http://basstunedtored.com/2013/09/22/mignolets-passing-poor-ability-or-lack-of-options/ [HR][/HR] Southampton were victorious over Liverpool on Saturday for a variety of reasons; being clinical in the box and competitive all over the pitch being two very important ones. But they also pressed from the front to limit the Redsâ passing options, knowing full well that Mignolet is not particularly comfortable on the ball, and sure enough, the big Belgian gave possession over to them twenty-one times over the course of the match. Is this the goalkeeperâs fault though? Iâve reviewed the figures from Stats Zone, and they have raised some interesting questions about Liverpoolâs strategy on this front. Before we start on passing, a quick word of praise for Mignolet. The former Mackem has saved twenty-five of the twenty-eight (89.3%) on target efforts that Liverpool have allowed their opponents this season. By comparison, Pepe Reina only saved sixteen (57.1%) of the first twenty-eight shots he faced in 2012/13, so on that front Mignolet has been a definite upgrade, and I think overall it was the correct decision to change goalkeeper. But his distribution of the ball remains a significant concern. Opposing teams have wised up to this fact and have pressed Liverpoolâs defence accordingly. This can be seen in the increase in number of back passes that the Reds have made as the season has gone on, and the number of times that Mignolet has lost possession and kicked the ball long has grown along similar lines: please log in to view this image Brendan Rodgers needs to figure out a tactic to counteract this issue, and swiftly, as Liverpoolâs opponents will no doubt continue to employ this tactic if they have seen the success that the Saints had using it at Anfield. I suspect that solution lies in giving Mignolet better options from his teammates. For instance, there are no real issues with his passing in the defensive third of the pitch, as he has been accurate with thirty-five of his thirty-eight passes (92.1%) in this area so far this season. But when he doesnât have a suitable option here he goes long with the ball, and this is where the problems start. Just eighteen of his eighty-two passes (22%) into the front two thirds of the pitch have found a colleague, giving him an overall pass completion rate of just 42.4%. Mihail Vladimirov (who you should follow on Twitter for tactical insight) offered me the following opinion: Having collated the figures via Stats Zone, I can reveal that Gerrard, Lucas and Henderson are directly offering Mignolet little assistance themselves. Of the 87 passes by Mignolet that are logged as reaching a teammate, just ten in total have reached the aforementioned three midfielders, and each of them has had three games where the goalkeeper hasnât passed to them at all. Shouldnât part of the blame for Mignoletâs poor passing stats lie with them for not providing a better outlet? As Mihail notes above, if not a direct outlet for the keeper, at least better options for the defence to work with, rather than having them passing back to Mignolet and increasing the pressure upon him? Another thing I canât fathom at present is the frequency with which Mignolet launches free kicks down the park. Take a look at his free kick chart from the Southampton match, as an example: please log in to view this image Two went short and were collected by a team mate, but four went long and every one gifted possession back to the visitors. Knowing that Mignolet has poor long range kicking, why has he been instructed this season to hit thirteen out of the fifteen free kicks he has taken long, resulting in a completion rate of just 33%? I appreciate that teams need to employ variety in their play, but when this is clearly not working surely heâd be better off passing the ball short to a defender who is comfortable on the ball, like Agger or Sakho for instance, and let them play the ball out? This short piece has probably raised more questions than answers, and as a tactical novice Iâm not the man to provide the solutions. Brendan Rodgers is paid to resolve such issues however, and itâs clear he needs to sort this out sooner rather than later.
so... there are two things at play here i personally think. 1. mingolet is playing a lot deeper than reina did. This confuses me as rodgers seemingly wants a "sweeper keeper" As of yet either our defense is way too deep OR he is simply glued to his line and not coming out thus pulling the line back. 2. mingolet is kicking long... however his long kicks for me are aimless. I have not seen him really hit sturridge except from very controlled possession... in fact he's not within 20 yards of an lfc player usually. so I certianly feel that this guy is not the keeper that reina is still and while he is a great shot stopper his catching (like reina) leaves a lot to be desired and his distribution and sweeping up is very poor really. I think he will not improve the distribution at age 25 frankly. we need three players to do more for him to make short options i really agree with that. two cbs and the midfield play maker role that rodgers has sitting/coming deep and passing it (see henderson recently) the whole point is that with these guys making option sides are forced to commit more to close these 3 down and so a keep who can play long accurate can then hit players further up and take those players closing down out of the game. I would like to offer an artice that should explain what rodgers wants http://apps.facebook.com/dawnofthed...centurion_marius&hash=LsQg8o4ivu&trk=rallycry please log in to view this image if you look at the zones rodgers wants players in and then compare to reina's distribution... well reina hit the two full backs in zone 4 a lot taking the game to half way, lucas would sit in the deeper role and agger and carragher would pull wide when they gave it to reina so he had 5 options plus sturridge and could hit any one of them... he is that good. Mingolet at this point is not getting the CB option form sahko or toure very well and he's not hitting the full backs. ............... just a comment on the "double pivot" this really is just a simple way of saying that the midfield duo should be available for a pass? you want to two CBs pulling wide and two midfielders coming short for the interpassing and draw out the oppositions midfield.. then one quick straght pass forward should cut out 5/6 players and thus create space for an actual attack. I am certainly seeing henderson in the past two games offering the position but the reality is with 5-2-3 which i defy anyone to tell me we are not playing rather than 3-5-2 we are not seeing the midfielders as moses is lost and its easy to close them down... very easy. you leave one up with the cbs who are not offering good passing options and pull one forward back and the midfield is gone for us. my belief is strongly that we need to go to 4-3-3 right away, push the defensive line much higher and get back the the formation ascribed in the diagram shown
Well said MITO. Personally, we're missing a Regista (the man in Zone 3) and the men in Zone 5. The following is taken from an article on the LFC site a while ago when Rodgers first came to the club: Zone 3 has arguably the most important role to play in keeping possession. This player must be particularly good at keeping possession under pressure from opponents and will often see their passes also being played short for the duration of the game. Leon Britton, Pirlo and Xavi are examples of players who act as the deep lying play makers, the water carriers, the short playing quarterback or the 'volante de salida' which simply translates in football terms as the outlet for under-pressure teammates. "I get the ball, I pass, I get the ball, I pass, I get the ball, I pass." (Xavier Hernandez 2011) Zone 5 have the role of consistently finding space acting as the final piece in the triangular connection between teammates. These two centre midfielders, like the player in zone 3, must have high standards of passing ability and awareness to keep possession but must also have high levels of stamina to work as box-to-box midfielders. They do not necessarily look to create the spectacular, but are the catalyst in the change of speed in which the possession play is being played at, the moments of which they choose to change speed and direction of the ball are key to the succession in creating opportunities to create an assist or goal. Both zones 3 and 5 will be expected to boast 90 per cent pass completion rates in order for the system to work successfully. Henderson seems like a natural choice for Zone 5 due to his stamina and energy but does he have the intelligence and technical quality to succeed?
I agree. lucas is not the guy described. alonso is. pirlo is certainly one name for that area too but zone 5 is a wesley sneidjer or a gerrard 5 years ago. it's xavi, iniesta. its not henderson. its an interesting role and one i would be looking to as the guy to find "gerrard", find "coutinho". and then let them play. and again this zone 3 is not a DM which again i call a limited player going and being destructive. I feel this zone 3 is actually what rodgers wants and it is a constructive player not purely destructive.
Who would you play or buy for those positions? For Zone 3, I think Allen is that player. If we were to buy someone, I'd go for someone like Banega. For Zone 5, I think Henderson and Gerrard are our only options who fit the description (forcing Coutinho out wide, however Gerrard lacks the stamina). I would buy M'Vila, Reges or Matic - all 3 players have great energy but fantastic technical ability.
Lucas is great for the third zone. His passing is good and he nearly always looks forward, he shields the ball well, is always available for a pass from a team mate in trouble (more so than Allen who was ready for the second pass) and he can tackle and cover for the fullbacks. BR said a while ago that Allen's best position was further forward. Meaning we've got Coutinho, Henderson, Gerrard or Allen. Hendo and Gerrard are very different to the other two in what they offer, but the gulf in quality between Allen and Coutinho is massive. We need a second Coutinho to bounce off each other or a younger version of Gerrard (could that be Henderson if a few years?) to make the drives forward and grab a game by the scruff of the neck. Regarding Migs; couldn't really care about his distribution. He's shown he wants to pass it short when he can and has almost been caught out a few times trying to do so. Lack of options could well be the case. He saves shots though, so I'm happy with him.
Lot of interesting points there guys. Keep saying possession with out system is more important than with other sytems. MITO, of course his distribution can improve, it's called training. But lets be honest here, expecting our keeper to be picking Sturridge out is a bit funny. Reina could do it, but he did not do it "that" often and some of the blame goes on Sturridge's head too, he's not great at challenging in the air and the like. Also, if he doesn't trust his own passing he will tend to go long rather than risk putting us in danger by sending a loose pass to a defender or fb. I could see this being totally a different thread if Ming had given possession away from trying to play possession football and we ended up conceding a few goals from it and were 3 or 4 places lower in the league. it's a tough one to work out, there are a lot of variables but surely our main aim is to build from the back and also opportunities to play in our forwards from a keeper pass also rely a lot on teams playing a high line against us and the having required runs from the forwards and the instructions from the manager to do so, most long balls from Ming are clearances from back passes with a player running in on hm?
Good point - I was one of those who were happy to see Reina's distribution stats but would often forget about the more important aspects of goalkeeping - making saves. And this is a strong area for Migs who has impressed greatly since joining - he's even won us a few points.
my opinion is just at 25 he's never going to suddnely become an amazing ball player. you can train him to kick it into areas and train sutrridge to run into those areas but you are never going to be able to get him to pass it 5o yars to feet. i don't get the point about picking sturridge out though every keeper i nthe league drop the ball on a target man. in our team i am seeing our clearances going 20 yards away from our players so the premise of the article is either mingloet is awful and nobody can predict where he'll kick it our our players are not putting themsevles in areas to challenge a clearance. Now form controlled possession, kickouts etc he's not too bad its the long punts that are coming back time after time after time IMO.
Who would i buy.... well i have always said javi martinez but thats unrealistic at this point given the time to buy him was before bayern stepped in. Banega is a name for sure... m'vila is another. the role is about showing for it, being able to hold off those challenge and find the player like the full backs or the straght ball forward. Lucas is ok, good in fact but are we not looking at this point at improving on it rather than just he's good enough? to actually win something we need to continue getting the shako's and the bargains like coutinho and sturridge too. If i were offered anything for this season it would be to put alonso in that zone 3 with lucas frankly. I would rather have 3 players in zone 5 and 6 (gerrard, coutinho,suarez) and play flexibly than try to do what rodgers wants to unitl he's got the players. In defense or without the ball this chart no longer applies so the 3 i mentioned won't all chase back will they? thats why i'd rather 2 in zone 3 than one.
