The fact is Henderson and Lucas worked brilliantly against Swansea. Rather than reward them we brought Gerrard back. My issue is we rested Manquilo who hasn't played much. Lucas and Henderson are now more tired and we all know Gerrard will play in the cup game. So where is the squad management??? It is disappointing after united arsenal and Westham dropping points we conspired to drop points too and considering that we are the ones chasing them it is unacceptable
Lets not forget the Aurelio freekick by Leicester in the opening 80secs. Afterall, the commentators weren't going to forget
Problem is you can't bin until you've got a better replacement. Whilst I, for the very first time, agree that Gerrard should not be playing, it is the lack of heart in the team that really concerns me.
Gerrard may know it. It is not Gerrard's fault that Rodgers insists on carrying on with this. It is all Gerrard's fault. I dont even think Rodgers is to scared of dropping Gerrard. He just loves having a playing of his profile in the team to much. He loved talking about working with improving Balotelli. He's gone quiet on that front now that he's given up. He loves celebrities.
Watching your captain walking around the middle of the pitch but shouting at you can't be good for heart...
Thing is, playing Gerrard leaves Hendo pushed out at wing back which clearly won't work, regardless of his work rate it's not his position. We have a midfield two which has never worked together and our box to box mid working at wing back, that's three players who will not perform at a high standard with the current set up.
We have Can, Henderson, Lucas who can play in central roles. Heart/character is an overrated quality - setting the team out correctly with the right players will win more matches than heart alone
We shouldn't have dropped Manquillo... why did Gerrard 1) play and 2) play 90 minutes? He was shocking today. Might as well have stood on the spot all game.
Sakho and Can didn't play too many forward balls this game compared to the last either, instead shuffling it to Gerrard to do something with.
Yet when Rodgers does change it to a team that makes sense we win really comfortably. Rodgers then kids himself that his team selection was not correct for once and reverts to the crap one.
This is the thing - Rodgers will happily change the structure and dynamic of the team to accomodate Gerrard. It's ridiculous - Rodgers did the same with Suarez which was the right thing to do because we were building around a world class player in his prime.
I'm sad to say that with Brendan bullsh@t at the helm we are going backwards -even he should have seen that the way to help our poor defence is to play pressing fast aggressive attacking football -the win over Swansea clearly showed it .... And then the inevitable poor team selection .... Taxi!!!!!
As an average, perhaps, but we've seen countless times in cup games particularly where 'lesser' sides just want a game more and work harder chasing down every ball and end up over coming a bigger opponent. We've seen enough from our team where we have the talent, but our players just don't try or have confidence. Heart is a big factor imo.
In one off games, yes I agree. Quality will always be the most important factor in the league. That is why you will never see a plucky underdog win the league on just heart because putting in that effort and desire every game is exhausting.. Also, I thought it was comical when Gerrard put the blame on Hendo for the goal. Pathetic from the captain.
It's horrible for the health of the club when it's obvious to every fan (and probably the players) that the biggest problems are the actions of the manager and the captain
The opposition must be licking their lips when they see our central midfield. Press and bully, and waltz right through. So easy to play against. Credit to Leicester - they had a real go.
