Barclay's Premier League '14-'15 discussion V2

Art Morte wrote:What I don't understand is why isn't Wenger giving Campbell more of a chance? He's had good loan spells and a good World Cup for Costa Rica. Sanogo was woeful and has done nothing in the early games of the season to convince. Yet Campbell is hardly getting a chance. Podolski, too, is a rather proven scorer. Sticking with Sanogo seems weird. He just hasn't showcased enough quality, arguably both Campbell and Podolski have showcased more quality.

That is a mystery to me too.

but, but, but.....WengerKnows

....................Galli.....................
Tassotti..Baresi..Costacurta..Maldini
...........Rijkaard..Ancelotti............
Donadoni........................Evani....
............Sanogo...Gullitt...............

Hans

Dan Kennett ‏@DanKennett 6m
under Rodgers #LFC have kept 9 clean sheets in the 15 EPL matches that Martin Skrtel has not started. Includes the last FIVE in a row



And it took an injury for him to get dropped

Don't call me James wrote:Dan Kennett ‏@DanKennett 6m
under Rodgers #LFC have kept 9 clean sheets in the 15 EPL matches that Martin Skrtel has not started. Includes the last FIVE in a row



And it took an injury for him to get dropped

Our CB's Last night hardly looked convincing though.

mr-r34 wrote:

Don't call me James wrote:Dan Kennett ‏@DanKennett 6m
under Rodgers #LFC have kept 9 clean sheets in the 15 EPL matches that Martin Skrtel has not started. Includes the last FIVE in a row



And it took an injury for him to get dropped

Our CB's Last night hardly looked convincing though.

Trying to make himself feel better that Skrtel has stuck around and Agger has left. lol

Martin, WHERE I'VE STATED FOR THE HUNDREDTH TIME BEFORE HE CONTINUES TO PUTS WORDS IN MY MOUTH TO MAKE HIMSELF FEEL BETTER ABOUT HIMSELF NEEDS TO BE REPLACED AND ACTUALLY BEEN REPLACED WITH QUALITY RATHER THAN INFERIOR PLAYERS LIKE LOVREN, is still arguably our best CB at the club...

I always genuinely thought Agger was Liverpool's best CB of the all the CB scrubs they have.

Sakho is easily our best CB.

He just needs a consistent set of games to show that.

Agger was great, but faded around 2 years ago. No idea how we replaced Agger for Lovren. He's inferior, and we spent 17m on the "upgrade" ffs.

Did i read it wrong or within the space of 6 minutes did you just go from Martin to Sahko as being our best CB.

Sakho is better, but Martin is arguably one of the best at the club...

First tactical poor performance by Poch. The key to Poch's "system" has always been the press and there was none of it yesterday. Most will use the Europa excuse, but that would be bullshit as the only player that played any measurable minutes on Thursday was Kaboul and he never runs anyways.

For me the performance came down to Eriksen and Bentaleb. Eriksen just hasn't looked good at all since the arrival of Poch. He has been given the free role with Lamela so he doesn't lose effectiveness out on the left as he did under AVB and Sherwood. Oddly, he excelled in the free role at Ajax but he has yet to do well in the same role at Spurs without a forward who can combine play ala Soldado.

Bentaleb is a good prospect, but he should only be used against the QPR's of the world. The problem is that he doesn't move the ball quick enough in transition when there is actual pressure. He will learn, and I actually quite like the kid, but he shouldn't be starting. However, I think that has more to do with Paulinho and Dembele coming back from the World Cup and not yet being fully fit.

Honestly though, I am not sure we have an answer for the second issue in our current squad. You know my affinity for Dembele but while I think he has the skill set he is just too slow for what we need against better teams. Paulinho might be the choice here whether I like it or not.

Deadline day is going to be huge for Spurs as they are about 2 players away from legitimately pushing for top 4 assuming we don't make the wrong sales.

It wasn't Poch's fault, Rodgers is just a better tactician than he is.

2 players away

Also quite easy to implement your ideas on QPR and West Ham.

It will take time. Yesterday's result was expected.

Scoreline was a bit inflated because Townsend is an idiot and a BS penalty, but Liverpool deserved to win either way. The performance was meh.

Spurs offense continues to be slow and sluggish when opposition defends in numbers. Not enough combination play, I expect this to improve. This is partially why I think I would rather see Soldado playing with Eriksen, Lamela and Chadli. Still, he hasn't really shown enough to be better than ahead of Ade- and Ade continues to be inconsistent af.

Either way, new coach, new style of play, playing with players who didn't get to often play in the same starting XI last year (Chadli, Capoue, Lamela, Dier, Rose for first half of season). It will take time, as long as Tottenham pick up the points against the lower league teams then I think improved performances against the better teams will happen in time.

Pressing a 442 diamond isnt so easy.

When your playing 4231 like Spurs was, the wingers take the Pool fullbacks. Then your playing 4 v 3 as Eriksen, Bentaleb and Capoue (was it him who started?) has to try and get to grips with the 4 Pool players in the middle. That leaves on of the CB's free and Gerrard free. If Eriksen presses up on Gerrard then it leaves Henderson or Allen free, unless Bentaleb and Capoue push up and leave the even more dangerous Sterling free. Fullbacks dont want to come all the way inside to help because that leaves 2 v 2 at the back, suicide of your against what Pool have up there.

Really, Spurs had no real idea how to play any sort of pressing game in their system vs Pools.

Dani funny thing Pochetino did this same exact thing last season at St.Mary's with Southampton against us.

Guess what we did. 4-4-2 diamond.

Result? 0-3 Liverpool

Didnt know that. You would imagine he would of known and come up with a better alternative.

I don't know why Liverpool don't run the 4/4/2 diamond more since they were undefeated when deploying it last season in the league.

Motogp69 wrote:I don't know why Liverpool don't run the 4/4/2 diamond more since they were undefeated when deploying it last season in the league.

Now that Balotelli has signed, it'll be our primary formation.

We look so much more fluid and dangerous with 4-4-2 diamond. It brings the best of most of our key players namely Sterling and Sturridge.

Motogp69 wrote:I don't know why Liverpool don't run the 4/4/2 diamond more since they were undefeated when deploying it last season in the league.

Quite misleading set of statistics there, in my opinion. I'd contend that the "undefeated" record with the diamond was exactly down to the fact that it was not often used. Rodgers used the diamond midfield as a tactical option in matches where he expected it to be of tactical benefit to Liverpool, thus immediately setting it up for greater success per match than our default (so much as we had one) formation. On top of that, as it was not our standard or primary formation, clubs did not come into matches against Liverpool with plans specifically designed to negate/exploit the diamond as they did for our standard formation, giving it a second benefit it would not have enjoyed were it employed more often. To add to all of that, the diamond formation saw the majority of it's use during Liverpool's brilliant run of form (and tail off) meaning that as much as it contributed to the winning streak it also benefited from it by virtue of having very inform and confident players who were honestly performing well regardless of overall formation/tactical approach.

On top of all of that, it wasn't nearly as successful as that statistic suggests at first glance. Several matches where we initially utilised the diamond only earned us a result due to Rodgers in-game shift away from the formation as we were struggling badly with the diamond formation.

I'm not bashing the formation at all, however I do feel it's necessary to curb some of this unwarranted praise and adulation for it. It was not some blessed cure-all or unstoppable tactical masterstroke. It was (and remains) a useful tactical option that works particularly well as a "surprise" to spring on opposing sides but also one that has some notable flaws and weaknesses that clubs in the PL can quite clearly exploit to great effect.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BwfJXQBIIAAloup.jpg

Best premier league transfer window ever.

We were one of three teams to record a profit, but had the best summer

You will keep making profits due to the amount of players you have on loan lol.

you can sell 6 next year that might include the likes of Moses, wallace, bertrand, atsu etc and get about 20-30m. maybe even more.

Thank you, PSG.

RealGunner wrote:You will keep making profits due to the amount of players you have on loan lol.

you can sell 6 next year that might include the likes of Moses, wallace, bertrand, atsu etc and get about 20-30m. maybe even more.

We keep stock piling them too