adam95581

Don’t think that should have been a yellow for DC as he slipped but it might be worth subbing him (if we have any actual replacements)

Mateta, Eduoard, Benteke, Schlupp, Ayew all on the pitch for Palace now. Schlupp seems to be playing CM 😳

Class today. Adds another dimension to our midfield - proper box to box, does the dirty work but can also pick a pass, is deceptively quick and I’m sure he can add goals too

It isn’t just us not doing it though so there must be some thinking behind it. My guess is that there has previously been a statistical analysis of goals scored where the player on the post has played the goal scorer onside, hence the (pretty much universal) change to not having players on the post.

Noticeably changed our setup from corners. Men on the back post and in between the front post and six yard box. Good to see and hopefully gives us a chance.

Commenting on how it’s quiet in the ground. Speculating (probably correctly) that it’s down to apprehension given recent form + patched up back line. I don’t think they’re ‘ripping into us’ to be fair.

We’ve looked good when we’ve got after them but we’re not doing it enough. It’s so obvious that we’re going to concede before we really give it a go. The Leicester blueprint.

Agreed, although looking at the yesterdays game, there was no recognised CDM, Albrighton was getting skinned by Sterling throughout the first half and Youri was having a shocker. Pretty hard to organise a team when you’ve got that going on. All that being said, I don’t think Amartey is an organiser. He’s a player than can fill in and do a job but he’s nothing special. The reality is you’re not going to get a player with the full package who’s willing to be 4th / 5th choice.

In fairness, I don’t think you can really blame Amartey for many of the goals yesterday (see below). I still think he is good enough as a 4th / 5th choice CB. Vestegaard shouldn’t be anywhere near our squad let alone starting 11. 1. Jannick letting the ball drop over his head and allowing KDB to turn with loads of space in the penalty box 2. Youri giving a penalty away 3. Kasper palming the ball out into the 6 yard box rather than Albrigton giving a call so he could clear instead 4. Youri giving a penalty away 5. Laporte (who he wasn’t marking) scoring from a corner 6. Arguably this one was something Amartey could have done something about as he lost Sterling for the 2nd ball

His ego

I think when you get to the level we want to be at, the top players don’t want to be coached by a Dyche so the main problem is actually attracting the right players in the first place.

We’ve had our chances and could have scored a couple. Ultimately they’ve come out and put pressure on us and all 4 goals have been a result of our mistakes due to that pressure (Jannick getting lost under a simple, high(ish) ball, 2 pens and a fumbled save from Kasper).

This is poor and naive from Rodgers. He seemed as though he had turned a corner at the start of last season in so much as he was prepared to adopt a more pragmatic style when required. This would have been the right time to go down that route again so god knows why we’ve been so open

With what we have available to us, this set up and approach is so naive. If we can keep this to 6 or less we’ll be doing well.

Vestegaard is so crap

You’ve said everything I would have said so thank you. I’m not trying to change anyones opinion of him (providing they have a rationale argument), I’m just advocating for balance. Credit the good stuff, criticise the bad stuff but take stock of it as a whole.

I was going to reply with an intelligent response until I read ‘Rodger the Bodger’. 5th two years running and an FA Cup and he’s ‘Rodger the Bodger’.

😂 between the analogy and the picture I’m not sure what we’re even discussing anymore. Time to call it and say Merry Christmas 🍺🍺

Exactly. So you’re not crediting Rodgers with Nacho playing well but you’re blaming him for us not being able to defend. He’s either responsible for all of it or responsible for none of it. You can’t pick and choose. My view is that he is responsible for all of it, good and bad. Credit him for the good bits if you’re going to rinse him for the bad bits. Regarding the bold bit. It’s easy to say this but you need to consider how this impacts the balance of the team. Playing Vardy and Nacho up top means you either need to leave key players out or play them out of position (e.g. Barnes, Maddison, even Daka). I really rate Nacho but the only time I’ve seen him work in our team is part of a 3-5-2 and (when everyone is fit) this is at the expense of Barnes which (for me) isn’t going to happen long term.

You can’t have it both ways I’m afraid. You can’t claim in this post that the good stuff isn’t down to Rodgers (e.g. Kels playing well last season) and then in your earlier post that the bad stuff is down to him (e.g. our defending is systemic not due to missing players) Also, on Nacho, who do you propose taking out of the team to fit him in? Genuinely - Maddison is our most in form player, Vardy is scoring just as regularly as ever and Daka is contributing with G+As. Our problem isn’t at that end of the field. We’ve had no consistency in the back 4 (or 3) and those that have played have dipped in and out of form and fitness. No excuses here though, Rodgers should be able to find a solution to this given how much he is being paid. He managed to do it at the start of last season when he used Mendy really effectively…I wonder if he is regretting not having him at his disposal now.

Everyone looks for a reason to be offended these days. It’s so boring and tiresome.

At least we can now defend corners 🙂

This isn’t even close to being true. They complimented eachother and worked perfectly for the system we were playing. You don’t win the league by 10 points when you’ve got a passenger in midfield (which is essentially what you’re suggesting).

You don’t know who he rates and who he doesn’t. He’s not gonna come out and say someone is crap after less than half a season, particularly when he signed them.

It’s impossible to get it right all the time so there will always be mistakes along the way. The issue with JV and Bennett was that they were panic signings - Bennett was signed in the hope that we would never need him and JV was signed when we had no alternative (after Fofana got injured). We’d also spent our transfer fund by that point too. If signings such as Lookman, Daka, Soumare etc regularly weren’t working out then I would worry. They are signings that have been tracked, monitored and thought through. I know the jury is out on some of the above from the summer window, but more often than not the well thought-through signings turn out well.