1-1 HT. That was a bit ****, wasn't it? The 4-4-2 isn't working, in my opinion. Wastes Lo Celso and Sissoko, while leaving us looking less solid at the back. I don't even think that we need to change personnel at the moment, just the formation. Need a much better 2nd half.
Halftime and somehow we go in level. Really poor performance so far, tactically we’re all over the place and Liverpool are getting off shots relatively easily, law of averages says they’ll get another soon enough if we keep playing like we are.
Me too. I'm certainly not sitting comfortably at half time. This can only result in one result and that's a loss.
How is it we're playing 442 yet somehow have no real width? Try to answer without using the word "Sissoko"
sadly I think he’s too slow for a game like this and will give the ball away as much as Bergy. Ndombele to give us some strength and power in midfield, and Lucas’ energy to press wouldn’t go amiss.
and the players will be telling him they’ll be blowing out their arses by 70 mins if you retain 96% possession. We have to change things up, otherwise it’s inevitable you’ll beat us.
Liverpool have no creativity in midfield so the way to stop them is to stifle the full backs. Hence our formation. Because our wide players are defensive we can afford Lo Celso in midfield. Personally I would have gone the whole hog and have Doherty and Reguilon instead of Sissoko and Bergwijn. We are not playing the system very well but I can see why Jose chose it.
I don’t even think subs will change anything too. It’s just the formation at the moment that’s causing us problems. Stick Sissoko back alongside Hojbjerg and go to our natural 433, we’ll likely counter them nicely that way by breaking at pace out wide.
Here's the annoying thing with our deciding to play 442: Gio would be a better fit on the right, as that's where he plays for Argentina and he's certainly got the pitbull qualities to give Robertson a hard time - but if he plays there, that means we wouldn't be creating much through the centre as a Hojbjerg/Sissoko pivot has the creativity of a photocopier The problem is that, while we are keeping their FBs occupied, we're not turning over possession - which means that we're doing half the defensive job for them
We need to get Lo Celso off and get either Moura or Ndombele on. He's looking rather headless defensively and the booking looks really risky.
Ah, we've decided the second half will be the 45 minutes of football we play in this game Not a bad idea, if it comes off...