he only bad thing about Johnson scoring is that he's 1st on the team sheet now. If he had been dropped along with Gerrard it would have been a step in the right direction.
I've got to say for all those convinced we'll become a wonder team once we drop Gerrard yesterday kind of showed that we're equally **** without him For all those suggesting there are comparisons between dropping Lampard and Gerrard I have to point out that there's one major difference here. Chelsea dropped Lamps AFTER they'd brought in players good enough to replace him...unlike us, we have to resort to Lucas and Allen (The Sideways Sisters). Fair to say a scrappy 1-0 against one of the least attacking teams in the Prem is not something to get carried away about especially as the middle of the park was yet again one of our weakest areas. Our biggest problem is still that we haven't bought well enough to be able to rest/drop Gerrard more often.
We were far more solid defensively without him in the team. That's not to say we were brilliant defensively - because we still have clowns like Skrtel and Johnson there. We were also a lot better against Real Madrid as well - again, without Lovren or Gerrard.
Toure's experience and a genuine DM makes a huge difference. Add a top keeper and we will see even more improvement.
BR says after the Ludogoretz game having deployed Stevie as a more advanced midfielder: "I don't think he has ever had to run so much since 2009". Meaning, he and Stevie had seen the latter's deployment in DM quite literally as a quasi static quarterback role. Terrible thinking, since the DM, especially if unpaired, should be one of the most mobile and gritty players fielded in a PL game. Anyway, hopefully he has learned the lesson and resumes pairing Allen and Lucas in DM. I am kinda OK with this, since neither of them is currently able to man all of the zone ahead of our defence by themselves. Importantly, this will allow Henderson to help more in attack.
Isn't this what we were doing when Allen first joined and played really well in his first 10 or so games? Could really be the key to keeping things tighter and hope we persist with that partnership
Madrid should have scored 4 or 5 they didn't because of **** finishing, not anything we did the score was very, very flattering to us
