was in pretty much the right place. The skill by their forward made him look a much worse than he was in that piece of play.

I agree i"m not 100% sure why he made the move but I also think in the first half it worked - we started making a lot more clear opportunities after the change. I think it was just too early - we had no options when we needed to close the game out.

He lost the sight of the striker in the crucial moment and imo he still had the chance to block the shot if he had been more aggressive.

honestly Dom, i think that we should be doing a lot better than we are. We're 20 games into the rodgers era and its enough for the squad to know their roles.

Unlike a lot of others i dont think the squad is that far away in terms of quality. We need a couple of forward / attacking players including at least one striker capable of getting goals if suarez is injured.

I just dont think the tactics suit what we've got available. Last night is an example. we had plenty of talent on that pitch but we still got caught out with two counter attacks. Its not something new its been happening all season. We never saw that soft centre that we've got now under rafa who was all for defensive solidity.

If we continue to give teams soft goals then we're in for a tough ride under rodgers. At swansea he didnt have that problem because he's got a set of players with a different midset who came from the championship and who knew they were the underdogs in almost every match. They were content to grind out draws or tight victories because they never took the game to the opposition. Even with two advanced midfielders who tracked back.

Liverpool fc has a team full of internationals who are all top players with a winning mentality which is different to swansea's dont lose at all costs (keep the ball) mentality.

Im not sure those two advanced midfield players have the defensive capabilities that rodgers wants from them. Which leaves us exposed constantly on the counter attack. The first thing we need to do is to stop exposing ourselves down the middle and stop both fullbacks pushing forward at the same time.

Another thing is that the pressing triggers arent being understood by the players. our pressing tactics are absolutely rubbish and non existant. for a manager that builds his part of his footballing philosophy on high pressing, we are spectacularly **** at it.

I really like rodgers because he's a young manager with fresh ideas about football but we need to start getting the basics right first which are defend well, keep compact right down the spine of the team, stop the other team playing infront of our back four and stop leaving ourselves open to the counter attack.

I have to agree.

Injuries and our inability to buy a good striker in the summer aside we should have had more wins and more points especially at home.

We played 13 games at home in all competitions thus far and we only have 4 wins to show for (4 loses, 5 draws and 4 wins). 4 wins!

We should have done much, much better.

[el matador]

Ball retention/possesion play is improving

Attacking play / penetration hasnt not gone anywhere imo

Defensive play has regressed

i would add that we're still **** at set pieces. Also we dont vary the tempo of the game as much as i would like.

Its either 100mph or 10mph and not a lot in between. We need to learn how to flick on the switch and go from recycling to fast attacks better.

its taking longer than i would have thought but sometimes it does.

[el matador]

I'm not convinced that Henderson was really out of position - he was running back and misjudged the last pass but he was in pretty much the right place. The skill by their forward made him look a much worse than he was in that piece of play.

I agree i"m not 100% sure why he made the move but I also think in the first half it worked - we started making a lot more clear opportunities after the change. I think it was just too early - we had no options when we needed to close the game out.

for the first goal henderson was five yards ahead of the back line. that allowed his man to get on his blind side and finish that cross off. it was a brilliant finish but it cant detract away from bad defending. If henderson was in line with the others that ball was never on.

[dww]

for the first goal henderson was five yards ahead of the back line. that allowed his man to get on his blind side and finish that cross off. it was a brilliant finish but it cant detract away from bad defending. If henderson was in line with the others that ball was never on.

IMO he was on to push the line up that side as there was space in front of Wisdom but we weren't playing in it (it is all very well Wisdom bombing down the line but then he had to cross into the box where no one would be waiting). So his positioning was right for what we were trying to do even if it was exploited by the opposition.

[dww]

The balance in midfield hasnt been right all season

I genuinely dont think anyone knows who should be holding and who should push on

When someone like Allen steps out nobody fills in, when Gerrard steps forward, Allen goes all headless chicken at times etc...

Lucas coming back is massive but I still cant help feeling that we should be getting more out of our midfield than we are doing in terms of shape, pressing etc...

I tend to agree - although I think after the first 10 minutes for most of the first half we did that pretty well. Sahin was holding pretty neatly and the others balancing it well enough. Second half we gradually got worse before the end where we were something of an omnishambles.

[el matador]

IMO he was on to push the line up that side as there was space in front of Wisdom but we weren't playing in it (it is all very well Wisdom bombing down the line but then he had to cross into the box where no one would be waiting). So his positioning was right for what we were trying to do even if it was exploited by the opposition.

no mate his positioning was wrong, when you're defending you defend and your back line has to be in tandem ie in a straight line. Henderson was ahead of that back line. He's not going to exploit space when the opposition are putting balls into our box. He's got to come into his centrehalf and close down those spaces but keep in a line with the others.

Bobadilla peeled off him and stayed onside and as henderson was a few yards infront of the others he couldnt make up the extra yards. If henderson keeps in that line bobadilla doesnt have that space in behind him.

Im not blaming henderson because he's not a right back and messing him around isnt going to help him.

[dww]

no mate his positioning was wrong, when you're defending you defend and your back line has to be in tandem ie in a straight line. Henderson was ahead of that back line. He's not going to exploit space when the opposition are putting balls into our box. He's got to come into his centrehalf and close down those spaces but keep in a line with the others.

Bobadilla peeled off him and stayed onside and as henderson was a few yards infront of the others he couldnt make up the extra yards. If henderson keeps in that line bobadilla doesnt have that space in behind him.

Im not blaming henderson because he's not a right back and messing him around isnt going to help him.

I can only see the gif of the goal ATM but he looks like he's coming back from miles up pitch to me. They rapidly counter attacked from memory - the ease of which may be a problem our team in general but I really don't think he can be blamed for that goal.

[el matador]

I can only see the gif of the goal ATM but he looks like he's coming back from miles up pitch to me. They rapidly counter attacked from memory - teh ease of which may be a problem our team in general but I really don't think he can be blamed for that goal.

i agree mate we cant blame henderson.

he's not a right back and why didnt he bring on coates and just move carra there. coates needs games gerrard obviously doesnt.

imo when henderson left the middle sahin found himself too isolated and overloaded by young boys.

sounds a bit wierd that.

[dww]

It does sound pretty dodgy.

[Maxiedge]

When I was looking for highlights of the game this morning, I typed in 'Liverpool young boys'. That could look well dodgy out of context

[el matador]

It does sound pretty dodgy.

not as bad as looking for young boys in anfield

[el matador]

When I was looking for highlights of the game this morning, I typed in 'Liverpool young boys'. That could look well dodgy out of context

you'd get blacklisted for that sort of stuff.

[peekay]

The balance in midfield hasnt been right all season

I genuinely dont think anyone knows who should be holding and who should push on

When someone like Allen steps out nobody fills in, when Gerrard steps forward, Allen goes all headless chicken at times etc...

Lucas coming back is massive but I still cant help feeling that we should be getting more out of our midfield than we are doing in terms of shape, pressing etc...

That is one area where Rodgers will have to improve or evolve his tactics significantly. I agree that Lucas will help but overall our midfielders have approached the game in a very naive manner.

If we get to the top 4 and reach the Champions League, good to decent European teams will exploit that significantly.