Southampton Home post match, 1-2 loss.

[whoareyaaa]

3 hours ago, Goober said:

1. I didn't even realise they finished as low as 8th. For a club of Liverpool's stature that is shambolic - yet you're saying things were far more rosy for Klopp in his first year or so? Both he and Puel inherited unbalanced squads that didn't suit their style, Klopp's needed 2/3 years to sort it out with plenty of shit performances along the way.

 

2. Our home form in the last 2 or 3 months especially has been dire. I can't defend it but I can see why we're struggling. We've not got enough in the midfield for us to break teams down in the way Puel wants us to. He must take the blame for setting us up in this way but I think he needs a better option in the middle.

1. Klopp is the polar opposite to Puel.

 

2. He has options in the middle but decides not to use them (1 has now left for whatever reason) I don't know what's happened to the other, Mendy can play more offensive but is asked to sit and pass that's not down to incapable players that's down to the manager.

Edited 13 January 2019 by whoareyaaa

[David Hankey]

3 hours ago, Goober said:

Puel's doing a rebuilding job on the squad and I think as a club we're in a better position than we were this time last season, especially as we've had to do it without Mahrez. 

 

If i were to give this season a score out of 10 i'd probably give it a high 6. Poor in the cups, okay in the league and a good job done in rebuilding the squad. Plenty of room for improvement and I don't think it's wrong to be expecting more than what we're seeing - I just think some are going well over the top.

"Going well over the top"!! Your assessment of okay in league does not reflect draw at Fulham, lost at home to Cardiff & Soton and lost at Palace. These are unacceptable results given our position in the league and given that we have thrown away 12 points in just those 4 games please just reflect on where we could have been.

[funkyrobot]

6 hours ago, Claridge said:

I don’t blame vardy at all.I just don’t think kasper has been very good this year and his at times shocking distribution is causing us problems.

Vardy's form and Schmeichel’s form are entirely unrelated though. Schmeichel didn’t really have much to do yesterday, yes his pass out was poor but it was Mendy who was really at fault for both goals. Vardy was happy to stick central and didn’t make any runs to the corners or really any kind of runs that might disrupt the central defenders for Southampton and free up space for others. I thought he was poor yesterday compared to the standards he has shown in the past for us. 

[Claridge]

we really need 2 up front

[dannythefox]

Puel is like a vampire he’s sucked the life out the team I don’t think he’ll go before the end of the season but sooner the better

[Gazza3]

Why did maguire and Morgan stand 10 yards outside the soton box and feed the ball out wide and then watch pointless/ aimless crosses being cleared by defenders. It doesn’t take a genius to maybe push maguire forward to try and get onto one of these crossed. He did in 88th minute

frustrating to watch and extremely poor management again

[l444ry]

1 hour ago, whoareyaaa said:

1. Klopp is the polar opposite to Puel.

 

2. He has options in the middle but decides not to use them (1 has now left for whatever reason) I don't know what's happened to the other, Mendy can play more offensive but is asked to sit and pass that's not down to incapable players that's down to the manager.

Plus Liverpool players play with the passion and character of their Manager whereas...…………………... unfortunately we do as well

[jim5000]

I didn't like Puel's post match interview on MOTD yesterday. He just kept saying 'no comment', 'no comment', when asked about the fans booing and pressure on his position.

 

I 100% get that he's running a project, one that we might not see the benefits of for a couple of years (if we can keep the squad together), but he has to remember that managing a football team isn't a corporate management exercise to increase profits over the coming years. The fans there yesterday were still paying £35+ a ticket and deserve to be entertained, and are quite right to be vocal about the continued poor performances.

[Goober]

1 hour ago, David Hankey said:

"Going well over the top"!! Your assessment of okay in league does not reflect draw at Fulham, lost at home to Cardiff & Soton and lost at Palace. These are unacceptable results given our position in the league and given that we have thrown away 12 points in just those 4 games please just reflect on where we could have been.

Yeah all poor results, but it’s a stupid argument when we’ve won equally unexpected points against City, Chelsea and  Everton. We’ve effectively cancelled out all of the good work over Christmas with 2 piss poor home defeats. 

 

But midtable sides are going to drop daft points here and there. Are you expecting us to beat every side in and around us?

 

Plus, we’re 8th, not fvcking 18th. If you want him sacked because we’re not 6th I’d suggest that yes, you are going well OTT.

[whoareyaaa]

11 minutes ago, Goober said:

Yeah all poor results, but it’s a stupid argument when we’ve won equally unexpected points against City, Chelsea and  Everton. We’ve effectively cancelled out all of the good work over Christmas with 2 piss poor home defeats. 

 

But midtable sides are going to drop daft points here and there. Are you expecting us to beat every side in and around us?

 

Plus, we’re 8th, not fvcking 18th. If you want him sacked because we’re not 6th I’d suggest that yes, you are going well OTT.

Can't really say unexpected points against Everton there nothing special and if we don't aspire to beat teams in the top 6 then what's the point of even turning up.

 

If he install this we are not good enough to be in the top 6 or even teams around us into the players it's not very good management and we should know this more than anyone having won the league.

 

We have players in the first 11 of the England team and a retired international with 3 more potentially coming through we need a manager who has ambitions like we did a few years ago to get the best out of the squad

 

He has done well with allowing the young players to get the time with Chilwell and Maddision and bringing in Choudary and Barnes only recently but is he the right man to get the best out of them.

[Gazza3]

No

[Hollyfox]

At this level, you can't give the  opposition a head start.

We have failed to press some of the more average premium teams at home, from the off and been punished nearly every time.

Yes Mendy had a shocking 1st half , but this poor starts and switching off either side of half time, is causing massive problems.

I'd accept yesterday from Claude if it was a one off but it isn't.

I've stuck by him up until now but I think he's toast.

[BKLFox]

1 hour ago, Gazza3 said:

Why did maguire and Morgan stand 10 yards outside the soton box and feed the ball out wide and then watch pointless/ aimless crosses being cleared by defenders. It doesn’t take a genius to maybe push maguire forward to try and get onto one of these crossed. He did in 88th minute

frustrating to watch and extremely poor management again

Are you suggesting that Puel was sat on their shoulders saying to play it wide or is this another of those we lost because of Puel verses win in spite of him situations where the players do their own thing?

[Bozman]

Thought he might have bought on Ulloa or Slimani yesterday with all the wide men raining crosses in,poor show by Puel in my opinion !

[Mike Oxlong]

31 minutes ago, Hollyfox said:

At this level, you can't give the  opposition a head start.

We have failed to press some of the more average premium teams at home, from the off and been punished nearly every time.

Yes Mendy had a shocking 1st half , but this poor starts and switching off either side of half time, is causing massive problems.

I'd accept yesterday from Claude if it was a one off but it isn't.

I've stuck by him up until now but I think he's toast.

[FlyingFuchs]

3 hours ago, Matt said:

Makes me laugh people saying we can't play that way anymore because we've been found out.

 

Perhaps that is the case but all I know is the way we're playing now is hardly combative or effective.

 

Someone's now going to quote me answering in stats that we've scored more counter attacking goals that the title winning season, yada, yada, yada, I'm not talking counter attacking per se, i'm talking about looking up, playing on the front foot, playing forward, moving forward, posession with purpose, pace and attacking, period. Not laboured, hold up, sideways, sideways, backwards, sideways, backwards.

 

Great post. On the ‘found out’ point i’ve always thought that was a red herring ever since I first heard it. Even during the title winning season teams knew how we were gonna set up and how we were gonna play, of course they did. We played the same team and the same formation every week for goodness sake! They just either underestimated the threat it would pose or simply failed to deal with it. If it looked like we got ‘found out’ further down the line to me that’s just cause our opponents took us more seriously and/or got better at dealing with our style.

 

What i have been genuinely grappling with is what the way forward was/is in the long term. I mean maybe it is to try to progress towards a style that the top teams employ, but then that seems like a long long way off. Or maybe it is to stick to our own style at its core while progressively adding a few more strings to our bow, as i thought the present manager was doing when he first came in, but then maybe that will always have its limits compared to the more purist approach.

 

Either way though, if it comes at the expense of being brave it’s not a price worth paying as far as I’m concerned. It’s what makes Leicester who we are, at least as long as i’ve been following us since I went to my first match with the old man in 1987, and it’s what makes us stand out from the crowd. The day we lose it is the day I’ll start to fear for the future of our club.

[MC Prussian]

Well, that was a bit shit, wasn't it?

 

Per usual, a slow start from our lot. Probably difficult shaking off the Newport County result and performance, but it's not the first time we come out of the tunnel, firing on half a cylinder.

Ponderous, lackadaisical, nervy and to top it all off, Puel doesn't help the whole affair by fielding three defending midfielders.

Against the team then third from bottom.

 

Instead of being adventurous, we muster our first shot on goal (or something in that area) in the 35th minute!

Against the team then third from bottom.

 

At home.

At home!

 

We then go on to lose in spite of a one-man advantage.

Against the team then third from bottom.

 

At home.

At home!

 

I don't know what it is, but I don't like what I'm seeing right now. This setup and the playing style are why I'm gradually losing interest in the club.

We beat Chelsea and Manchester City, then make a meal of it at home against Cardiff and in the FA Cup against some major underdogs.

It used to be us the chasers, now we seemingly have difficulties with becoming the chased.

There's only little cheerfulness in our style of play. I mean, I could live with it being unattractive, yet effective. But we can't even manage that.

Whenever we play a team below us in the table, it becomes a half-hearted affair, we don't seem to take it seriously, we have a kick about, are glad to just show up and partake in some sort of activity, but don't overly care about the result.

 

Serious question marks surrounding Puel, although I'd like to see how we perform in the next four matches. My concern is is that he hasn't learnt from last season and that we're now getting into another downward spiral, winning a maximum of five more matches until the end of the season.

Serious clearout is needed, some of these more established players just don't want to be here anymore.

The manager also behaves in rather bizarre ways, benching arguably more experienced players in favour of youngsters.

This can backfire badly.

Serious questions also need to be asked about our management and recruitment staff in general still, our scouting comes across as flawed (Iborra, Silva, Diabaté, Ghezzal), we should've been clearer in pursuing players to replace people like Mahrez and Kanté in particular and in hindsight, we should've been more careful with handing out big-money contracts to older players (predominantly the ones who won us the title). They seem to be overly saturated.

 

In general, I miss the bite and a more positive approach to matches, I miss attacking football (even if it's just on the counter) that creates these magic moments.

We've become stale.

And for every step forward, we make at least one back.

[somebum]

11/4 now to get the chop

[Bob Hazels shorts]

Not convinced about the attacking full back / wing back unless it’s done quick.

 

Not advocating huff ball but surely the ball travels quicker when passed acutely than ran with.

 

Our wingers/wide midfielders are not as effective as they should be as the final third is too crowded by  both sides.

 

Have visions of Barnes waiting in space wide whilst Chilwell takes the ball on a glory run the length of the pitch then stops. This is not uncommon 

[Babylon]

Diabolical first half, worst of the season for me. Felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall saying the 433 is fine when playing teams who are expected to put the pressure on us and expected to be the ones doing the attacking. Against a bottom three team all we do is surrender position and any attacking intent... as it worked out, that's exactly what happened. To me it's worrying the manager went for that formation, it seemed against everything he'd done before. On what planet do you need three CDM's against them, on the bright side it will shut up the "play 433, it gets results" brigade.

 

Oh Mendy, I like the bloke but that was woeful. You can't keep your place after a performance like that surely.

 

You can't keep losing the bread and butter games and expect to keep your job, he's under a lot of pressure now with 4 tricky games coming up. If he comes out of that with only 0-1 points then I think he'll be gone. I'm fine with clunky performances and giving people time, but if things start slipping like they have done, then he's gone.

[AlloverthefloorYesNdidi]

13 minutes ago, Babylon said:

Diabolical first half, worst of the season for me. Felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall saying the 433 is fine when playing teams who are expected to put the pressure on us and expected to be the ones doing the attacking. Against a bottom three team all we do is surrender position and any attacking intent... as it worked out, that's exactly what happened. To me it's worrying the manager went for that formation, it seemed against everything he'd done before. On what planet do you need three CDM's against them, on the bright side it will shut up the "play 433, it gets results" brigade.

 

Oh Mendy, I like the bloke but that was woeful. You can't keep your place after a performance like that surely.

 

You can't keep losing the bread and butter games and expect to keep your job, he's under a lot of pressure now with 4 tricky games coming up. If he comes out of that with only 0-1 points then I think he'll be gone. I'm fine with clunky performances and giving people time, but if things start slipping like they have done, then he's gone.

It is strange that he chose that formation. Really wasnt the game for it.

 

It wont shut them up.  They all conveniently forgot they had been asking for it after we lost and blamed him for choosing such a team and formation

[Col city fan]

9 hours ago, somebum said:

11/4 now to get the chop

Seems like value tbh

[Dames]

40 minutes ago, Babylon said:

Diabolical first half, worst of the season for me. Felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall saying the 433 is fine when playing teams who are expected to put the pressure on us and expected to be the ones doing the attacking. Against a bottom three team all we do is surrender position and any attacking intent... as it worked out, that's exactly what happened. To me it's worrying the manager went for that formation, it seemed against everything he'd done before. On what planet do you need three CDM's against them, on the bright side it will shut up the "play 433, it gets results" brigade.

 

Oh Mendy, I like the bloke but that was woeful. You can't keep your place after a performance like that surely.

 

You can't keep losing the bread and butter games and expect to keep your job, he's under a lot of pressure now with 4 tricky games coming up. If he comes out of that with only 0-1 points then I think he'll be gone. I'm fine with clunky performances and giving people time, but if things start slipping like they have done, then he's gone.

It must have been a bad performance for you to change tone like this!

 

Joking aside I actually don't think its the formation thats the issue or even the personnel he chose in that formation. Tactically he likes his center mids to sit deep, stand off and hold - well to be honest he likes the whole 11 doing that but Hamza and Wilf have the energy and enthusiasm to run and press all day long. We seen glimpses of this from Hamza as I don't believe he's been fully beaten down by the tactics yet but Wilf is just a shadow of the player he used to be and completely devoid of confidence (goal aside). Instead of having 3 of the center mids sitting in at home against Southampton just have the 1 and 2 of them pressing up the pitch looking to win the ball back because they are capable. Add that to having the front 3 also pressing and just generally being on the front foot the 433 would work with that starting 11.

 

Personally I would have taken one of Ndidi or Mendy out and dropped Maddison into CM and having Barnes out on the left as Maddison is wasted as on the left. Then you'd have 1 sitting, 1 pressing and 1 dictacting play/picking up lose balls and releasing them quickly.

 

I feel Puel picked that formation and 11 because he is feeling the pressure and he doesn't have a clue how to fix it, so he reverted to a formation and team that won against Man City without taking our opponents into consideration.

 

 

[shen]

1 hour ago, Babylon said:

Diabolical first half, worst of the season for me. Felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall saying the 433 is fine when playing teams who are expected to put the pressure on us and expected to be the ones doing the attacking. Against a bottom three team all we do is surrender position and any attacking intent... as it worked out, that's exactly what happened. To me it's worrying the manager went for that formation, it seemed against everything he'd done before. On what planet do you need three CDM's against them, on the bright side it will shut up the "play 433, it gets results" brigade.

 

Oh Mendy, I like the bloke but that was woeful. You can't keep your place after a performance like that surely.

 

You can't keep losing the bread and butter games and expect to keep your job, he's under a lot of pressure now with 4 tricky games coming up. If he comes out of that with only 0-1 points then I think he'll be gone. I'm fine with clunky performances and giving people time, but if things start slipping like they have done, then he's gone.

Agreed about the first half. It was worse than against Newport.

Our ball retention is nothing short of abysmal and our three central midfielders (Mendy, Choudhury and Ndidi) are not great passers.

Now that Iborra is gone and Silva is looking like leaving, on paper our two best technical central midfielders, I do wonder what Puel has planned with regards to January transfers.

 

Bringing back Barnes is all well and good, but if our passing is as shit as it's been lately, he will be as ineffective as all our other attackers.

I felt sorry for Albrighton, who admittedly didn't have a good game, but there must have been close to a dozen times where his teammates failed to find him with relatively simple passes.

Ironically, our only goal came from a support run from midfield and a low cross/cutback, which makes me wonder why we keep making deep crosses from the channels.
Watching the Barnes highlight video the other day, what struck me is that nearly every single cross he produced or came on the end of was a low and hard cross.

Puel HAS to instruct his team to cross it low at every opportunity, no exceptions.

[David Hankey]

17 hours ago, Goober said:

Yeah all poor results, but it’s a stupid argument when we’ve won equally unexpected points against City, Chelsea and  Everton. We’ve effectively cancelled out all of the good work over Christmas with 2 piss poor home defeats. 

 

But midtable sides are going to drop daft points here and there. Are you expecting us to beat every side in and around us?

 

Plus, we’re 8th, not fvcking 18th. If you want him sacked because we’re not 6th I’d suggest that yes, you are going well OTT.

You can argue all you like and whilst you are entitled to your opinion so am I without the abusive language. Dress it up which ever way you want and at this stage of the season we are no further forward. So keep guessing all you like.