Brendan Rodgers

[BigChief]

Any system or tactic that involves Allen being on the pitch as a starter never mind in the holding role is less than appealing.

He's a squad player at best

Lec, you never fail to deliver. At least you've almost, nearly, just got to start liking Brendan. Otherwise he was on your hitlist too not long ago.

Allen's just come in from a long injury, but yeah let's write him off completely. You never liked him (mainly cos you never liked Brendan and he was Brendan's first signing) and you never will like him. Fair enough.

But let's get your irrational hatred out in the open, eh.

[baitman]

You don't need 11 world class players to be defensively solid. I don't understand the argument about the lack of quality in the team being the main reason we can't play better against good teams.

We cant mix it with the good teams because we can't stop giving away soft goals and we haven't ever done since the day Brendan Rodgers got here. If we want to be a winning team this cant continue.

If our targets are more modest then playing good football but losing to every good side we play should be acceptable.

this year we often struggle to score against lesser teams, they dont have world class defenders yet they manage. manure have done well without a full set of top defenders for quite a while too.

I think it is fair to say Brendan is under pressure to prove last season was not a flash in the pan, carried on the coat tales of one of the best players in the world.

our amazing scoring and often amazing attacking play has certainly papered over the defensive cracks. any manager would have looked a genius with the players he had at his disposal but realistically we have only lost suarez yet everything has gone to ****.

there were a few decent formation changes and decisions that seemed to show that brendan has tactical nous but you have to wonder if he has too high an opinion of himself and he thinks he can mould mario into a decent player to fit our pressing and counter attacking game.

[alonso14]

But we're not talking about a DoF, or anyone with any real power at all, just an extra coach to advise him.

What's this coach going to say

- stop your fullbacks pushing so high up the pitch
- replace Gerrard with another enforcer or even two and stop him participating in our attacks
- instead of working on passing patterns why don't we do some attack vs defence, and then maybe spend 5 1 hour sessions on dealing with set pieces
- the triangular positions our players take up on the pitch actually play into our opponents hands immediately after we lose the ball so lets be a bit more linear in our approach
- why not play 4231 instead of 433 which is a more defensive formation unless we play with 3 midfield destroyers in a mourinho like 433.

Do you think Brendan will agree to that ? I know he should take on whatver this coach says but resolving our defensive problems isn't a quick fix. The whole structure of our team had to be changed to make us more solid.

[cream]

What's this coach going to say

- stop your fullbacks pushing so high up the pitch
- replace Gerrard with another enforcer or even two and stop him participating in our attacks
- instead of working on passing patterns why don't we do some attack vs defence, and then maybe spend 5 1 hour sessions on dealing with set pieces
- the triangular positions our players take up on the pitch actually play into our opponents hands immediately after we lose the ball so lets be a bit more linear in our approach
- why not play 4231 instead of 433 which is a more defensive formation unless we play with 3 midfield destroyers in a mourinho like 433.

Do you think Brendan will agree to that ? I know he should take on whatver this coach says but resolving our defensive problems isn't a quick fix. The whole structure of our team had to be changed to make us more solid.

Exactly, this isn't some American footbal ****, what a load of bollocks.

[alonso14]

Exactly, this isn't some American footbal ****, what a load of bollocks.

How it works for them in the nfl i will never know. If a nfl team has a separate defensive and offensive coach why do you need the manager or head coach. What else is there apart from attacking and defending.

But I know nothing about the nfl so I pass on that one.

[Lecter]

Lec, you never fail to deliver. At least you've almost, nearly, just got to start liking Brendan. Otherwise he was on your hitlist too not long ago.

Allen's just come in from a long injury, but yeah let's write him off completely. You never liked him (mainly cos you never liked Brendan and he was Brendan's first signing) and you never will like him. Fair enough.

But let's get your irrational hatred out in the open, eh.

Allen being Brendans first signing has nothing to do with it

Its also nothing to do with liking Brendan or not but if that makes you feel better then go with it

People talk of him being integral to our system last year but he only started 15 league games so I just dont see his importance

Brendan did a great job last season, hes spent big money this summer. The only one I think is absolute fail so far is Lovren, the rest including Mario (who I think needs a partner) I am ok with, particularly impressed with Moreno and Lallana

The worry I have is not only have we brought in a ton of players but we have also changed the system, which in itself has blunted many of the qualities we had

I dont in anyway want Brendan sacked but I do feel he is culpable in tge situation we fibd ourselves

[Lecter]

Second half we were wide open to real Madrid's counter attacks. Joe Allen in that position stops them getting at us easily.

We all know he cant win headers but hes very good at intercepting and breaking up play. I think I counted four Madrid counter attacks while Steven Gerrard was well behind the ball.

Steven Gerrard playing at the deepest midfielder just played into their hands. We were wide open and they should have scored a few more. Brendans lucky because if that had been 5 or 6 we couldn't have complained and he would have been under much more pressure than he is now.

Allen has never been effective in that position he had Britton doing that work at Swansea

He cant even win possession and shield the defence high up the pitch nevermind in front of the back 4

[danperkins]

Allen's ok, good squad player for us & good to have another body back fit. In saying that he looked absolutley lost tonight. He'll never be anything special but a functional squad player he is.

[baitman]

Allen has never been effective in that position he had Britton doing that work at Swansea

He cant even win possession and shield the defence high up the pitch nevermind in front of the back 4

so rodgers was his manager at swansea, knew all the personnel and still signed the wrong player... doomed ffs

[alonso14]

Allen has never been effective in that position he had Britton doing that work at Swansea

He cant even win possession and shield the defence high up the pitch nevermind in front of the back 4

Hes not perfect when you compare him to the best defensive midfielders in the world but hes much better that Steven Gerrard in winning the ball back and covering space quickly.

If you play Henderson there you lose his energy further up. For me the key battle was in midfield which we convincingly lost and then the hole between our defence and centre midfielders where Steven sits which we also lost.

If we play Steven there in the return game we will get humiliated. He cannot curb his natural attacking instincts, he isn't able to hold his position and just offer some protection to the back four. How many times did he get caught behind the ball ? For a defensive midfield player if you allow the opposition to have a clear run at the defence you shouldn't be in the team yet that happened time and time again.

He has been one of the greatest players I have ever seen in our shirt, but we need to manage his games carefully or we will end up in this situation more often than not.

[Lecter]

Hes not perfect when you compare him to the best defensive midfielders in the world but hes much better that Steven Gerrard in winning the ball back and covering space quickly.

If you play Henderson there you lose his energy further up. For me the key battle was in midfield which we convincingly lost and then the hole between our defence and centre midfielders where Steven sits which we also lost.

If we play Steven there in the return game we will get humiliated. He cannot curb his natural attacking instincts, he isn't able to hold his position and just offer some protection to the back four. How many times did he get caught behind the ball ? For a defensive midfield player if you allow the opposition to have a clear run at the defence you shouldn't be in the team yet that happened time and time again.

He has been one of the greatest players I have ever seen in our shirt, but we need to manage his games carefully or we will end up in this situation more often than not.

Not for me, I wouldn't have Allen near the starting 11 nevermind as a holding player. Dont think hes anywhere near good enough defensively to be able to do that

[Tribute]

Not for me, I wouldn't have Allen near the starting 11 nevermind as a holding player. Dont think hes anywhere near good enough defensively to be able to do that

We need Reus and a CB in Jan...

[Bender]

We need Reus and a CB in Jan...

Regarding the CB dealy,i think it's down to coaching and management or therefore the lack of and not a matter of spending again,we signed Lovren and Sakho etc on the strength of them being good at their former clubs,it seems we have turned them into bad players

[EwarWoo]

What's this coach going to say

If we knew that we'd be coaches

[danperkins]

It's times like this when your think... bring back Christian Poulsen.