2014-15 Season Progress

Well I thought we'd win our 2 home games and lose the 2 away games, so expected 6 points from the first block.

Just means we need 4 wins from 4 from the next one to get back on track. Looking at fixtures, it can be done, especially when look at the next 2 after that, Hull at home and Newcastle away both look winnable.

 

If we continue to play like that it can't be done!!!

 

But if we play like we did v Spurs then it can.

Game after International break in which probably 7 of our starting line up were away with their International teams we always seem to be a bit disjointed.

 

no lads what we learned as a title.

1. lovern is no better than skertl, period. shako is **** so we may as well get skertl and lovern together

2/ rodgers has no idea where to play lallana and neither does the lad himself

3. markovic needs a lot of time to get used to this league, you can't go back passing all day and waiting fro the ball to come.

4. badontelly wasn't up for a fight.

5. manquillo is decent but thinks laying down = defending. i defended him at first but he needs to stop going to gorund as option one.

6. if the gerrard position today was a tactics it was a **** on. the fact that for half the first half we saw henderson with no pressure on him stand where gerrard should have been suggested to me it was but it was awful

7. coutinho continues to play the same he is going to flop for me. he needs to focus on delivering a killer ball not what he's at. his passes throguh were driven and useless

in short our best 11 now seems to me to contain sterling and sturridge and plan b looks bottom half.

 

Not sure how you can say Sakho is **** based on today. He did nothing wrong, wasn't at fault for the goal, passing was crisp and our defence wasn't even tested in the 2nd half and only tested by 3 set pieces in the first.

 

on the ball is was panicky.. he ****ed it up and gave away corner they scored off of... aside from that he had little to so and it really showed they never pressed him.

if a test = concede one, free header second... header over top third yeah we only got barely tested.

 

Not sure how you can say Markovic was back passing either. He was trying to hard to make something happen at times when the easy option should have been taken. As I said on the match thread, the only thing he was guilty of was trying to walk the ball into the net!

 

Also didn't help Markovic today when Villa dropped back to 11 man defence. Closed all the space down, making it hard for players like Markovic who run into the gaps. Sterling wasn't great when he came on either for the same reason.

 

I thought Sterling played well when introduced. Thing is, he never dominates ninety minutes, he pops up half a dozen times in a match with something brilliant. Only playing for thirty minutes cuts that impact down, add in the Villa defensive approach you highlighted and it becomes even harder.

I was moaning about Coutinho for the first hour, I thought he was very poor. However, when Borini and Lambert came on and we switched to the diamond shape meaning Sterling took the AM roles with Coutinho dropping back into the three, I thought he was much better. tried a little too hard to score the goal but much improved all the same.

Balotelli showed glimpses of what he can do but also the things why I didn't want him. He lacked fight, effort and desire IMO. I don't think the 4231 system helped us either, how many times have we seen Gerrard and Hendo partnered up in the middle for us or England now? IT DOESN'T BLOODY WORK!!!

 

Still 2 points up on last seasons results, so not as bad as some people are saying. Yeah we are not clicking yet but we weren't at this point of last season either, we also had a harder start playing southampton and villa both teams in form and teams we dropped points against them last season. City also lost at home to Stoke but i don't see them saying they never going to challenge just because of one bad game, we just need a bit more time. Good run of games coming up against some lower teams so hopefully BR can get the team firing against them.

 

It was a poor performance overall, but have people forgotten the performance against Spurs already?

 

yes, absolutely.

we have too many average players playing to challenge. simple as.

oh and we are Not 2 points up on last season at all. we had 10 points this time last year and now we've 6. take note that 2 points off the trend for 70 points and it seems we've a lot of guys who'll take six months to integrate in.

 

He was referring to the respective games from last season

 

I think the Villa game shows we are still inconsistent if certain players are not available/played. Sturridge and Sterling seem difficult to replace if not in the starting eleven. This position may improve, hopefully, as Markovic and Ballotelli get more used to our best playing style/formation.

The worrying aspect for me at the moment is Gerrards rapid decline to a player who sits and pings long passes but offers little else.

On a brighter note Roma are apparently in for Johnson for £2m, with any luck we will see the back of him in January

 

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I'd bite their arm off.

oh and gerrard? i've still that pasture out back waiting. he should play CL then not play v west ham IMO. we can't keep doing this.

 

which is not my favored approach. We are excusing bad form when compared to last years block of 4 system. We've shown inconsistency and have taken 6/12, not looked defensively sound and not done well at home either. If we win the next 4.. that repairs the damage.. but that shows that you've spent some important points already.

 

Never said I agreed or disagreed, just pointing out the error of your ways

 

Yes we haven't had the best start, but Southampton, City, Spurs, Villa are all top half teams. Not many teams will come away from city with any point this season, so you can right that off. Villa was a bad result end of, but every team will have them there is no need panic yet, I expect this season will be similar to last, up and down in the first half followed by a more settled second half.

 

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