Final 3rd

[Guest Si]

Crikey we are bad once we get into the final 3rd of the pitch.

 

We really have not got a clue what to do have we?

 

Individually Torres is brilliant but he never gets anything given to him, its all his own work.

 

Watching us attack is like being on playground duty at work, watching 6 or 7 lads chase aimlessly around the box after the ball and eventually someone will have a pot shot.

 

Clearly we need better players but we should still be able to build play with some kind of fluidity. Even the likes of Blackburn with supposedly inferior players can mount seemingly more organised and purposeful attacks. There just doesnt seem to be an attacking gameplan at times.

[MFletcher]

I thought Torres was very poor tonight myself.

 

Our problems are coming from panic in the defence. That was twice tonight we balls up when defending a set piece. It's not like us at all - we're usually excellent at defending from set pieces.

[RedNik]

I actually thought Kuyt linked the play up very well, particularly in the first hour of play. Haven't seen him play like that in some time now. That being said, his touch let him down a couple of times and he spurned a good chance.

 

On the topic of us not playing football in the final third, I'd really like Rafa to start Crouchie. This has nothing to do with the goal he scored today. More so the fact that in his time here, we've played some of our best football with him on the pitch, and I think his ability to control the ball and bring others into play can help us in opposition territory.

[Swipe]

Someone needs to tell Benayoun to actually do something will the ball when he gets to just outside the opposition box. have a shot or something.

 

how many times does he twist and turn and end up running into a defender

[alias75]

Once again a game we dominated that we didnt win, its getting pretty frustrating at the moment, we dont have clinical enough attacking players to take advantage of that dominance and when you fail to score or get that 2nd your always vulnerable.

 

Its very frustrating because in general play theres been very few games that we havent controlled but if you dont take those chances or have the attacking players that can create with all that posession its pointless.

 

You only have to watch the games against Man Utd in recent seasons to see what the problem is, we very often dominate the play against them but arent clinical enough and they are.

 

We need better more clinical attacking players, but everyones been saying that for months.

[Gunga Din]

I thought Torres was very poor tonight myself.

 

Our problems are coming from panic in the defence. That was twice tonight we balls up when defending a set piece. It's not like us at all - we're usually excellent at defending from set pieces.

 

our problems arent in defence. our problems are, and have been all season, in the final 3rd, in terms of movement and clinical finishing from or strikers, something i have been saying all season, and highlighted back in September only to get shot down by practically everyone on here.

 

Torres may have been poor tonight, but he cant be good every game. we need other attacking players to step up and take up the slack, and this season, pretty much, with very few exceptions, other attacking players havent been up to it. and Gerrard aside, we dont score enough from midfield.

 

 

our performances at home his season, by and large, have been a disgrace

[Earl Hafler]

Crikey we are bad once we get into the final 3rd of the pitch.

 

We really have not got a clue what to do have we?

 

Individually Torres is brilliant but he never gets anything given to him, its all his own work.

 

Watching us attack is like being on playground duty at work, watching 6 or 7 lads chase aimlessly around the box after the ball and eventually someone will have a pot shot.

 

Clearly we need better players but we should still be able to build play with some kind of fluidity. Even the likes of Blackburn with supposedly inferior players can mount seemingly more organised and purposeful attacks. There just doesnt seem to be an attacking gameplan at times.

 

We've played better football with less talented players because they've been selected more often. Rafa's best league position came from fielding a much more settled team and when Kewell had more about him.

 

I think it's poor team selection. The problems at board level have become more pressing than those on the pitch and of course they affect the players and the manager but does it really make a manager make such wholesale changes from game to game ?

 

The players look like strangers because they rarely play together in successive matches. Flashes of brilliance, of how we should be playing shouldn't disguise that.

[Rory Fitzgerald]

Watching us attack is like being on playground duty at work, watching 6 or 7 lads chase aimlessly around the box after the ball and eventually someone will have a pot shot.

 

I will try and express your disappointment a bit better.

 

What did everyone think at the passage of play that ended up with Arbeloa scooping a left foot shot over the bar. It was the passage of play that had Stevie clapping players and telling them to keep it up.

 

Me - I thought, wow, that was good, would like to see more of that. It was nothing ground-breaking but for our play it was certainly a step up. Its a bit disappointing when you see a passage of play like that and think "Wow, that was fantastic" when in all reality, its that type of play we need to show more consistently.

 

They just showed the clip on Setanta if people are wondering what it was but I suspect everyone remembers it

Edited January 21, 2008 by Rory Fitzgerald

[alias75]

We've played better football with less talented players because they've been selected more often. Rafa's best league position came from fielding a much more settled team and when Kewell had more about him.

 

I think it's poor team selection. The problems at board level have become more pressing than those on the pitch and of course they affect the players and the manager but does it really make a manager make such wholesale changes from game to game ?

 

The players look like strangers because they rarely play together in successive matches. Flashes of brilliance, of how we should be playing shouldn't disguise that.

 

I can't accept that Kuyt and Torres have played plenty together and Benayoun and Kewell play plenty when fit the rest of the team hardly changes. Its very easy to blame rotation how about an even simpler explanation the attacking players we have arent good enough. These players train together every day they are professional footballers that have played most of their lives do you honestly think they take the field and don't know what to do because they arent playing every week?

[RafaShanks]

Babel and Crouch have to start games. These two alone offer us so many attacking options and a serious goal threat.

 

When I saw the team I did wonder where the goals were gonna come from if Gerrard or Torres didn't perform.

 

EDIT: Couldn't understand why Kuyt wasn't taken off and Yossi was.

 

Who out of the two is more likely to score a goal?

Edited January 21, 2008 by RafaShanks

[MFletcher]

Yes, we haven't been performing particularly well. Benayoun scored, but he kept making the wrong decision. I can't really fault the team selection. Our best attacking partnership, our best right winger if Gerrard is in the middle. I'd probably have played Babel on the left, but Kewell is still a reasonable choice - different if it had been Riise.

 

Mascherano was immense beside Gerrard tonight. No harm, but Stevie looked disinterested.

 

That midfield have played together many times, as have the attacking partnership of Kuyt and Torres. The same front six were used against Marseille, United, Pompey etc. It's not as if they're strangers - they're basically his preferred players from the current squad. Probably our two best full backs for attacking at home, and the partnership of Carra and Sami picks itself.

 

Babel is the only contentious issue, but he did zilch when he came on to suggest that he should have been starting. However, I accept that he can't be expected to come and galvanise our attacking play in the way he has done at times this season.

[Guest RedLegend]

Just don't have enough quality going forward to open up well organised teams on a regular basis.

 

How many of Torres' goals are down to a bit of magic from himself rather than good build up play? We rarely seem to carve out clear chances for him. He usually has to beat 2 or 3 defenders on his own or blast in a thunderbolt.

[usualsuspect]

I can't accept that Kuyt and Torres have played plenty together and Benayoun and Kewell play plenty when fit the rest of the team hardly changes. Its very easy to blame rotation how about an even simpler explanation the attacking players we have arent good enough. These players train together every day they are professional footballers that have played most of their lives do you honestly think they take the field and don't know what to do because they arent playing every week?

Zidane wouldn't do much better in our team. Rafa's tactics don't work in the premier league - simple as. The idea of a mean machine where everyone defends and then attacks is not practical in the fast game that is the EPL.

[Will]

Rafa's tactics don't work in the premier league - simple as.

What utter, utter, utter, utter ridiculous crap

[alias75]

Zidane wouldn't do much better in our team. Rafa's tactics don't work in the premier league - simple as. The idea of a mean machine where everyone defends and then attacks is not practical in the fast game that is the EPL.

 

I know you can make almost any point with stats but up until a few weeks ago we did have more attempts on goals than anyone else in the PL, while that doesnt tell the whole story it suggests we are attacking enough to win these games but aren't taking the chances when they present themselves.

 

There have been numerous examples this season of games we've dominated but not been clinical enough and paid the price for that. You can only put the blame on the attacking players not being good enough.

[usualsuspect]

What utter, utter, utter, utter ridiculous crap

very good points you put across there. nothing new then.

[Gunga Din]

very good points you put across there. nothing new then.

 

 

i await the day with eager anticipation when Will posts a tactical analysis of a team, performance, player, or game.

[Will]

i await the day with eager anticipation when Will posts a tactical analysis of a team, performance, player, or game.

f*** off Wayne

[Gunga Din]

f*** off Wayne

 

 

personal abuse. MODS! MODS!

[usualsuspect]

I know you can make almost any point with stats but up until a few weeks ago we did have more attempts on goals than anyone else in the PL, while that doesnt tell the whole story it suggests we are attacking enough to win these games but aren't taking the chances when they present themselves.

 

There have been numerous examples this season of games we've dominated but not been clinical enough and paid the price for that. You can only put the blame on the attacking players not being good enough.

Fair points. I just struggle to swallow how so many strikers with promise have walked in and out of our doors in last 5 seasons or so and all but Torres have been "shyte". Most of them not cheap either. Is itreally about us not affording that 25M striker or doesc oaching, tactics and development come into it? we at least need to ask ourselves that.

[Tyler]

What utter, utter, utter, utter ridiculous crap

 

 

how so? rafa sets the team up not to be beaten rather than to win

 

kuyt has been turned into a workhorse

has lost all confidence in front of goal because he is expected to defend as much as attack

 

when we chase a game, players play on instinct, game plan out the window and we pepper opposition

 

when we go two up, we relax, goals flow

 

we are like a horse on a very tight rein. rafa believes in the cult of the manager. doesn't trust the players

 

too many decisions are pre-planned - substitutions for example seem based on fitness charts and not performances

 

players come in and score or do well and are promptly dropped

 

he has been a great servant and has shown up the current owners but he needs a number two, needs to admit his part in this or needs to be replaced

 

the football we are playing is dreadful, turgid stuff

[HK]

This has nothing to do with the goal he scored today. More so the fact that in his time here, we've played some of our best football with him on the pitch, and I think his ability to control the ball and bring others into play can help us in opposition territory.

On the contrary, I tend to think that we are very predictable when we play Crouch. Mainly, aim the ball high at him. He is however a better finisher than Kyut.

[Tyler]

Fair points. I just struggle to swallow how so many strikers with promise have walked in and out of our doors in last 5 seasons or so and all but Torres have been "shyte". Most of them not cheap either. Is itreally about us not affording that 25M striker or doesc oaching, tactics and development come into it? we at least need to ask ourselves that.

we have bought strikers and played them out wide or asked them to defend

simple really

[Gunga Din]

how so? rafa sets the team up not to be beaten rather than to win

 

kuyt has been turned into a workhorse

has lost all confidence in front of goal because he is expected to defend as much as attack

 

when we chase a game, players play on instinct, game plan out the window and we pepper opposition

 

when we go two up, we relax, goals flow

 

we are like a horse on a very tight rein. rafa believes in the cult of the manager. doesn't trust the players

 

too many decisions are pre-planned - substitutions for example seem based on fitness charts and not performances

 

players come in and score or do well and are promptly dropped

 

he has been a great servant and has shown up the current owners but he needs a number two, needs to admit his part in this or needs to be replaced

 

the football we are playing is dreadful, turgid stuff

 

 

top post

[Will]

how so? rafa sets the team up not to be beaten rather than to win

 

kuyt has been turned into a workhorse

has lost all confidence in front of goal because he is expected to defend as much as attack

 

when we chase a game, players play on instinct, game plan out the window and we pepper opposition

 

when we go two up, we relax, goals flow

 

we are like a horse on a very tight rein. rafa believes in the cult of the manager. doesn't trust the players

 

too many decisions are pre-planned - substitutions for example seem based on fitness charts and not performances

 

players come in and score or do well and are promptly dropped

 

he has been a great servant and has shown up the current owners but he needs a number two, needs to admit his part in this or needs to be replaced

 

the football we are playing is dreadful, turgid stuff

Try reading the thread. The comment was that "Rafa's tactics do not work in the Premier League". Amazing how he can finish 3rd in consecutive seasons despite all his tactics