And seriously SR? This persistence that the young AM was useless in his raw & daft way as opposed to the world class waste of space we pay a huge salary to reminisce about good games with?
Are you referring to the fact I thought Shelvey was poor today? If so, then I feel he had little excuses, I don't expect him to win games but he had 90 minutes in his preferred position and I thought he was wasteful. That's not his fault but BR should have subbed him for Sahin, A young lad with some serious talent. AS for Gerrard, he was playing as a holding mid today and was bound to be useless, he's always useless when playing as a CDM
I wonder who will play up front against Young Boys? BR's surely got to be thinking about giving Morgan and/or Yesil a shot in the league sometime (as Borini and Saurez aren't out and out strikers) and thursday would be an ideal match to test them against decent opposition (They will be better than Hearts)
Lol, yes. And I Agree it wasn't his best game today. But you posted it 3-4 times in two different threads which I find harsh criticism for one of our younger players. And sorry; you make it worse by making excuses not for the young guy; but the "world class star" who has played every midfield position at the highest level in his career. Sorry was SG in the holding role? I thought that was Allen. Maybe it was that 2-1 BR was talking about which makes SG's contribution worse. He had a calm technical player on the ball beside him & was still anonymous. So if I'm looking at the first 4 games Shelvey vs Gerrard? Shelvey lacks game awareness, positional nouce, and can't tackle worth his salt but I'll tell you this (IMO) he's put more effort in his games than Stevie "I've proved myself so don't have to now" Gerrard.
I think Gerrard was poor today in attack, but that's the point, he wasn't an attacking player today. He had clearly been told to hold midfield, and you could see him all game positioned just in front of the back 4 with Allen off him!! Shelvey was the dynamo. It's not his fault, he's young and will learn but the CAM role is very very important and I feel perhaps the weight of responsibility put him under pressure (shelvey always plays better when coming on as a sub and when we're winning). I know I've probably been saying it a little too much, but I'm just pissed off with our 2 points in 12 - I really want us to do well this season, will be so gutted if BR is sacked by FSG and we have to start yet again
Gerrard was poor. He hasn't played well this season under the new system. He struggles as the holding midfielder yet seems to have lost that bit of space to get forward and score the goals he used to. Today's performance was good in parts but we lack the finish. No one was getting into the box. There was a perfect cross from Johnson at one stage smack into the penalty area and we had no one running in, Johnson just threw up his arms in dismay. Borini is not the answer it seems. He played as centre forward today and although he was better than when he plays wide he is not clinical enough. Maybe Morgan or one of the other reserve strikers should be given a chance.
No worries SR; I think we're both peeved about the same thing, worried the same thing will happen & desperately trying to hope it will just click. Me? I think BR knows we have a collection of very good players. I just don't think he believes they can play his way successfully. So either he gets his way & slowly transfers out what doesn't work for him despite howls of derision along the way as he brings in players that on the face of it will not be star players. His philosophy is team wins 9 out 10 games, star player wins the other one. Now whether he's good enough to implement that ethos is another debate Edit: bloody phone : I think he is but it will take all 3 years to work & I don't think he'll be allowed it. Because of above.
Unless Borini finds his feet fast, we'll be in the bottom half of the table until January when we can look again for a striker (although the whole world knows we need one and will jack up prices, no doubt).
true, but hopefully they also know we won't be held to randsom and will now just walk away from deals if they don't suit (sig, dempsey)
Regarding the subject header: "19 shots-9 on target-1 goal" The VAST majority of our shots were feeble taps. The fact that half of them missed the target when they were so weak is inexcusable... if they were being rocketed towards the goal I could forgive a 50% ratio. So that brings us to the 9 on target- was any of them with any velocity? Again- the majority of the 9 that hit the target were feeble kicks that started outside the box and their goalkeeper had time to put the kettle on- sit down read the newspaper- bang the mrs- feed the dog- and have a good scratch before the ball reached him. How do we expect to score when the keeper has time to feed the mrs and bang the dog before the ball reaches him? The one that went in was from point- blank a scramble in the box. Our shooting was weak... it was low tempo balls that wern't even well placed. We may have dominated possession- but by all rights- our shooting was poor and we're lucky to have a point. Borini looked to be trying. Glen had problems- but he seemed to be taking real shots too. Sterling not a bad game- but we can't expect the lad to win the games for us single handedly at his age.
Absolutely agree with that. Completely. Shelvey isn't mentally ready to be given that starting position, 4 games in a row. (Not that he has played always but he's playing so much more). He's currently at a moment where he (and Henderson!) need to be practicing their mental awareness and their game intelligence on the training pitch, EL and CC - not the league. When we are winning, or they are coming off the bench, they have a mindset of someone trying to win a place in the squad - they step up their game and play well. Neither is so good at motivating themselves to stay there. They can't wake up before the match saying to themselves, "I have to prove myself". They've proven themselves. And they play poorly, like Shelvey did today. I don't care if he put in more effort than so and so, it's about him and why he shouldn't have played in front of Sahin. In this kind of match, Gerrard shouldn't have been playing a CDM role. You've got both Sahin and Allen in that role (not to mention Lucas) and they should be taking that spot over Gerrard. With Sahin behind Gerrard, it would allow him to run with the ball, something he does well. He loves running into the box with the ball, but from a CDM position he can't. He's got to rely on long balls from defending positions, which he doesn't do so well (thankfully, he's not a hoofball player). I want BR to stay, I really do. But he's got to pull his head out of his arse and fix his system which is NOT working. It's not going to fix itself. Downing isn't going to suddenly hit his head on the post and receive the words of the football prophets. Why did he sign Assaidi if he's never going to play? Why didn't Borini stay on despite giving his all and being one of the better players while on the pitch? Etc etc.
Shelvey is a talent but is extremely raw. Not ready for the first team but neither is Gerrard. Would love to see Allen and Sahin with Suso ahead of them. But no manager has the bottle to drop Gerrard. No matter what we do with the midfield, the underlying problem remains; lack of a decent striker and bodies in the box.
in my opinion there was at least 6 occasions a ball was corssed with only one man i nthe box, when i saw two in there they wer ei nthe same area... we are CLUELESS upfront and simply we are seeing the issue with gerrard... shelvey was getting inthe box to join but had no clue where to go... contrasting gerrard and lampard and its sad to say gerrard comes nowhere close anymore... lampard is a glory hound only interested in getting i nthe box... gerrard justs want's hollywood passes and not to run. we've no teeth upfrot, borini is out of his depth and i would not at all be suprised to see us hammered i nthe near future... it has to happen. we can't score and we are making errors... if we repeat the west brom performance against a top 4 side we'll get mullered.
I think there's still alot more to come from Gerrard, he just needs to realise he's not the dynamo he once was. From what I've seen of Borini I'd have thought your best attacking option would be Suarez up front with Gerrard just off him (having watched Beardsley on loop for the previous 24 hours). Gerrard isn't box-to-box now so just needs to be given a tighter remit of DM, CM or AM and stick to it IMO. He'll be fine, remember this time last year many people were writing Lampard off entirely.
I think a 4231 system with Suarez behind Borini would be best, Sterling out on one side but it also means Downing would play too.
I believe Borini did ok - constantly running and working hard. People are expecting him to be some dynamo in the box and be involved in everything. That's not his job - he is supposed to be on the end of chances and that's what he did; he had two decent efforts and unlike others, he put his laces through it. The problem is the midfield. You have Sterling and Suarez on the wing who will provide the amunition but then you'll only have one player in the box. With Allen playing so deep, that leaves Gerrard and Shelvey to provide numbers in the box. And they fail to do that. Gerrard must be dropped. Simple as that but BR (or any other manager) don't have the balls to do that. Not to upset at the result at the weekend - we had a bad day yet we dominated away from home, had some good chances, hit the woodwork twice, could have had 2 penalties. Imagine us on a good day. It will happen soon - once we get that first win, confidence will grow. I can already see the defence looking more comfortable on the ball, but we just need to cut out those silly errors. I think there is definately progress but it will time.
Unfortunately, the two chances he had required composure and not 'laces through it' For me, it is the perfect opportunity for a new manager to signal his arrival and set an example. Dropping Gerrard would tell every member of the squad (and possible arrivals) that no one is bigger than the club and all that matters of the team. But as you rightly say, no manager will do it
True - but I find it frustrating whenever we take a shot and it's so tame and weak. It usually snatches wide or it's a comfortable save. We don't have a 'Torres' type strker who can pass the ball into the corners so it's time we were more instinctive. I remember when Kuyt used to hammer the ball as hard as he could and usually to good effect.
