Brendan Rodgers

[yamiedo]

Ryan Babel.

Kind of puts the phrase a wealth of technically skilled players who work hard to shame.

[red g]

Ryan Babel.

Jan Kronkamp

[dom9]

Yes why

2 reasons:

• I was quite suprised that 10 year olds would be able to understand and implement the tactical nuances that you were asking of them.

• I found it amusing that you are testing the validity of Rodgers tactics on 10 year olds, and then drawing conclusions on the actual Liverpool team from that.

Do you think your team might have got less battered if you had employed different tactics, given that you concede they are a much better team anyay?

[yamiedo]

2 reasons:

• I was quite suprised that 10 year olds would be able to understand and implement the tactical nuances that you were asking of them.

• I found it amusing that you are testing the validity of Rodgers tactics on 10 year olds, and then drawing conclusions on the actual Liverpool team from that.

Do you think your team might have got less battered if you had employed different tactics, given that you concede they are a much better team anyay?

Do you think a 10 year old may understand taactical nuances better than Joe Cole though? That's the real question.

[dom9]

Do you think a 10 year old may understand taactical nuances better than Joe Cole though? That's the real question.

It is a good question.

[danperkins]

Hopefully he'll get some of that sorted with some backing in Jan.
I think next summer will give us a better idea of where we are at.

[kris90210]

I speak from personal and a very painful experience about the dangers of having open spaces in the fullback positions without winning the midfield battle and especially scooping up all lose balls.

I coach under 11's and I changed our formation from being based on rafas 4231 to rogers 433 and high fullbacks up the pitch. First 2 games went along fine with 20 goals scored and 1 against. Then we played the best team in the entire competition.

We got battered. Every time they won the second balls in midfield they turned our back line with a ball over the top. Every time they stopped our attacks we were wide open for the counter down our flanks.

It just didnt work against the better sides.

In rafas champions league dreams book he constantly highlights attacking fullbacks as a weakness in the opposition with all the space they leave in behind. Everybody should read this book because its a masterclass.

I think our manager should read it too.

Sorry El Matador, but what a patronising thing to say. I know you coach youngsters, but to suggest that a premiership level manager doesn't understand a - let's face it - pretty basic point... well it's both arrogant and ignorant.

Rodgers has been working in footballl coaching for decades. To suggest he needs to read Rafa's book to understand how to exploit attacking full backs is just ridiculous.

It might well be a masterclass to you and me. But to Rodgers, I'm sure there's nothing in there he doesn't know already.

[Lents]

Hahaha I love Rafa but **** me some of our lot are mental. He's not the only manager in the world who knows what he's on about yano!

This thread has made my day though, an u11's coach comparing his sides tactical nouse to a Premier League team. I think if you'd told them to stop playing Golf so much in their afternoons and work on their positioning you'd have been more successful.

Priceless.

[danperkins]

I speak from personal and a very painful experience about the dangers of having open spaces in the fullback positions without winning the midfield battle and especially scooping up all lose balls.

I coach under 11's and I changed our formation from being based on rafas 4231 to rogers 433 and high fullbacks up the pitch. First 2 games went along fine with 20 goals scored and 1 against. Then we played the best team in the entire competition.

We got battered. Every time they won the second balls in midfield they turned our back line with a ball over the top. Every time they stopped our attacks we were wide open for the counter down our flanks.

It just didnt work against the better sides.

In rafas champions league dreams book he constantly highlights attacking fullbacks as a weakness in the opposition with all the space they leave in behind. Everybody should read this book because its a masterclass.

I think our manager should read it too.

Seriously dude?

[Tee]

WTF

[Lee]

Jesus Christ.

[Bender]

Jesus Christ.

where

[baitman]

...I think if you'd told them to stop playing Golf so much in their afternoons and work on their positioning you'd have been more successful.

[ronanm]

Hahaha I love Rafa but **** me some of our lot are mental. He's not the only manager in the world who knows what he's on about yano!

This thread has made my day though, an u11's coach comparing his sides tactical nouse to a Premier League team. I think if you'd told them to stop playing Golf so much in their afternoons and work on their positioning you'd have been more successful.

Priceless.

I hope he is joking, but fear he's not. "Smithy, that performance was a disgrace. You WERE on the pop last night - I keep telling you those fizzy drinks will mess with your game" etc

[el matador]

you ****ers it was very very painful. like when i had my nuts done.

coaching kids is probably the best thing i ever did and we do take it seriously without either taking it out on the kids or ever making it not fun for them. I spend hours each week planning sessions etc... and reading whatever i can find on tactics from whoever so all rodgers stuff is pretty interesting when you compare it to rafa's 4231, hodgsons 442 and kennys whatever. Ive never seen the second DM role ie joe allens so clearly defined as rodgers has.

its a bit of fun but but it did highlight very obviously what lecter said. If you dont win the 50-50's and second balls in midfield you will leave yourself exposed. The key for me is whether the manager can find the balance between what he wants - the patient grind teams down approach and what the gung-ho players like gerrard and luis suarez want.

Until those two accept that they dont need to rush forward at 100mph every time we get the ball and as gerrard did lose it 32 times in a match, we will still look like a team who are constantly getting caught out because we're always in transition from defence to attack without completing it.

My personal opinion is that rafas 4231 beats rodgers 433 every day of the week. But as rodgers himself said he sometimes goes with 2.