The Flano/Allen flank is not working well imo. At Cardiff they were poor defensively, last night - offensively. We batter Johnson here, yet his flank has been quite busy both games. Last night, an off day, he made 29 successful passes in the attacking third, compared to 9 for Flano. Add to that difference, the equally big one between Henderson and Allen (who sits deeper), and you get a f**king huge flank discrepancy. This leads to the vast majority of the balls being supplied on the right, which is great for the left foot of Sturridge cutting in, not so good for the right foot of Suarez. I think we are better changing the flanks to Flano/Hendo and GJ/Allen(Sterling) in the remaining games. If that requires Flano and GJ or Allen/Sterling and Hendo to flip sides, so be it. Either flip would work, though I would prefer GJ and Flano to flip sides, as GJ is two-footed while Flano much prefers his right. I don't know what BR is thinking in keeping the existing flanks, but I'm sure he has his reasons.
is this just a thread to big up Johnson i don't have issues with flanno as he is young and still learning, also has been better than most thought he may be,just hope he doesn't go similar way to insua where we over played him, Allen i am not impressed by and not sure i ever will to be honest.
How did I big up Johnson? Only facts there, jenners. On the contrary I'm justifying Flano's poor performances by saying he does not mesh well with Allen (too similar?), AND that he's playing on the left flank whilst being right-footed.
In fairness I'm not sure I get why Rodgers is playing the full backs this way round either. Johnsons best spell over the last few years actually came when he was playing left back and Flannel being a young lad should be bedding into the team in his favoured position as often as possible. I think the passing stat can be easily explained from last nights game as it was obvious the managers instructions were for us to attack more down our right and JF was much more reserved. Definitely an area we can improve both defensively and in an attacking sense.
I said similar to this on the Johnson thread yesterday. I'll also add that Flanno and Skrtel is a better pairing than Flanno and Agger too.
I was travelling home last night so missed the first half so I can't comment but in the 2nd half Allen very much stayed central with Coutinho attacking from the left?
Btw. opta: Allen 22 successful passes in the attacking third. Henderson 43. It's tactics that favour a left-footed forward cutting in. Suarez took the ball on his left boot in a few occasions last night, wasn't accurate with it.
It looks to me like he is trying to make a square peg fit a round hole in Allen. My humble opinion is the guy offers nothing at all to the squad that other players give. I'd like to see him used as a sub at best. I understand BR paid £15m for the kid but that doesn't warrant unbalancing the team for, he needs to sit out and come on when we're are comfortable in games to rest up genuine first teamers. I know this won't be what some think but really feel this is why there is a discrepancy on the flanks
Allen is indeed not needed at home, when we stay tight and spring out in counterattack. But without Allen, we can't keep the ball well and therefore can't play an expansive game. We tried to play an expansive game at WBA, Fulham away and Villa & Swansea at home. And what happened in all those games? On the other hand, since we introduced Allen in the second half of the Swansea game - we have had comfortable wins (bar yesterday), better game control and better defensive displays. Therefore, Allen is not the problem IMO as I think BR is using him to gain control in away games and against teams that sit deeper. The flank combo is a problem in itself imo.
So part of a diamond where the player at the tip (Coutinho in this case) as freedom to roam, otherwise known as playing in the hole. You could say the same as Allen for Henderson on the other side, or for Suarez and Sturridge up top (being all over like Coutinho) as they are given the freedom to roam. IMO, we have a structure for the back seven (including the keeper) but beyond that its a free-for-all. That's whether we play a 4231, 433 or 41212 diamond.
I think we miss Sterling defensively, he tracks back a lot and covers for either Johnson or Flanagan.
Take Gerrard out the team then you don't need Allen / three in there. With Gerrard in the side, you do. Stevie needs others to do his running, Hendo and Allen are brilliant for this as they both have endless energy, IMO Allen's only world class attribute is his ability to press the opposition, I genuinely do not think there is anyone better at it than him in this league. Shame about the rest of his game. As I said earlier (can't recall which thread), the team is more important than its parts. Dropping Allen in favour of having Coutinho AND Sterling on the pitch alongside SAS makes us inbalanced IMO. The only way this can work is if we have someone other than Gerrard in the middle or, god forbid, we play three at the back.
No, it's not free-for-all. What do you think we are, taking such liberties, Arsenal? We employ mostly two systems nowadays as I replied to Gerrinho. The diamond (with 3 CMs) and the 433 (with 3 Fs). And we are quite disciplined with them.
Free-for-all is perhaps not the right wording I was talking purely about the freedom to move around the field whilst in possession of the ball. We have a structure the whole team follows when we don't have possession however its not always the player assigned to that role that carries it out. For example, should Suarez drift right and Sterling goes up top before losing possession, Luis will track back instead of Raheem. This is what I meant about the front three or four have freedom / free-for-all; they are very flexible and inter-changable.
SAS of course do switch over a lot. The two centrally positioned MFs, Gerrard and Coutinho sway left as much as they hang right, but stay mostly central. Whilst, Hendo and Allen are 90% on the right or left of the midline, respectively. They drift centrally but rarely cross-over to the other side.
Guess it wasn't Henderson that the **** rag was going to out then I genuinely agree with that although I think Hendo would naturally stay to the right meaning Allen would have to stay left to avoid inbalancing the side.
Manchester United 0-3-Liverpool (opta): Completed passes in attacking third. Flano/Allen 11, Johnson/Henderson 41.
