Selection - Formation - Substitutions - Tactics
Selection - Given the injuries and the opposition (their form at present) , the way weve set up in the past seasons, I cant help think why BR never played Lucas with Hendo and Stevie. Keeping Stirling out was also a debatable decision. Lallana unfit clearly and Markovich still finding his feet, keeping Balo up top on his own clearly didnt work.
Formation - 4-2-3-1 without Sturridge and Stirling failed. With no pace its a not gonna work. Players were looking to pass pass pass. Hardly anyone carried, dribbled or had options to thread. 4-4-2 Diamond suited the circumstances.
Substitutions - Yes putting lambert on was right, taking Balo off and putting Borini on was a dreadful decision. Borini's first touch was terrible and made no impact - Lambert fought, hustled and bustled until finally his touch let him down on one or two occasions.
Tacics - Yes BR stated we started off slow - in the 2nd half we started well but the formation let us down and when we did bring lambert on we couldnt find the space to penetrate their 2 blocks. Deliveries from set pieces and execution was dreadful. I hope BR learns a few lessons from today that perhaps a 1-0 win today was what we needed, we clearly lost the game in midfield. When you need to grind out away draws or wins in the Champions League, he'll learn that the Attack Gung Ho approach has to be sacrificed according to conditions of the team he has at hand.
Dont get me started on Sakho - Skirtel Lovren is alot more secure. Bring on Tuesday and Champions League. YNWA
Brendan Off Day.....
posted on 13/9/14
Before criticising anybody or anything learn to spell the names of the players that play for the club you apparently support.
posted on 13/9/14
Fack it gents , you had a bad day happens to us all.
posted on 13/9/14
Disappointed with Markovic today, was anticipating a flying winger but he spent a lot of the match in the middle of the park.
Lallana I thought would give a mature role but didn't seem up to speed.
Mistake not starting lambert alongside balotelli, balotelli drifted wide so many times no one was in the box.
posted on 14/9/14
It just didn't look right at all. Bolotelli was unable to receive any service and this resulted in him coming deep or drifting wide to receive the ball, which resulted in a lot of passing but not many players in the box.
It was much too compact and without Sterling or Sturridge, we struggled to create and panic them in defence. Defensively we were fine and were suckerpunched when the officials decided our goalkick was their corner, which they scored from, having already previously given them a freekick which never was, which resulted in another corner for them.
We didn't struggle in midfield either, which I thought was a possibility before the game. All in all, I thought we were the better team but just weren't good enough in creating chances. If you don't create chances, you don't win games, no matter how well you play.
posted on 14/9/14
TOOR
posted on 14/9/14
There was no buzz around their defence to put them under pressure, something which our front 2 last year would always do. For some reason BR doesn't seem to know how to beat teams who come and sit back, like Chelsea did last year and Villa did yesterday.
posted on 14/9/14
We needed two up top yesterday.
I don't think Coutinho / Markovic / balotelli in the same team presses hard enough.
posted on 14/9/14
Obviously we can't do anything about the Sturridge injury but that's why I'm surprised Sterling didn't start. Not convinced by this "burn out" claim doing the rounds. We're less than a month into the season and he's had since Monday to recover for Saturday.
posted on 14/9/14
comment by RKW (U13169)
posted 32 minutes ago
Obviously we can't do anything about the Sturridge injury but that's why I'm surprised Sterling didn't start. Not convinced by this "burn out" claim doing the rounds. We're less than a month into the season and he's had since Monday to recover for Saturday.
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My thoughts when I heard this claim was BR trying to prove a point to Hodgson. Hodgson isn't clever enough to work it out, so it's a wasted point anyhow.
posted on 14/9/14
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