Brendan Rodgers

[red g]

It all boils down to a painfully thin squad for me. Our first XI is really quite good, barring perhaps our LB. Virtually every other position is filled by someone most managers would trust to do the job, and do it well. The need for reinforcements is obvious and I'm confident we'll get them. I think Rodgers knows what he's doing in the transfer market, which is something I couldn't say for Kenny and definitely not for Hodgson.

Oh and also I think FSG realise how badly they fluffed it at the end of the summer transfer window, so that's another reason we can expect a couple of important signings.

[Lecter]

we all know the form isnt good enough, but the pattern of play has improved.
realistically we will not finish in front of manure, city, chavs or arsenal. maybe even newcastle, spurs and everton will finish above us
we hope for eighth or better...

i know it will take time. i just wish that every time i see brendan speaking on tv he didnt remind me of the football manager version of david brent
he is in danger of becoming a parody of a football manager.
maybe my name is written on one of those three pieces of paper

Our play in possession has improved but imo watching us at the moment its all designed to be a holding pattern, we dont use the possession at all well enough

Our play / positional descipline out of possession is appalling though, I'm very disappointed what we have have seen so far in terms of this

[Shaggy]

Without wanting to sound like a smug cunt, I said when Rodgers was in the process of being appointed that last season's Swansea passed it around well enough in the first two thirds but a lot of it was passing for passing's sake and they often got nowhere.

That's what we're seeing now - barely any penetration in the final third.

And yes we are an absolute shambles off the ball - every time we lose it we're susceptible to the counter and the midfield especially is often a shapeless mess.

[Lecter]

Without wanting to sound like a smug cunt, I said when Rodgers was in the process of being appointed that last season's Swansea passed it around well enough in the first two thirds but a lot of it was passing for passing's sake and they often got nowhere.

That's what we're seeing now - barely any penetration in the final third.

And yes we are an absolute shambles off the ball - every time we lose it we're susceptible to the counter and the midfield especially is often a shapeless mess.

I shared some of the same concerns

Swansea had more possession than we did last year but created less chances and I think scored less than we did

Must say I've been surprised at how bad we are in terms of winning possession

Didnt expect that at all

[Phoenix07]

Without wanting to sound like a smug cunt, I said when Rodgers was in the process of being appointed that last season's Swansea passed it around well enough in the first two thirds but a lot of it was passing for passing's sake and they often got nowhere.

That's what we're seeing now - barely any penetration in the final third.

And yes we are an absolute shambles off the ball - every time we lose it we're susceptible to the counter and the midfield especially is often a shapeless mess.

Too late.

But yeah, I agree about the lack of penetration and midfield being a shapeless mess. It is a concern and I can only put it down to the personnel and current players still getting to grips with things.

I reckon we should revert to a 4-2-3-1 and have Gerrard supporting Suarez. It'd mean less running and an extra body in an attacking area of the pitch. He's an aerial threat too, arriving late in the box. We should go with that until we have the players capable of playing 4-3-3.

[Lecter]

Too late.

But yeah, I agree about the lack of penetration and midfield being a shapeless mess. It is a concern and I can only put it down to the personnel and current players still getting to grips with things.

I reckon we should revert to a 4-2-3-1 and have Gerrard supporting Suarez. It'd mean less running and an extra body in an attacking area of the pitch. He's an aerial threat too, arriving late in the box. We should go with that until we have the players capable of playing 4-3-3.

I just think he has to get his defensive / pressing drills in order

Agree with Gerrard being pushed on though

[dww]

Without wanting to sound like a smug cunt, I said when Rodgers was in the process of being appointed that last season's Swansea passed it around well enough in the first two thirds but a lot of it was passing for passing's sake and they often got nowhere.

That's what we're seeing now - barely any penetration in the final third.

And yes we are an absolute shambles off the ball - every time we lose it we're susceptible to the counter and the midfield especially is often a shapeless mess.

I think the first part is in many ways difficult to evaluate when we only have Suarez as a threat. It really constrains the possibilities. Surely the idea is that the seemingly pointless possession is part of probing for the right opening. Right now that means 'when Suarez is free' - which rather reduces the oppositions task to marking one man. I'd agree though that Rodgers doesn't help himself with his reluctance to have other forwards on the bench which might at least give us an element of surprise late in games.

The off the ball/when being countered stuff however seems a really fundamental flaw with us now (as it was at times for Swansea).

[Rich]

Worth mentioning that Swansea only out-scored the following teams in the league last year:

Stoke
Wigan
Villa
QPR
Wolves

Swansea's promotion season they finished 8th in the goals scored table.

I'd suggest that he needs to find a system which adds more goals to his teams.

[Dalglish]

I shared some of the same concerns

Swansea had more possession than we did last year but created less chances and I think scored less than we did

Must say I've been surprised at how bad we are in terms of winning possession

Didnt expect that at all

Swansea were the only team that scored fewer than we did

There aere some very interesting comments on here showing how people have different perceptions of what's going on. I'm firmly in the yet to be convinced by Rodgers category. I couldn't see why he was appointed and still don't. There is only so much of the "Oh but we played well" or "We're playing teams off the pitch" that I can really take. At some point, unless we actually start winning games, we'll end up playing beautifully in a relegation battle.

Yes the squad is thin but as recent games show actually scoring insn't the issue thanks to Luis. It's the other ten that are the problem as a, as Rodgers would say, group. The first ten mins of every game we start on fire then when we dont score we go into our shell, Luis apart. There are no runners into the box, we cede possesion too easily and rather bafflingly are very open to the counter attack. Why he continues with Gerrard in a role that doesnt work for him is beyond me. He and Allen in the positions they were in yesterday only ever get in each other's way. Gerrard up front a la season 08/09 would work so much better and would let Suso get into the middle where he should be.

[Phoenix07]

Brendan Rodgers yesterday when talking about Suarez.

"We play him in that false number nine role. He is not your traditional number nine who stands up there, stood static. That's why when we get a number of players in who can work off his qualities it is going to make us a real threat and allow us to penetrate behind him.

[dww]

Worth mentioning that Swansea only out-scored the following teams in the league last year:

Stoke
Wigan
Villa
QPR
Wolves

Swansea's promotion season they finished 8th in the goals scored table.

I'd suggest that he needs to find a system which adds more goals to his teams.

I'm not necessarily sure that is fair. In the championship they did fine - perhaps it is a problem that his system needs particular skill sets to be better at a higher level and he is yet to get the right mix of players. I think it is perhaps a problem of his inexperience in that area (and the difficulty of the task in the highly physical PL) rather than a flaw of his system/philosophy of play.

I think it is reasonable to say that Swansea need some leeway for being a promoted team and its isn't as if he with us he has reduced our efficiency in front of goal - merely not altered an existing problem.

[Tee]

Maybe BR thought, naively, that with better players his system would work well and result in more goals than at Swansea.

[Rich]

He's said himself it's about death by football and that 79% of the time the team with the greater possession stats wins the game.

All well and good but you need penetration too. I'm still hopeful and it rests on the club's ability to attract a couple of attacking talents in January.

[fred_plasticine]

i think there's been a lot of improvement. we're getting better in defense, the transition from defense to attack is good and getting better all the time. there's a lot of clever positioning and passing to get out of trouble and to start good attacking moves. but we don't have a dm and that shows because we get exposed a bit too often still.
in attack we're still lacking the game patterns. that said, we had more than enough chances to win that game. sterling and shelvey chances spring to mind.
but overall our attacking play is not there yet. suarez completely ****s up most of our play when he's on the ball. he's way too selfish and tries to take everyone on himself all the time. that said, he's a fantastic talent and unstoppable when on fire.
we're still only 6 points off 4th place and we're steadily improving. that team needs time and fresh faces in january.

[dww]

He's said himself it's about death by football and that 79% of the time the team with the greater posession stats wins the game.

All well and good but you need penetration too. I'm still hopeful and it rests on the club's ability to attract a couple of attacking talents in January.

The thing is though that there have been games where we've done fine in goals (Everton and Udinese come to mind) and it was the football that let us down.

I think at least part of our problem is with us still not doing the possession football thing well enough.