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*Official* English Football Season 2013-14

Cabinet96

Cabinet96

Global Moderator
I wonder if Jose will regret the early season bus park at Old Trafford in hindsight, come May. Certainly doesn't seen a game he couldn't afford to try and win after all that's happened since.
 
Furball

Furball

Evil Scotsman
Latest rumour - Mirko Vucinic on loan to Arsenal from Juventus with an option to buy.

Also, Spurs are apparently determined to not let Holtby go back to Schalke, lest that lead to Draxler moving to Arsenal. Obviously still smarting from the Özil deal.
 
sledger

sledger

Spanish_Vicente
Vucinic would be alright as a short-term job I should have thought, but I think Arsenal should be looking to bring in players with more quality than that come the summer.
 
Ikki

Ikki

Hall of Fame Member
Nnanden said:
It was all about Rodgers' system. First half, no genuine holding midfielder, Villa dominate the game and can get good balls in. Second half, Lucas on for Coutinho (and then Allen replaced him), Gerrard is pushed up into CM, we dominate. Absolute turd decision from Rodgers to line up that way originally, and cost us the match. Have no flipping idea why he did it either, particularly after we've dominated matches playing with 3 good ball winning midfielders.
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It was ridiculously naive I thought. Just Gerrard holding and basically everyone else attacking. Coutinho and Henderson had just as bad halves. Once we went to 3 in the middle at half time the game flipped on it's head.

If Rodgers wants Gerrard to play the Pirlo role then he needs the runners like Pirlo - who has 2 of Marchisio, Pogba and Vidal doing the leg-work. Not just Henderson sitting in front of him.
 
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Uppercut

Uppercut

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Tom Halsey said:
No it wasn't. Us winning 25 of our first 30 games was the biggest factor.
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Yeah. I read something from Daniel Harris that described our squad as "a haphazardly constructed contraption workable only by its mad old inventor". It's a great metaphor. It's not that Ferguson was winning in spite of his squad, which you hear a lot, but really makes no sense. It's just that only he had the slightest idea how to use it.

We were never going to get anything from Chelsea anyway, but I don't think Moyes got his selection right yesterday either. One winger with Januzaj on the other side was definitely a better option, then fit in Kagawa at 10 or Hernandez ahead of Welbeck (normally don't like starting him but Chelsea can't handle him). Moyes was terrified of Januzaj roaming from wide and letting one of Chelsea's full backs forward, so he picked Young, but Chelsea barely use the full-backs in attack because they always look to counter so quickly. I'd have taken Fletcher over Jones too.

It's annoying that he stumbled upon the right attacking combination vs. Swansea in the second half last week, but then pussied out of using it to revert to his favoured "play a rigid and predictable game, then fail to defend set pieces" plan. Picking the wrong players a lot is kinda fair enough, because it isn't his team, but defensive solidity is the one thing he's supposed to do well and we're one of the worst teams at soaking up pressure in the league.
 
Uppercut

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Ikki said:
It was ridiculously naive I thought. Just Gerrard holding and basically everyone else attacking. Coutinho and Henderson had just as bad halves. Once we went to 3 in the middle at half time the game flipped on it's head.

If Rodgers wants Gerrard to play the Pirlo role then he needs the runners like Pirlo - who has 2 of Marchisio, Pogba and Vidal doing the leg-work. Not just Henderson sitting in front of him.
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He has a bit of a fetish for the Juventus system but I don't think it's suitable. Firstly because Gerrard isn't Pirlo (he took 22 minutes to complete a pass yesterday). But it's not just that, England is a bad place to play that system. In Italy there are almost no wingers, so you can get away with just playing wing backs. In England you'll get overloaded down the wings a lot, like with Cazorla's opener against you this season. And teams press much more intensely, so it'll be harder to create space for Gerrard to work.
 
Ikki

Ikki

Hall of Fame Member
Uppercut said:
He has a bit of a fetish for the Juventus system but I don't think it's suitable. Firstly because Gerrard isn't Pirlo (he took 22 minutes to complete a pass yesterday). But it's not just that, England is a bad place to play that system. In Italy there are almost no wingers, so you can get away with just playing wing backs. In England you'll get overloaded down the wings a lot, like with Cazorla's opener against you this season. And teams press much more intensely, so it'll be harder to create space for Gerrard to work.
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Ted Knutson is a big stats guy and football blogger and he actually touched on this. Of all the players in Europe who are in the statistical ball-park as Pirlo in the last 3 years...there's only one name, Steven Gerrard. Frankly, it's easy to see if you watch both enough. They both have a high amount of key passes for DMs through their long balls and through balls; they're good defensively (Gerrard more than just good); they contribute a lot of assists and have a decent amount of goals as well. Even their passing accuracy is basically the same (86-87%). The main difference is that Pirlo gets on the ball more than Gerrard and generally has ~10 more passes per game. If Gerrard wants to play that role, he has to come to grips with starting deeper than he has been and also learning to move more, to receive passes, for the ball. But I can see exactly what Rodgers is doing and I think it is a fine idea. I just think it's pretty dumb to start experimenting now. We've been on such good form playing our normal 4-3-3 with Lucas holding - heck, even the 3-5-2. When we just reverted to back to what worked, we dominated Villa.

Your point re the suitability of it in England is interesting though. I can agree with what you're saying, but I am not sure it means that it won't work. At least, I trust Rodgers to get it right. We've looked ugly playing 3-5-2 generally, but we've had good results.

IMO that role is made for him but he needs 2 runners. Just as Pirlo does. Gerrard no longer has the legs to harry players, but he does read it well enough to sweep behind the 2 that press. And going forward with the ball it is pretty similar to how he's been played under Rodgers in the 2 years anyway and he's been brilliant at that. It would just mean no more marauding runs forward, but I think it's time to retire those.
 
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Uppercut

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I don't think Gerrard is anything like Pirlo. Not now anyway. I guess he's aiming to move his game in that direction. There's a stylistic difference that doesn't come out in stats. I reckon Gerrard would struggle in Italy and Pirlo would struggle in England.

I tend to agree with Eds that he's looked tired lately. He needs to be managed a little better, especially now that the team often looks so good without him. Scholes is the obvious comparison- traditionally played a high-energy game, sits deeper when he gets old but also stops playing all the time.
 
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