For me forest deserved it as they had a clear plan they stuck to while we abandoned ours. The bench split was a joke and made zero difference to us. 4 defenders and no chiesa for even 10mins. I said it 40 times all international break to rest players. We didn't and paid for it in spades. Szobo was tragic all game Robbo couldn't run. He was so slow. We will regret not buying a lb by the end of season. Trent at 10? Joke. Jota was terrible again. He's looked out of sorts since after the opening day. But we just threw bodies on, put zero throught ot system and killed the game for ourselves. As I said first test of a team going to stay in shape and we failed it massively. Jota not heading that one chance we did make meant we were wide open and forest deserved thier one single bit of decent finishing (they were chronic in front of goal all game) So well done forest.
Well that was almost as poor as I've seen us play. Wrong starting 11 when so many played every minute with their national teams, poor substitutes, second half worse than the first which isn't what we're used to. I think only Alisson and Gravenberch come out of that with any credit. I wondered how Slot would handle a parked bus, now I know. Still, no time to lick our wounds, onwards and upwards.
I ****ing hate international break. the players looked like they didn’t know each other or what to do. Very little preparation, tired legs and it showed.
Yeah, not fair when no other team has players going half way round the World to play internationals is it.
Well this bit made it sound like you were the only team suffering because of it. the players looked like they didn’t know each other or what to do. Very little preparation, tired legs and it showed
Forest looked decent to be fair. Up to this point, we’d pretty much played the whipping boys of the league
When oppositions sit back and defend with their lives we need to work out how to break them down. Realistically we had no clue yesterday.
We should know before hand that Nottingham Forest defence is a solid defence and plan better how to counter them. Any Centre Half of Nottingham Forest for sale.
Certain things don't work. A) whoever has decided we take inswingers and both main header of the ball stand on the keeper needs sacking. Vvd can't get a decent contact any more. We won't score many off corners like this. B) can't make out mind up with fullbacks. All the space was wide yesterday. Loads of sauce to play in and go. What did we do? Go infield again. Too narrow into where they wanted us. C) midfield stupidity. If you are 4 on 3 and you pass to the cb then you are stupid. Szobo did that today. Put trent at 10. What stupidity was that. Trent is not a cm. He can't play fast in tight areas. Stand deep and play long, no issues but go close to the box and he's eaten alive. Basically they need to look at these things and really find a way of playing with teams who will defend well.
I just think we looked a bit clueless yesterday in the final 3rd….kind of caught between what we’ve done for the last few years and the new way of doing things…..too many players looked off the boil. The transition from Klopp to Slot (or anyone for that matter) would never be seamless. We just need to be patient. I do think that the lack of investment will really hurt us eventually…maybe sooner rather than later by the look of it. Onwards and upwards….or sideways sometimes.
The biggest problem yesterday was the almost total inability to pass to team mates in the final third .
Imo it's already hurting. Robbo is past it.you could see yesterday he was being beaten for once to the ball. He will only go down from here. You can see today thst van de ven at less than 40mil was an utter bargain and a real miss by lfc making do with matip at the time. You could tell from tjr bench split with two fullbacks and two cbs and then a 6 as well thet we are not balanced. 6 forwards at the club is fair enough. Elliott got injured, fair enough. But we will pay for that endo and tsimiaks axis on the bench as well. It's just not up to it. We have to start buying into some system cos what happened yesterday was something we've seen many times from the group when presented with a Deep defence that won't be drawn. You need to tell a player like trent to overlap and coss and not go narrow as its pointless. He was put at 10 (he had to be pit there by slot or he'd have been hauled off for doing g it?) That was stupid. Nunez doesn't seem to have a clue what is wanted at all. He looks like the manager hasn't talked to him. Yet jota was on his heels most of the game and really poor. Does this reflect on slot or nunez? Who knows. Szobo was pants tbh on the ball. Absolutely pants. As a 10 he would not excite anyone but as a runner and power player he is OK. Imo to play these defensive sides you have to double down on the principles. Keep two cms deeper. Make passes. Get thr width out there and cross and get corners. Get your big men in positions to score off on set piece, not in on keepers doing nothing. Arsenal set piece coach just delivered again. Gabriel powers one in but he wasn't in on keeper out of the game.
It wasn't like they were under pressure in thr ball or that forest were amazingly well positioned either. That 4 on 3 first half with szobo passing to their cb and between jota and diaz said it all. Salah shooting when 3 men were on one defender far post. Salah hoofing 3 crosses past the far post at nobody. The one chance diaz got was a pass made by gravenberch to a run thst never came and the ball just didn't go out! It really was just plain poor.
The theory that "you don't change a winning team" is not always right. Rotation is necessary when needed especially after international break.
In fairness it was never easy rotate when everyone played. But just for pig iron you could start gakpo and move to Diaz later to account for the time zones The bench mix with basically very little option says it all. He still would not take a chance on Endo for macca and push on gravenberch. No interest in resting robbo who looked so past it. The next seamus coleman/Leighton baines of Merseyside. Former favourite who clearly can't run but plays and plays. Picking gomez and quansah on the bench while all the young players were loaned or sold? You don't need 4 defenders on a bench of 9. You will have chisea soon but we could have done with the option yesterday. We looks so disjointed with trent wanting to go middle cos he did for England, trent pushed to 10 where he couldn't get it under control and his head up quick enough. Just run the sideline and cross. We then admitted we had no shape and held bradley back at rcb in a back 3 just to kill.any shot of an overlap. You want to play these sides with two cbs back and two cms playing the ball with the full backs hight and wide and stretch them. The cms should be able to track back with thr ball and you should never ever have a break on the two cbs unless a cm commits and misses the tackle. Trent should have been crossing in there yesterday to a loaded box. He pumps a couple from miles too deep which is classic out of ideas stuff.
