It was more solid but only at times. Other times it was a serious case of deja vu back to last season's calamitous, formless, panic stations situations. Lots of work still to do there and far from the settled, finished article at the back. Think it needs time plus hard work and drilling in training now, rather than better, more appropriate players like last season. With time BR will be able to figure out the best combination.
I agree, but still think it was an improvement. The young lad surprised me and Lovren looked like he's been with us for a while
And arguably a midfield issue rather than defence. Lucas was ball watching for the goal. Man Quill tracked back better as RB and cut out a lot more crosses. Lovren kept us pushed up higher than skrts natural tendency to collapse backwards under pressure. Which meant we saw the start of Mignolet trying to command his area. Lovren gave a much better option to pass out, just unfortunate we had two holding midfielders yesterday. Johnson when he didn't have Sterling covering outside of him like in the Dortmund match had his usual flaws exposed. Skrts will always have that bad habit of turning towards his own net when challenging in the box.
For half of the last match, we had a settled and controlled defensive unit. Sure, it wasn't perfect and it never will be but it was calm and efficient. However to achieve that level of control we sacrificed at least one pair of attacking legs. When we tried to push forward in the second half the whole system came unravelled and we were back to the all action panic stations of last season. Many have blamed Lucas but I believe that is unfair. Defending is far more than Masch-type ball winning tackles it's also about denial of space and shadowing to deny opportunity and Lucas does that better than most. Why not point the finger at Gerrard and Henderson who both seriously under-performed. Why in the second half not point the finger at the attack who gave acres of space around the halfway for them to look up and set their attacks? Still it's the first game of the season and we will learn from that - I hope!
I feel that there is more than one way to skin the cat. If there was more legs in midfield we could have pressed higher, then if there was a sweeper keeper the whole defensive line can push higher up and compress the play more. In short there are a lot of things at issue. We defended deep and played almost zonal after having started out pressing up and pouncing on any bad pass etc. or in other words we didn't deliver the game for 90mins, we delivered for 30mins. I think denial of space and pressing are indeed two key factors. Henderosn burst a gut popping up to press but he can't do it on his own and i for one called out gerrard as well as lucas. So it is vital we push up high and press as thats the best way to deny teams space and time. Especially when they are lumping it at a big tall lads from the back as well... can't let guys have all the time in the world to hit him. I think its collective game and right form mingolet forward we need to be more on it to get higher up as a unit and press.
Just to be clear Dave, on this issue I was only blaming Lucas for one specific moment that lead to their goal not an overall performance. It was a straightforward mistake not following the runner. I thought with two holding in the first half we were solid but had a lack of pace in midfield and a disconnect with the forwards but I understood why BR did it. On Lucas in general, he has definitely lost something and that's watching him over a number of games since his injuries and I'm not convinced he'll ever get back what he needs to be a part of this squad without threat of replacement. Of course because I like him I hope I'm wrong. I honestly think our midfield does not look dangerous with both him and Gerrard in it. It has no pace and relies on wonder passes from DM or Defenders to strikers which are fine as long as they don't become the only option when they both play. Anything that makes us predictable is a bad thing.
Let's hope so. Unfortunately we still make too many mistakes and the better teams (like City) will continue to punish us for them. As much as we were the better team on Sunday Adebayor could/should have had a couple (and a pen). Looking forward to seeing how the new lads gel over the coming months but I still sense there are mistakes in most of the back 4 and Mingers inability to command his box is still going to be an issue (unless he improves his radar and his physicality pdq). Never boring though eh
fingers and toes both crossed... we got a wee bit of luck along the way v spurs but in general they played in front of us... Villa will not do that. in general they run direct lines and press hard too. As long as we get a good start v villa we should be ok.
I think the encouraging thing from the Spurs game is that Spurs could only threaten us from our own mistakes. And these mistakes were mainly down to the centre backs. The full backs are a massive upgrade and will help stay tight, keep a good line and control the space intelligently. Lovren and Sakho were poor in the first half but improved in the second half - I think this is because Sakho realises that Lovren is a very aggressive defender much like himself, so he allowed Lovren to go for those balls whilst Sakho swept. Just need to cut out the individual errors and we could have one of the most well balanced LFC squads (not just on paper) we've seen in recent history
Slow reactions for set pieces again - Lovren slow to react, Manquillo was fouled but I still feel he could done a bit better, not sure what Gerrard was doing on the line. Ah well - I think our attack was the real cause of concern as it didn't look close to creating anything, until we went to the diamond. Rodgers is favouring this 4-3-3 formation - is it because of injuries or does he feel that it's the only way to fit in all the new attacking players? ...
