goodrobotusses

We play better football with Maxi in the team. His movement is the best of any of our midfielders.

Mental.

Right, this is a bit of a hyper-good example, but compare how Suarez/Kuyt stretch teams by pulling wide, how many players show for the ball, move it quickly and move again, look at the runs into the box by Maxi/Meireles facilitated by Suarez and Kuyt stretching defences. We pressed better, Spearing and Lucas won the ball quickly and moved on it quickly, Maxi/Meireles drifted in between the lines effectively… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm8GOOGXntw

Do you honestly not see the difference in our style of football from when we fielded Spearing, Maxi, Meireles and Kuyt to Adam, Downing, Henderson and Carroll?

United cocked that game up tactically though. Adam's biggest weakness is with players who run off him between the lines and he doesn't like being pressed. United left their two best players at doing that (Rooney, Nani) on the bench and sat back all game.

Manezes has been flipping between a 4-2-3-1 and a 4-3-2-1. He's played alongside the likes of Ramires, Elias and Fernandinho, holds in a two, plays at the base of a three. There's been a mini-clamour to play a more playmaker type alongside him such as Hernanes from Lazio, but I think Manezes likes to have a couple of harder workers to offset the fact the likes of Nermar, Robinho, Ronaldinho, Ganso etc don't track back.

Wait, wait, wait, I've seen the Spearing debate segue into the Lucas debate and not realised a comment about Parker being the better player was in relation to Jay. Ignore, ignore.

Comolli brings a list of players for a certain position from the scouting network and Kenny chooses. Don't believe the 'tide should turn' against anyone (though it probably will, such is life), but they're Kenny's players. A decision was taken to pursue PL-proven players who wouldn't need a period of adaptation. Unfortunately we're all now hoping that this is just a period of adaptation and the likes of Carroll, Adam, Downing and Henderson will flourish in time because – bottom line – right now they are not good enough for where we want to be. Suarez, Enrique, yes; Coates, who knows? But those four are struggling and Kenny needs them to go up about three levels or we're not going to make the CL and I don't know how patient FSG will be (regardless of the fans). They've said they want to win within three years – we'll be a third of the way there by the end of the season with possibly no on-pitch progress made. Draw your own conclusions on how they'll act. My own view is that somewhere over the next couple of months we could just see it all click into place and go on a good run. Certainly hoping for as much. Right now we're an average team relying on one genius every match.

Lucas is Brazil's first choice central midfielder at 24, Parker has only just properly broken into the England team at 30. Not having that Parker is the better player just because he runs around more. Would rather have a player that's in the right place to start with rather than someone who has to career around playing out his own brand of Roy of the Rovers last-ditch heroics.

Can you say you're 100% certain that Agger didn't mean it in the way it's being reported?

Pretty damning from Agger, and slightly concerning that there is a hint of displeasure at the attitudes of some.

Nope. Played as a wide forward initially at Ajax with Huntelaar as the no.9. After Huntelaar left Suarez became their no.9 and scored his 49 goals. For Uruguay Suarez partners Forlan with Cavani usually wide right. Tabarez will often tinker with the system by game, but the default is Forlan as a support striker and Suarez as the no.9. I am going to be banging this drum forever. Suarez should be supported by someone with good movement and intelligence (Forlan, Kuyt) and given a starting position as the furthest point upfield with licence to move all over the show (providing others' movement can exploit the space he creates.

Increasing talk about January but I honestly can't see Kenny looking to make any major moves then. Whether we need to is up for debate, but we chose our players for the rebuild in summer/last January. I don't think Kenny will give up on them so soon.

One of Borrell or Segura (sorry, can't remember which) spoke at a conference on youth development about the plan put into place for the youth sides by the whole team plus Rafa. Segura/Borrell (whichever spoke) said they'd wanted the Barca-style 4-3-3, but Rafa argued for 4-2-3-1 because it was the team's default formation at the time and the view was that it was more suitable for the PL, I think. EDIT: There's a blog that translates the talk somewhere out there. I'll try to dig it up. EDIT 2: Here it is: http://www.aliverpoolthing.com/2011/07/pep-segura-explains-strategy-behind.html EDIT 3: For what it's worth, my belief is that we should be building a team around a 4-2-3-1 with Suarez as the '1'. But we signed a targetman to go with him, so that's where we're headed. That said, I thought we played some exceptional football in the second half of last season as a sort of movement-based 4-2-2-2 with Kuyt/Suarez up front, Maxi/Meireles as narrow wide-mids and Lucas/Spearing holding. The runs into the channels by the forwards with Maxi/Meireles cutting into the area made us very difficult to defend against. Still failing to understand why we've abandoned it.

So Lucas had one poor game and it's time to ship him out? O-K.

Aye, replacing Dave Challinor as player/manager, who has gone to Fylde. Love a player/manager, do the Bay.

Never going to happen.

Anything more substantial than a Wordpress blog on this?

More than his performances the biggest worry is his apparent timidity with the ball. Not exactly what you want from a ball-carrying winger. Hopefully it's just a confidence thing. He looked bright in the early games but has certainly faded of late.

Crikey.

We've got wood.

Don't suppose anyone on here knows someone who might have a spare? I'm coming up from London for the match (yeah, I know), but my brother (Schmuckdonald on here/Twitter) hasn't been able to get a ticket. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

We did, but it had to be changed because the players didn't appear to know what day of the week it was, let alone where they needed to be.

Telling that four of those five are over 30 though. Inter's squad has needed refreshing for an age but they seem mindful of FFP given their high wage bill and lack of saleable assets. They seem stuck between a rock and a hard place in terms of trying to rebuild the squad. They've shifted Eto'o's wages and seemed to be attempting to rid themselves of Sneijder's, who is probably the only player they've got left who'd go for big money. I bet they'd have gone all-out for Tevez a few years ago but seem less willing to pay through the nose now.

Seems pretty happy with his debut: http://www.blackpoolfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10432~2469531,00.html Want to see this free-kick now.