No we are better than them teams and we are at home so we can have hope but if was an Arsenal fan I would quite confident, they have a fairly well balanced team where as we have a good attack and a pretty desperate defence.
If so, your 'derby setup' would have to preserve Coutinho as he's not replaceable at ACM. And you already mentioned you wouldn't touch SASAS. It leaves a choice of 2 amongst Gerrard, Allen and Henderson for the middle...
What I said: "Despite being at home, we should set up in a similar way to we did against Everton. Play counter-attacking football whilst putting them under pressure when they have possession. #givetotoSASAS" Setup similar as in, close them quickly and play counter-attacking football. Plus, Allen, Henderson and Gerrard are all capable of playing deeper or further forward so they could interchange anyway.
If we play like we did against Villa and West Brom we will be slaughtered. If we play 3 at the back, we will be slaughtered. We are at home so we should attack and put them on the back foot, if we try to outplay them, guess what....we will be slaughtered. I would rather see Cissokho dropped and Flanaghan and Kelly play ( I was tempted to go for the music hall joke of Falanaghan and Allen, but stopped myself just in time)
Alright, so you would go for Allen instead of Coutinho too then. With that change, whilst you may ask for a similar spirit to the derby game, you can't ask for similar tactics. You just can't. And neither should you, given that Arsenal will pack a greater punch in the middle than Barry, McCarthy, Pienaar and Barkley could.
Coutinho played centre mid in the derby. It was the same formation (4-1-4-1) as Tottenham away. He was given a licence to get forward a lot but so was Henderson in the game against Spurs, doesn't mean he played attacking midifeld.
I've said elsewhere that as opposed to the WBA game, in the derby Coutinho player deeper while Gerrard more forward, giving us a better control of the midfield. However, Coutinho was still the most advanced of the lot bar SAS in the derby. What set-up would you go with btw?
We'd sit deeper. We'd absorb more pressure. We'd be breaking up more play. Henderson can push further up. We'd create less, esp from vertical ground passes. We'd start our counterattacks more frequently from flanks or long balls. : Probable changes that should come to pass by playing Allen instead of Coutinho in the 'same' system.
I agree with you that we should go with Allen, Hendo & Gerrard in the middle. But our average positions against Everton clearly show Coutinho and Henderson playing alongside each other please log in to view this image
I'd go 4-3-3 Allen Gerrard Hendo Suarez Studge Coutinho Sterling gets dropped for this but could be useful if Coutinho fades. That line up also enables us to go 4-3-1-2
Going blow to blow with Arsenal in the middle of the park, their favorite battleground.... At Emirates, we went narrow with only wingbacks and they hogtied the turd we offered in the middle and then ran circles past it. Sterling offers an outlet to dissipate pressure off the middle and stronger defensive hustle. I'd like us to have the courage of doing what you suggest, but Coutinho has forged no real partnerships in the middle that allow him to combine when under pressure. It's all too direct and sometimes he gets predictable and stifled. It's not his fault - through schemes, practice, chemistry or personnel, we go for the jugular rather than finesse.
I personally believe we need to drop one of our 2 strikers to be succesful in games against Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea etc. I don't think Rodgers is brave enough to do that though.
TBH, I don't know if I'd go with Allen or not. I think it depends how ready he is after his injury. I'd normally say don't change a winning team but we had the WBA game inbetween
After the performance Sterling put in against WBA, he'd be the last name I'd drop for this one. It would be a straight swap between Coutinho and Allen for me which would depend on whether you wanted a 433 or 4231 type system
-------------------Mignolet--------------------- -Kelly----Skrtel(Agger)--Toure(Sakho)--Flanagan- ------------------Gerrard----------------------- ---------Henderson---------Allen--------------- ------------------Coutinho--------------------- -----Sturridge----------------Suarez----------- At the 60 mark, take off Coutinho, play Sterling and invert that triangle with Suarez the target man (Sterling/Sturridge on the flanks). Then whoever else on the bench can come in and make an impact. I know we all want SASAS to play but Sterling should start on the bench for this one. We need his impact coming in.
He's been great I'm just looking at the players for a particular job, unlike Litor I think we should go toe to toe with them in the middle with Coutinho switching between wide and central trying to find space.
