Brendan Rodgers

[Ric Flair]

Funny how we've got our better defenders back and the handbrake has been firmly applied, as opposed to having more confidence to attack with a better calibre of defender to protect us, like what we did when we were at our most dangerous in the hacienda Rodgers days.

 

Absolutely revolting football and there's very little excuse for it. I can't believe this is truly how he wants us to play but he's gone on one of his odd spells where suddenly he stops picking certain players and overloads others (see central midfield) and in the meantime plays James Maddison out of position.

 

This 4-3-3 system was chosen as he'd realised we were not combative enough all over the pitch to compete and track the opposition as they broke in numbers on our defence. We were conceding too many shots on goal, but it's never been a system we've managed to create chances consistently either and it's becoming more and more turgid along the way.

 

He's simply got to get Maddison back in the 10 role who supports the striker and generally gives us a half decent chance of scoring goals. Build your team around that over everything else.

 

[Guest Chocolate Teapot]

Just now, Ric Flair said:

Funny how we've got our better defenders back and the handbrake has been firmly applied, as opposed to having more confidence to attack with a better calibre of defender to protect us, like what we did when we were at our most dangerous in the hacienda Rodgers days.

 

Absolutely revolting football and there's very little excuse for it. I can't believe this is truly how he wants us to play but he's gone on one of his odd spells where suddenly he stops picking certain players and overloads others (see central midfield) and in the meantime plays James Maddison out of position.

 

This 4-3-3 system was chosen as he'd realised we were not combative enough all over the pitch to compete and track the opposition as they broke in numbers on our defence. We were conceding too many shots on goal, but it's never been a system we've managed to create chances consistently either and it's becoming more and more turgid along the way.

 

He's simply got to get Maddison back in the 10 role who supports the striker and generally gives us a half decent chance of scoring goals. Build your team around that over everything else.

 

With all our centre backs fit and our wingers out of form I genuinely think it's time to try 352 again.

[Beachyboy]

22 minutes ago, The whole world smiles said:

I sometimes go to watch Mansfield Town as I used to work there and I 100 percent agree that lower league football is not without its charm. 

 

But in terms of freedom and creative Flair which daggers mentioned in his it is in short supply compared to the Premier league and watching even this current Leicester side. 

I watched Bristol Rovers v Forest Green yesterday, an although the outcome was the same as Leicester v Villa 0-0, both Goalkeepers had to be on excellent form to keep it that way, could of easily been 2-2 on a different day, looking at those chances match of the day have shown 2 Maddison free kicks and a skied KDH effort from outside the box, seemed flat, and that's what you get when the game means little, I know there is professional pride but I think there are now probably about half of the 92 teams within the pyramid whose players cant wait for the season to finish so they can go on holiday.

[Bob Hazels shorts]

22 minutes ago, Chocolate Teapot said:

With all our centre backs fit and our wingers out of form I genuinely think it's time to try 352 again.

Totally agree and it will happen but in the meantime i cant see why Rodgers is putting off the inevitable.Our squad is set up for it.

 

Its NOT a 5, its 3 allowing our talented fullbacks to operate more freely as wingbacks and Fofana in particular to do the runs he likes.

 

A sweeping extra CB and WBs in preference to the poor Barnes and Lookman left wing jobshare and Madison grossly out of position on the left surely?

 

 

[foxinsocks]

32 minutes ago, Chocolate Teapot said:

Amazed people are actually admitting this. Weird.

I would love to win in Europe.   Yet I a worried for the future

[ARTY_FOX]

52 minutes ago, jamesp26 said:

And Villa came to win it did they? I'm not defending yesterday, but Villa committed very little. We can try and pretend we don't, but like it or not, everyone in our team had eyes on Thursday. In his interview, Justin referred to it as 'the big one'.

I don't care if villa came to win or not. They have no bearing on how we approached that. It was shocking. 

[Corky]

The fact our genuinely exciting attack looks so hindered and stifled is my biggest frustration. We could be a very entertaining team most weeks but aren't.

[Beachyboy]

That Fofana moment yesterday where the ball is in the air, an he goes backwards typifies where our mentality is currently, I freeze framed the picture while the ball was in the air and we had 6v3 in our favour, which could of been possession around the halfway line, with a different decision. We go backwards and end up in a 5v3 defensive position and give Bailey the best chance of the match on our penalty spot. Ditch the notepad Brendan i'm sure the video analysis team can find many more incidents like this, an I don't blame individual players, the Tielemans mistake is another v PSV a positive first touch going forwards and there is space to cut 8 players out of the game and play Barnes on the halfway line, instead we go backwards end up in a 3v3 defensive situation and concede a goal. An this safety first approach is actually harming our play in both boxes, we probably would half solve the set piece problem with a more positive approach, as we'd probably concede half as many corners as we do. 

[coolhandfox]

1 hour ago, Ric Flair said:

Funny how we've got our better defenders back and the handbrake has been firmly applied, as opposed to having more confidence to attack with a better calibre of defender to protect us, like what we did when we were at our most dangerous in the hacienda Rodgers days.

 

Absolutely revolting football and there's very little excuse for it. I can't believe this is truly how he wants us to play but he's gone on one of his odd spells where suddenly he stops picking certain players and overloads others (see central midfield) and in the meantime plays James Maddison out of position.

 

This 4-3-3 system was chosen as he'd realised we were not combative enough all over the pitch to compete and track the opposition as they broke in numbers on our defence. We were conceding too many shots on goal, but it's never been a system we've managed to create chances consistently either and it's becoming more and more turgid along the way.

 

He's simply got to get Maddison back in the 10 role who supports the striker and generally gives us a half decent chance of scoring goals. Build your team around that over everything else.

 

He hit on something that has finally made us hard to beat and has seen us put together our best run of the season in terms of picking up points and not losing many games, but it reduces our capacity to make chances.

 

2 losses in nine league games, 15 points @ 1.66 pts per game, which would see us pick up 63 points over the season. I can see why he persists with it. 

 

Add in the ECL games; it's 3 losses in 13 games. 

 

To play a good 4-3-3, you need good wide players. Barnes is woefully out of form, Lookman is well, just Lookman, a good game followed by an average game and then we have Albrighton and Perez.

We have been desperate for better wide options since he got here. 

 

We are also not helped by the loss of form of Daka and Nacho. People will make excuses about systems and lack of chances, but they have both been woeful. 

 

He clearly doesn't trust any of Youri, KDH, Maddison or Mendy in a two. So with no Ndidi, we play with only 3 attacking players on the park if you include Jimmy instead of the 4 in a 4-2-3-1 system. The 4-3-3 could work really well if we had Ndidi back, Jimmy in the centre and a quality right-wing. 

 

I'd be more concerned if we didn't have Roma on Thursday. We clearly have an eye on that.

 

We have been wretched to watch, but we could have as easily got 7 points out of the last 3 as we got 2. 

 

I still think we are seeing the green shoots of recovery, harder to beat, conceding less, players looking more conformable defending set-pieces. We couldn't go on conceding two a game and trying to outscore teams. We need to get our cutting edge back, which may happen with the return of Vardy or maybe some summer recruitment. 
 

Edited 24 April 2022 by coolhandfox

[coolhandfox]

1 hour ago, Chocolate Teapot said:

With all our centre backs fit and our wingers out of form I genuinely think it's time to try 352 again.

The biggest issue is how match fit are both Justin and Ricardo, we seem to still be nursing them back.

 

That system put a lot of pressure on the wingback to be all action.

[sacreblueits442]

13 minutes ago, Beachyboy said:

That Fofana moment yesterday where the ball is in the air, an he goes backwards typifies where our mentality is currently, I freeze framed the picture while the ball was in the air and we had 6v3 in our favour, which could of been possession around the halfway line, with a different decision. We go backwards and end up in a 5v3 defensive position and give Bailey the best chance of the match on our penalty spot. Ditch the notepad Brendan i'm sure the video analysis team can find many more incidents like this, an I don't blame individual players, the Tielemans mistake is another v PSV a positive first touch going forwards and there is space to cut 8 players out of the game and play Barnes on the halfway line, instead we go backwards end up in a 3v3 defensive situation and concede a goal. An this safety first approach is actually harming our play in both boxes, we probably would half solve the set piece problem with a more positive approach, as we'd probably concede half as many corners as we do. 

...makes you wonder what they do in the analysis room!!!

  Every single player should be brought in to review their match performance. It is not a negative process, as you are also picking up on the good things that was done, and encouraged to continue to do so.

  I still believe the backroom staff are a poor lot, far too many aspects of an individuals game is left unchecked. The same issues they had two seasons ago continues to manifest itself in their play right now.

[Beachyboy]

4 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

The biggest issue is how match fit are both Justin and Ricardo, we seem to still be nursing them back.

 

That system put a lot of pressure on the wingback to be all action.

surely with 5 subs in Europa though you could spare two of those 5 on the wing backs though? even one if you play castagne for 90 and give them both a half each.

[coolhandfox]

1 minute ago, Beachyboy said:

surely with 5 subs in Europa though you could spare two of those 5 on the wing backs though? even one if you play castagne for 90 and give them both a half each.

Yes you could.

[Beachyboy]

4 minutes ago, sacreblueits442 said:

...makes you wonder what they do in the analysis room!!!

  Every single player should be brought in to review their match performance. It is not a negative process, as you are also picking up on the good things that was done, and encouraged to continue to do so.

  I still believe the backroom staff are a poor lot, far too many aspects of an individuals game is left unchecked. The same issues they had two seasons ago continues to manifest itself in their play right now.

it does 15 years ago when I studied sports science at Worcester we had the Aston Villa video analysis man come in and give us a talk, an he said that they would have video footage available, at half time during the match, an i'm sure things have moved on since then.

Edited 24 April 2022 by Beachyboy

[foxinsocks]

2 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

Funny how we've got our better defenders back and the handbrake has been firmly applied, as opposed to having more confidence to attack with a better calibre of defender to protect us, like what we did when we were at our most dangerous in the hacienda Rodgers days.

 

Absolutely revolting football and there's very little excuse for it. I can't believe this is truly how he wants us to play but he's gone on one of his odd spells where suddenly he stops picking certain players and overloads others (see central midfield) and in the meantime plays James Maddison out of position.

 

This 4-3-3 system was chosen as he'd realised we were not combative enough all over the pitch to compete and track the opposition as they broke in numbers on our defence. We were conceding too many shots on goal, but it's never been a system we've managed to create chances consistently either and it's becoming more and more turgid along the way.

 

He's simply got to get Maddison back in the 10 role who supports the striker and generally gives us a half decent chance of scoring goals. Build your team around that over everything else.

 

what you are seeing is brendan's big vision - we dominate possession yet have fewer shots on goal.  When daka arrived he ran into the the box and shot - now he looks for a pass.  THis is where he is taking us - we need to call it out.  We don't want possession at the cost of creativity. 

 

There are other problems to be fixed: like getting barnes to mix it up - yet this risks possession - without doing so he has been sussed; yes maddison need to be in the hole.  Playing players out of position seems to be his big idea.

Edited 24 April 2022 by foxinsocks

[foxinsocks]

5 minutes ago, sacreblueits442 said:

...makes you wonder what they do in the analysis room!!!

  Every single player should be brought in to review their match performance. It is not a negative process, as you are also picking up on the good things that was done, and encouraged to continue to do so.

  I still believe the backroom staff are a poor lot, far too many aspects of an individuals game is left unchecked. The same issues they had two seasons ago continues to manifest itself in their play right now.

they are not filling in to address brendan's blind spots - I suspect they are all yes men.

[coolhandfox]

17 minutes ago, Beachyboy said:

That Fofana moment yesterday where the ball is in the air, an he goes backwards typifies where our mentality is currently, I freeze framed the picture while the ball was in the air and we had 6v3 in our favour, which could of been possession around the halfway line, with a different decision. We go backwards and end up in a 5v3 defensive position and give Bailey the best chance of the match on our penalty spot. Ditch the notepad Brendan i'm sure the video analysis team can find many more incidents like this, an I don't blame individual players, the Tielemans mistake is another v PSV a positive first touch going forwards and there is space to cut 8 players out of the game and play Barnes on the halfway line, instead we go backwards end up in a 3v3 defensive situation and concede a goal. An this safety first approach is actually harming our play in both boxes, we probably would half solve the set piece problem with a more positive approach, as we'd probably concede half as many corners as we do. 

I think it's a by product of making so many still mistakes, which have cost us points and wins.

 

You go against your natural instinct and play safe, which sometimes doesn't help.  

 

 

[foxfanazer]

The people still backing Rodgers don't even suggest that he's going to turn it around and make us improve. Instead they just expect us to accept things for how they are because we were in league 1 ten years ago

[Beachyboy]

1 minute ago, coolhandfox said:

I think it's a by product of making so many still mistakes, which have cost us points and wins.

 

You go against your natural instinct and play safe, which sometimes doesn't help.  

 

 

I know the ego is strong but as a leader and manager, if you see a player that within the next 2-3 years will be widely regarded as one of the best centre backs in the world making a decision like that early in the game, so fatigue isn't a factor, you have to be looking at yourself in the mirror and questioning why.

[coolhandfox]

1 minute ago, foxfanazer said:

The people still backing Rodgers don't even suggest that he's going to turn it around and make us improve. Instead they just expect us to accept things for how they are because we were in league 1 ten years ago

Pretty sure you are the only one mentioning that in the thread recently.

[foxfanazer]

Just now, coolhandfox said:

Pretty sure you are the only one mentioning that in the thread recently.

Pretty sure I'm not

[CosbehFox]

Going back into the realms of the argument being collected into Rodgers in / Rodgers out. 
 

Boring - far nuanced than that 

[Beachyboy]

9 minutes ago, foxfanazer said:

The people still backing Rodgers don't even suggest that he's going to turn it around and make us improve. Instead they just expect us to accept things for how they are because we were in league 1 ten years ago

As there is no obvious outstanding candidate, I do still believe with previous achievements he has time in the bank, but a poor start to next season and I really would like to see a change by October or November at the latest, look at Spurs this season Conte came in, in November and while they are still a long way off, they are realistically where they expect to be. If it goes sour and we leave it any longer, we write off next season as well. Not qualifying for Europe, may not be the worst thing as Arsenal have shown this season.

Edited 24 April 2022 by Beachyboy

[coolhandfox]

13 minutes ago, foxfanazer said:

Pretty sure I'm not

Pretty sure if you search the thread for the last few months its only people like you who are using it as a phrase to mock anyone who supports the manager.

 

Edited 24 April 2022 by coolhandfox

[coolhandfox]

2 minutes ago, Beachyboy said:

As there is no obvious outstanding candidate, I do still believe with previous achievements he has time in the bank, but a poor start to next season and I really would like to see a change by October or November at the latest, look at Spurs this season Conte came in, in Novemebr and while they are still a long way off, they are realistically where they expect to be. If it goes sour and we leave it any longer, we write off next season as well. Not qualifying for Europe, may not be the worst thing as Arsenal have shown this season.

That's the problem in a nutshell, we will not get a Conte like Spurs.

 

But I agree he does need a good start to the season interims of both points and performances.