Liverpool FC Forum

woof woof ! wrote:We were sitting too "deep" I don't know if this was by accident or design and perhaps we should give some credit to Wigan for the shift they turned in. The biggest probem for us last night was (and may continue to be) our predictability. Every man and his whippet in Wigan knew we'd look time and again to get the ball through to Torres, nullify the balls that are fed to him and with no wide men feeding balls in if Gerrard doesn't break forward we looked pretty toothless.

RedSi35 wrote:inviting teams onto us and hitting them on the counter does make sense

woof woof ! wrote:

RedSi35 wrote:inviting teams onto us and hitting them on the counter does make sense

Makes sense if the counter has three or four men flooding towards the oppo's box and not just a ball to a lone striker who's got two men up his ar'se.

dawson99 wrote:it has to be said as well, Kuyt had been off injured for a while, and was awesmoe at cheatski and was just shattered...

Red-er-Dare wrote:Hi,

I was bitterly dissapointed with our performance last night, after the Chelsea result I would have thought we'd have carried the game to Wigan, even after we scored our first goal. Early indications appear that we're very much playing a similar brand of football that Gerard Houllier had us playing when he was here; two banks of four lying deep soaking up pressure looking to hit on the counter attack. Roy is going to need more than this approach if we are looking to consistently go away on our travels (or even at home) to places like Stoke and Birmingham and get three points.

His tactics showed that against 'bigger' teams his methods will stand his sides in good stead, just like when he managed Fulham last year and came to Anfield. However, against the likes of Wigan it's an approach that is not gutsy enough if we're looking to get back into the top four. Yesterday we started brightly and through this start got a good goal, within 15mins of Torres' goal we reverted back into a shell, conceeding possesion and terratorial ground - should a Liverpool side really be doing this against the likes of Wigan? (no disrespect to Wigan but the were in the bottom 3)The longer the game went on, and straight from KO in the second half we literally gave ALL momentum and impetus to Wigan, we willed them on to score a goal against us.

I don't have too much of a problem per se with the tactics, IF they were developed substaintially and I don't know how easy it would be to do this. I don't mind us sitting back, we look organised and hard to break down. The problem really occurs when we retain possesion, our midfield and defence are so deep that we're unable to expand and use the area of the pitch effectively. So what happens is, Skertel, Carra, Meireles whomever, when they've got the ball they really only have the option of a long pass; this is different to a long aimless punt upfield, but more often than not isn't much more effective than a long aimless punt. 9/10 Torres or Kuyt are looking to bring a long pass down and yesterday as we saw, if they failed to control it, or it was intercepted Wigan would build another wave of attack. This cycle would continue and continue on which effectively had Wigan camped inside our half and we looked a poor side unable to get out of our own half.

Roy has either got to stop us sitting so deep early on and rather than be happy to conceed possesion; he should be looking for our lads to gain possesion. Our boys are as good in possesion as they are without it and really it should be us asking their defence the questions not the other way round. If he doesn't want our lads on the front foot? we've got to be much much better at dispersing and making space when we've broke down an attack deep in our own half. I don't know how easy this is to do and looking at our lads yesterday they made this look difficult which I suppose it is, going from sitting deep in a conjested area in your own half to retaining possesion and dictating the game again doesn't look an easy thing to do. This is why we look quick to knock it long and get a counter attack going from it and we saw yesterday our lads we're struggling to do this aswell.

The game we're playing is effectively a counter attacking game and away to Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal and so on it will suit better, at home to Blackpool and away to Wigan it will see us struggle. These bread and butter sides, will have a real go at us if you give them so much impetus and it really is walking a tight rope, we don't need to give them any reason to attack us like Wigan did yesterday, we've got to control these games for the bulk of periods.

Red-er-Dare wrote:However, against the likes of Wigan it's an approach that is not gutsy enough if we're looking to get back into the top four.

Raoul wrote:

crim cram wrote:

rocky29 wrote:we got 4 points out of 6 in 2 tough games.Well done roy dont listen to these c posters. Your doing well mate keep up the good work.

I would say more like 7 out of 9, the Bolton result was big.  If you would have told me we'd get 7 from 9 three weeks ago, I'd have taken it.

I don't think anyone on here is suggesting that 3 points against any team is our divine right. And 7 from 9 is acceptable, whoever the teams are. The problem today was not the result. I think many of us would have been satisfied if we'd dominated, but Wigan had squeaked through with a draw. Not happy perhaps, but satisifed, because "if we keep playing like that, we'll be OK". But after tonight, is anyone saying "if we keep playing like that, we'll be OK"?

Teams can have off nights. The problem is, tonight didn't look like an off night. It looked like Roy's Liverpool - sitting deep, not pressuring the other team's possession, big gaps between the frontmen and the rest. Perhaps I am wrong. I haven't particularly watched Roy's teams in the past, so I can't say if this is typical of the man or not. I hope I am wrong.

However, given what we've seen so far, I think we are justified in being deeply worried.