Liverpool V Fulham

@ Sepi, you missed my point. It's not that Sturridge is not contributing or being selfish. He isn't is usual self. He is missing chances that he usually takes.

Against both Palace & Fulham he missed 4-5 chances of which he was expected to take at least 2. In first 3-4 games he scored from far more difficult positions.

He is trying a bit too hard, taking his shot a bit too early or a bit too strongly. His composure has faded not his contributions.

Red

You couldn't have chosen a better match. What a performance, I bet it was majestic in person. I envy you my friend.

Nice little GD boost, a clean sheet and a decent display.

We dropped this 3 at the back crap. !

Still not convinced by Coutinho in the middle...

Natalie Portman wrote:[2) He intercepted Gerrard's shot, brought it on his left foot and shot that Skeletenburg saved masterfully and the rebound fell to Suarez and Suarez missed the open net.  

That doesn't count as an assist, or a chance created.

I do agree with ifikhar, he's been poor in front of goal in the last 3 games (although he scored an amazing chip against West Brom). He's too one footed, the opposition knows where he's going most of the time. He really needs to improve his right foot. He's okay in possession, but needs to stop being so wasteful in front of goal.  

With that said, Coutinho and Suarez weren't any better yesterday either. Suarez missed an open goal, a one on one and was quite wasteful himself. Coutinho apparently had 8 shots, I can only remember one that was decent (a flick back from Agger) but it was only straight at the keeper.

Red which stand?

Upper Anfield Road.

Caught 3 of the goals right in front of me.

RedOranje wrote:Upper Anfield Road.

Caught 3 of the goals right in front of me.

Where are the pix :-(

McAgger wrote:Also surprise, surprise Agger is back in the team and we keep a clean sheet.

Came into this thread to say this.

Could only see the first half, so glad we put the game in bed by the end of it!

I'd like to give Cissokho a little bit more time, although there's been nothing promising as of yet. I'm sure we'll see Enrique starting in the next match, so this "problem" will disappear for now anyway.

El Jefe wrote:

McAgger wrote:Also surprise, surprise Agger is back in the team and we keep a clean sheet.

Came into this thread to say this.

They had one shot (a tame one at that, it was straight at Mignolet) and failed to get ball into the final third. We could of played Cissokho as the CB, and we wouldn't have conceded, lol.

RO, just curious in your second photo, I can see few empty seats, are they about to be filled in OR they were really empty .

Also that Hendo's performance was worth mentioning in this match, he picked few good passes coming out of his comfort zone. He just needs to grow himself more into the RED shirt and I will repeat 'hendo to carry us when Gerrard retires' not in a Gerrard way but he will be main man in few years. That assist shows that he can be also creative when the opposition team is busy dealing with tripple S (Suarez, Sturridge and Showtinho). It was a perfect weighted pass at a right place, although Suarez finished it very well from that angle to beat their keeper. He just needs to add few goals to his name in this season, I would say at least 10 goals.

That photo was taken before kick-off so people were still filling into the stadium. Once the match kicked off Anfield looked like it was at capacity.

Still the only GLer to have sat on the kop

Red Alert wrote:

El Jefe wrote:

McAgger wrote:Also surprise, surprise Agger is back in the team and we keep a clean sheet.

Came into this thread to say this.

They had one shot (a tame one at that, it was straight at Mignolet) and failed to get ball into the final third. We could of played Cissokho as the CB, and we wouldn't have conceded, lol.  

I don't think he was saying Agger was the only reason Fulham didn't score, but it's still bizarre that people think we shouldn't play Agger considering the record shows we're so much better with him.

Natalie Portman wrote:Still the only GLer to have sat on the kop

Nope.

So rewatched the match for tactical analysis.

Off the ball when Fulham actually set up in their attack (which happened like only once or twice all game) we were playing your regular flat 4-4-2. Defensively I think it's the best formation to use. You've got 2 lines of 4 not committing and just waiting for the opposition to make mistake, and then your two strikers harassing their defenders for the ball. But, mostly, this match whenever Fulham got the ball we pressed them high up the pitch and won the ball right back in an instance.

So off the ball:


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When we had the ball though the actual formation was


And even this looked more like so when playing it


I like this formation very much. Lucas basically acted like the defender cleaning up everything in front of Martin and Daniel. I think when we were playing 3 CBs, this is what we needed our center CB to do. Step up and clean up everything before it got to the last line and also provide support for the midfielders. When Skrtel was sitting all the way back it wasn't helping whatsoever. Which is why I used to say it doesn't matter if we play with 3 CBs or 2 CBs + a destroyer dropping just in front between them cleaning up. Both formations take care of the same functions.
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EDIT: months later

The idea of our defensive midfielder dropping in between 2 centre backs is why I think Yann M'Vila would be really good for us. I think he could develop and do that role brilliantly.

If we go with a 442/4222 long term I think the 2 players at the base of the midfield are very important and it'll be interesting to see what combination Rodgers goes for after Gerrard retires.
Do we go with a DM/DLP, a DM/B2B, DLP/B2B. We have lots of options, my preference would be a sitting DM who could drop in between the centre backs like McAgger pointed out, next to a bit of an all rounder like Badelj. This would probably allow us to carry 2 creative players behind two forwards, instead of Henderson who doesn't offer as much going forward.
However if we go with a traditional DLP, (I'd prefer a ball carrying player like Modric to a static player like Alonso) having Henderson in front could be very useful as the DLP behind wouldn't offer as much defensively as an all rounder. He also gives us lots of tactical flexibility as we could quickly change to a 433 with him dropping in as a 3rd CM.

All probably irrelevant but still interesting options.

I think when we compare 3CB and with the formation of the last game, the instructions to the players were quite different ,you can see with the following image that henderson and Gerrard both are in much more forward position and there are no gaps between the three lines of formation.
http://www.thisisanfield.com/wp-content/uploads/lfc-vs-ful-ave-pos-9-11-13.png

Although Lucas dropped few times to help the defence, he was always close to Gerrard to have another option in the middle of the pitch. But when we play 3CB, it doesnt happen so and we try to rely much more on individual brilliance of SAS and BR sees it as a counter-attacking formation or something