Liverpool FC Forum

I disagree.

If you watch back the game, or at least the highlights, you'll see that Lovren man marks Adebayor. It's clearly a tactical choice by Rodgers.

Lovren tracks his man and jumps for the header. If Sakho had continued to be the spare man, as he had been for the rest of the game, he would have been well positioned to intercept Chadli's run.[/quote]


Thats nonsense, Lovren was no way near the ball and shouldnt have been going for it as Sakcho was clearly in a better position to go for the header

That was actually Lovren's fault, Adebayor was Sakho's man but for some reason Lovren came charging out and missed everything including the ball leaving a huge void behind him and his CB partner stranded.
Lovren is a good defender but he makes rash decisions, there's nothing wrong with being aggressive and trying to win every ball but sometimes he's got to temper that instinct by asking himself the question 'what happens if I don't win this ball?'
If there is no cover behind him he's better off just staying on his feet and jockeying the player until reinforcements arrive, once or twice yesterday he dived into tackles that he didn't make and against better players that would be a goal.
As the leader of our back line he should be cool, calm and collected, not succumbing to rushes of blood to the head every ten minutes.[/quote]
I disagree.

If you watch back the game, or at least the highlights, you'll see that Lovren man marks Adebayor. It's clearly a tactical choice by Rodgers.

Lovren tracks his man and jumps for the header. If Sakho had continued to be the spare man, as he had been for the rest of the game, he would have been well positioned to intercept Chadli's run.[/quote]

Thats nonsense, Lovren was no way near the ball and shouldnt have been going for it as Sakcho was clearly in a better position to go for the header

Fowler_E7 » Mon Sep 01, 2014 1:15 pm wrote:That was actually Lovren's fault, Adebayor was Sakho's man but for some reason Lovren came charging out and missed everything including the ball leaving a huge void behind him and his CB partner stranded.
Lovren is a good defender but he makes rash decisions, there's nothing wrong with being aggressive and trying to win every ball but sometimes he's got to temper that instinct by asking himself the question 'what happens if I don't win this ball?'
If there is no cover behind him he's better off just staying on his feet and jockeying the player until reinforcements arrive, once or twice yesterday he dived into tackles that he didn't make and against better players that would be a goal.
As the leader of our back line he should be cool, calm and collected, not succumbing to rushes of blood to the head every ten minutes.

I disagree.

If you watch back the game, or at least the highlights, you'll see that Lovren man marks Adebayor. It's clearly a tactical choice by Rodgers.

Lovren tracks his man and jumps for the header. If Sakho had continued to be the spare man, as he had been for the rest of the game, he would have been well positioned to intercept Chadli's run.

Thats nonsense, Lovren was no way near the ball and shouldnt have been going for it as Sakcho was clearly in a better position to go for the header

Well I suggest you take my advice and watch the game back then.

Count the number of times that Lovren intentionally tracks Adebayor.

Whether or not Sakho was better placed is irrelevant, if Lovren had a man marking role (which it seemed like) he tracked him at all times. Including the header that led to the Chadli chance.

Besides this conversation is making it look like Sakho only had one mistake. His passing was hit and miss. His balls back to Mignolet were inaccurate and often flighted. He looked nervous for large parts of the game.

I'm not suggesting his is garbage, far from it. My point is when Skrtel is fit and available he should start ahead of Sakho.

SouthCoastShankly »
Well I suggest you take my advice and watch the game back then.

Count the number of times that Lovren intentionally tracks Adebayor.

Whether or not Sakho was better placed is irrelevant, if Lovren had a man marking role (which it seemed like) he tracked him at all times. Including the header that led to the Chadli chance.

Besides this conversation is making it look like Sakho only had one mistake. His passing was hit and miss. His balls back to Mignolet were inaccurate and often flighted. He looked nervous for large parts of the game.

I'm not suggesting his is garbage, far from it. My point is when Skrtel is fit and available he should start ahead of Sakho.

On match of the day 2 last night Martin Keown blamed Lovren for the mistake, saying it was clearly Sakho's ball and Lovren had a total rush of blood to the head.
Re Sakho giving the ball away - Lovren didn't do too bad in terms of giving the ball away cheaply himself, he made one horrendous rick where he gave the ball straight to a Spurs player at the halfway line but to be fair to him he managed to get back and make the tackle, if he does that against Madrid though he won't be catching the likes of Bale and Ronaldo from behind.
Our wobbly defence wasn't just down to Sakho, both CB's were very shaky.

They both had shaky moments (Sakho with his passing, Lovren with his awareness and overzealous approach at times) but both still managed to show their quality over 90mins. Defensively, they did really well overall I thought with 1 or 2 mistakes that are getting a mention because they were so glaringly obvious. However, we not only kept a clean sheet against one of the better attacking sides in the division, we also limited them to 1 shot on target and 7 shots overall in the game. Looked very comfortable for large parts of the game and in no small part I thought it was down to the 2 CBs handling their in-form forwards and keeping them quiet.

They deserve more of a chance to gel and prove that the partnership can work and if a clean sheet and dominant defensive performance away to a top4 rival cant buy them that then I dont know what will.

Well I suggest you take my advice and watch the game back then.

Count the number of times that Lovren intentionally tracks Adebayor.

Whether or not Sakho was better placed is irrelevant, if Lovren had a man marking role (which it seemed like) he tracked him at all times. Including the header that led to the Chadli chance.

Besides this conversation is making it look like Sakho only had one mistake. His passing was hit and miss. His balls back to Mignolet were inaccurate and often flighted. He looked nervous for large parts of the game.

I'm not suggesting his is garbage, far from it. My point is when Skrtel is fit and available he should start ahead of Sakho.[/quote]
It's a strange comment to say it's irrelevant if Sakho is better placed mate. You adapt to situations in a match with good decision making.
This was a poor decision by Lovren. You are probably right about him being asked to pick Adebayor up if possible. For that attack though he wasnt his man, players move and he cant follow him everywhere. You pass players on if needed to keep your shape. What he did left a masive gap that we were lucky wasnt exploited.

Like ace has said though both players made mistakes but we did keep a clean sheet. I would look to give these two a run myself and give them a chance to develop an understanding.

I think overall Lovren did better than Sakho yesterday who looked a bit off the pace, but it was his first game since the WC so I'll give him the benefit. However, Lovren wasn't faultless either. Like Yakka said, he made some very rash decisions (including the one which led to Chadli's chance) and didn't look calm at all. We've all been saying how he should be the leader of our back line but that's not how a leader should behave. Rodgers should tell him that he needs to keep it cooler.

I do think that our defense is improving though, bit by bit. Looks like we're pretty much settled with the fullbacks, all we need now is for our CB's to gel and we'll have a formidable back 4. The quality is there in our defenders, they just need to get to know each other's game better. Like I've already said a few times before, they just need a bit more time.