Given our relative lack of success recently, you have to wonder whose fault that is. Would Pacheco have played better had Rodgers not played such a formation? Probably. Should he have maximised his output where he was played regardless of where he should be played? Probably. It's a poor mix of those two that leads to many of our youngsters not succeeding and moving on to other clubs. San Jose is a promising player now, highly sought after. He left us because he "didn't have enough skill". Well clearly he did, but who wasn't utilising that properly? Take Balotelli. Balotelli obviously was thousands of times as problematic to his managers as a youth player than both Pacheco, Suso, San Jose, Ince, Silva. He probably didn't fit into their plans. Yet Mancini properly dealt with his tantrums, development and tailored his tactics to help (not focus on) Balotelli. Mourinho couldn't and didn't have the patience. Now look at him. He's good. Very good. We could have done that with Kacaniklic. Ecclestone. We can still do that with Pacheco, Suso, Morgan, Sterling, Kelly, Shelvey, Henderson, Borini, etc. When you're throwing a youngster into the fire, you have to make sure the stage is set for him to excel. It's vital that they get support when they need it. Now the line being drawn is, is that player good enough? Is he worth it? With the technical learning under Borrell and Segura I'm sure most of our youth are. We're just not helping them take that final step. The only one that transcended that was Sterling after he realised no one would help him out. He's a rare breed so we can not rely on other players to do that.
Just finished watching the game. I was impressed by Assaidi, Suso, Wisdom, Coates and Jones, they all did very well IMO. Downing was **** again (but got an assist for the Coates goal) and I thought Pacheco was poor too. What is up with Enrique??? Sahin, Henderson and Carragher and did what they needed to. Sterling didn't have much time but still looked lively and Borini ran a lot but I'm nit convinced about his finishing abilities. Shelvey was superb when he came on, how come he can hit a shot harder with his left foot when he is right footed As for tge team performance, poor defensive lapses for two of their goals and we was fortunate with a couple too. But hey, we bagged five...FIVE!!! Shame it won't really be a confidence booster since most of the players won't be involved on Sunday
so..... i'm quite releived we got out of there with our lives as it were. we were lucky in parts, very lucky but we did see some positive things too. At least we know assaidi can actually kick a ball, wisdom did ok but enrique doesn't even look a championship player any more.... thats unreal. for me it was ok but we were all over the place, young boys were very poor and still got 3 goals. very disporganised at the back so my dreading waiting for the inevitable drubbing we are due goes on. I sure hope the players left behind are going to be working very hard at being organised and tight at the back at the very minimum this weekend.
Give it milk. When was the last time we scored FIVE away goals in Europe? Or anywhere for that matter.
Whilst Enrique was extremely poor, he is coming back from injuries so it may take him a little while to get things sorted.
He was poor towards the end of last season too but fair point The problem is, we don't really have significant cover for him so he plays whether he plays well or like last night
I can see Johnson being used as left back quite frequently this season with Kelly and Wisdom staking a claim for RB. I know it was only one match, but I was extremely impressed with Wisdom. Defended well, looks classy on the ball and took his goal well - really attacked the ball with power and accuracy. If that performance was anything to go by, then Kelly could be in trouble IMO because Martin lacks real technical ability.
Yep, it is not ideal but I suspect you are right about Johnson at left back. IMO Johnson is one of our better players but I don't think he is as effective from left back and you should play your best players in their best position to get the best out of them. We certainly don't seem to have any problems at right back with Johnson, Kelly, Flanagan, Wisdom and Carragher all accomplished in that position. I suspect Wisdom is more than likely going to end up at centre back, much like with Kelly will and Carragher then he started out, he will get game time at right back to build is match experience etc
Downing was our best player last night. He put in a muture performance and set a good example to our young players. His crossing was good, but no one was even trying to get on the end of them. When he was put crosses in no one was in the right position for them. It should have been like this. ----------------o-----------------------------o--------------------------------------------- --------I___Assaidi____Pacheco___________I---------I--Downing crossing- -------------------------------------------------------------------I-------------------------- --------------------------------Suso-----------------------------I--------------------------
I think the Downing hate has gone to far on here. He could score a hatrick of goals and assists in a 6-0 win and still get abuse.
I thought Downing was wasteful in possession and often slowed down the attacks. I agree that he put in some decent balls but as usual, there were a lack of bodies in the box. But then why would you cross balls into an empty box? Turn back and keep possession. Plus - why was he putting in high crosses to a small striker? It highlights his lack of game intelligence.
I wouldn't go that far. He rarely beats his man and is still crossing balls for someone who isn't there i.e Carroll. Assaidi looked better than Downing and he has only just got into the team, and only cost £3m compared to Downing who cost us £20m. I wouldn't go as far as saying he was our best player last night because he really wasn't, and I wouldn't lose any sleep if he was to be sold in January.
Well I don't plan on waiting for him to score a hatrick of goals and assists.... Let's be honest - He woke up this season thinking "I'm going to cross it to Andy Carroll every single time" but unfortunately for him Andy Carroll isn't here anymore... As for yesterday's performance he didn't really do much. Other than the cross for the own goal (which was again too misplaced for anyone in the box) he was largely anonymous, couldn't beat his man and should have been subbed off in the 60th. That being said I suppose he is trying to show Rodgers he can play a role, but he's not exactly excelling at it.
I do question Downing's use of the ball, but I am happy for him to put the right ball into the box. It does, however, have to be the right ball. For example, Shaggy used to put some lovely whipped balls in for God to get on the end of, near post. God, as we all know, is a towering 5'9", but used to score an awful lot in the air by virtue of the whipped delivery and the darting runs in front of his marker. So if Borini isn't making those runs, Downing should be checking out and coming back to retain possession...
Good win against a fairly decent side with youngsters. We scored five, count 'em, five! We wanted goals and it looks like the youth can provide them given half a chance. I'm looking forward to seeing more of our younger players in the first team. This win, despite not having that many first-teamers in it, will motivate our first team, who will want to show that they also can score goals. Manchester United will be a tough game but we might be able to get a decent result. I'm quite hopeful.
