I'm unsure what to make of that. Trent has moved inside alot this season and its not really worked, but tonight it seemed to click. Looking at what was different, which could have aided. 1. It was very much a back 3, rather than a back four with trent moving inside. 2. Having trent and fab playing the 6 closed down the very vulnerable middle of the park, stopped people running right through onto the defence. 3. Having the 2 no 6s allowed a higher press from henderson and Jones without having to worry to much about what was happening behind them, didn't always work, but stopped the accurate long ball out. 4. Robertson sat in, meaning it was 3 at the back rather than 2( this helped alot) Little changes, but it seemed to come together abit more. First time in ages I've felt like we where in control of the game completely.
Trent was excellent last night but only once we the team got going after we scored the first goal. Up until that point, it was still quite laboured. I’ve been very much against moving Trent from RB into midfield but it worked in the second half Vs Arsenal and now against Leeds. Not only that, we’re getting the ball out to Mo a lot more now. Have we finally got the system to get the most out of our 2 best attacking outlets? Really happy for Jota as well. Been a long time coming and hopefully this will get him back on track.
tell you what I make of it. play 4231 if you want to park trent at 6. simple as. konate is not an rb. theres way too much space between cbs. it kills Robertson. we were just playing in front constantly, over and back then back pass as whoever ended up wide was not willing to try best a man or whatever. better sides who didn't make errors have just taken the first goal then sat in against us and that's why we are where we are. it's all lovely praising trent for chipping one to nunez from the middle but the reality is his best position is wide where his crossing comes into play. my vote is go buy yerselves a good rb and stick trent no 6 is that's the plan to solve thr whole thing. no bother, go do it. don't take a good cb like konate and waste his best talents and robbo and waste his energy.
worth highlighting that Trent isn’t starting as a midfielder. He starts at RB and then moves centrally
It’s very new and given how shambolic our away record is, I’m intrigued to see more of it after last night. I think just buying a RB and shoving him at 6 isn’t the point, the point is this system (eventually, it’s not the finished article) will allow him to roam and make it very difficult for the opposition to mark him out of the game.
My view is that we are just dragging salah back to a quasi RB/RWB slot to receive ball off konate. he is then confronted by a winger who doesn't need to track trent and a RB. Given salah is a left footed player he then is facing the wrong way and passes back. all those lovely touches are not worth a flying **** really Both wide players are getting the ball with little midfield support. (Jones and henerson playing as advanced players and are not going to over lap much) this is leading to the next pass being back rather than round the corner and in behind. It looks kind of like this Alisson Konate....gap....... VVD......... gap...... Robertson ................trent...............Fabinho ..........Henderson........................Jones Salah.....................................................Jota .............................Gakpo now, this is all fine and that but it actually only takes 3/4 players to press the life out of this system.. 2 forwards can push on that back 3 and 2 wide men can push on salah and jota (or full backs) and really you've no out ball at all. The massive gaps between players and quite "alien" game to konate of being in an azpi/james type role seems quite risky to me. VVD moving central also largely negates him making long passes. He made on yesterday to salah who then ran away form goal and back passed and the second time he tried salah was back in his RM slot and the ball sailed out for a throw. If I were a manager say of forest looking at this What I see is a 4231 set up as far as forwards go but one less defender and one more midfielder to pick up. I'd push on jota and salah and force them back and get after vvd and konate and imo Liverpool will 100% cough something up for me to exploit.
The whole point is that if TAA drifts inside you then outnumber the midfield by effectively having 4 cm’s in there against 3. Salah isn’t going into a rwb position, no idea where you’re getting that from Mito. Be interesting but don’t remember Konate passing the ball to Salah very often, if at all. Sticking him as a 6 defeats the whole point as you still just end up with the 3 there.
I'm unsure sure this was the case yesterday. From the goal kick he looked to be in the 6 position. Defending he either dropped into right back, or konate went rb, fab dropped in to cb. It's hard to judge, because Leeds looked shot, but even before the first goal we looked better, more solid. It may be I'm over thinking but it looked different than usual.
This is correct. The point is for the team to transition from one formation into another, while the game is going on. Buying a new rb and moving trent Into fabs position is pointless. It's much more difficult to press a team that is fluid. Having trent and fab there actually allows more options for an outball than having the two fullbacks high up the pitch and vvd, konate and fab passing the ball to each other. It also allows us to press, but with a bit more cover if it goes wrong.
Looking at our remaining fixtures it is not impossible that we could go to the end of season undefeated. But the chances of us going into top 4 is not completely dependent on us. It depends also on the likes of Man Utd and Newcastle dropping enough points. Newcastle have a tougher run in than the mancs. Also we play Spurs which means we can catch up on them although I don’t think they are real rivals for top 4.
salah has to come short to be an out for konate. he simply has to. if theres no out ball he's going to get destroyed. If you are under a press as a CB you've RB, GK, LCB, not 6 as options or go longer. in this system Konate is stood there quite wide with just VVD inside, Alisson behind and trent at 6. if salah doesn't come then the passing lanes can be very very quickly restricted. what this system does is it steals width to have another midfielder in the middle, and left sided CB. We've only width form salah and jota then or a midfielder as to go out there. So its either henderson providing this width in which case all its done is swapped henderson for trent and pout massive gaps between cbs OR its salah as width short.
In other seasons it would have been almost expected that we'd win every single game (the only ons is spurs at home) Last season we'd have breezed these. If you add 24 points to 47 then you get 71. thats top 4 target. If you add 24 to 56 you get 80. Its kind of that simple. We need newcastle to lose 4 from 8 or utd to lose 5 from 8 for top 4. forget it. If these sides go on a woeful run then so be it but its about pride and next season here. the worst thing we did under rodgers was not poor form (we were woeful at times) but it was the long slow awful end to 2014/15 season culminating in bad loss to stoke. We need the players showing they want to be there and want to win, so go win all 8. (or die trying) To get europe league (the only one worth being in) We need the FA cup to be city v utd. That means 6th is an option. to get 6th we need villa and brighton to ease off. We are only 3 points off 6th. 5th is very possible here if we get our arses in gear. (spurs in thier state on 53 means we need them to lose 2 more than us. Our gd will take care of the rest) If we don't get 5th I personally will be quite disappointed in them as theres enough that are "staying" that are fit now to make that happen. If we don't even make 6th it'll be utterly abject.
When we're good, we're very good. We have to hold on to that. All the forwards scoring was a nice throw back as well. Jones doesn't get much recognition but his assist for Jota was brilliant.
It’s interesting that when teams chase a win against us after we’ve scored one or two, they get demolished. Man Utd went all out and were destroyed. Same as Leeds yesterday. They lost all defensive composure and were vulnerable to our fast counters with Salah the top man. you can see the drubbing coming from a mile as soon as we made it 3-1. I wonder whether teams playing us in the future will learn from these.
I think if a team is feeling fragile then they will crumble very quickly whatever their game plan is. We should know.
