by aCe' » Wed Aug 26, 2009 5:24 pm
I absolutely disagree with both posts StMike... its an overly simplistic way of looking at things imo (no offense like) and to suggest that having Lucas and Mascherano in that Villa game helped keep the scoreline 'respectable' is just shocking to me...
Tottenham played 2 in the middle against us and absolutely destroyed us through the middle... Villa played 3 and seemed quite comfortable controlling the game down the middle... to me its pretty obvious that the problem lies in OUR setup, and personnel... If Gerrard is played in the middle i'd be looking more at him starting attacks rather than linking up play higher up... With a 4-4-2 you expect the wingers and forwards to get on the ball more often and provide that extra bit in terms of impact in the final third... the 2 in the middle have somewhat restricted roles, they play the balls to the attacking players, and if the opportunity arises, they try to get on the end of things in the final third (usually wither crosses or from counter attacks)...
Our problem is that even with the 4-2-3-1 we have no one who is able to provide the 3 (Gerrard, Kuyt, Benny) or Torres with the balls behind midfielders or defenders for them to make any sort of impact... Not only do we lack creativity through the middle (Lucas and Masch), we also seem very sluggish and slow in taking the ball out of our areas against decent opposition..
With Gerrard playing there, i dont think that would be that much of a problem, so in that sense we'll be fixing things a little... The biggest worry is that the likes of Torres, Kuyt, Benny, Riera..etc will have to step up their game quite a bit... Kuyt loses too many balls, Torres has been too sloppy in possession in recent games, Riera hasnt started a game yet... To me, Benny is probably our most important attacking player atm...
IF Gerrard is pulled back to the middle, Benny will be the one to look for to cut in from the flank and and try and open up spaces for our other attacking players....
Anyways, to sum it up... Gerrard moving back to a midfield role is the only solution for us as things stand...leaves us with 1 of 2 options.. either stick to the 4-5-1 with Benny playing the Gerrard role... or change to a 4-4-2 with Kuyt playing upfront.. in both cases it would have to mean that we'd be relying heavily on Torres, Kuyt, Benny, Riera to improve in the attacking end and to provide the goals to compensate to what we'll be missing from moving Gerrard.... Not the ideal situation but its our best shot until Aquilani is back i guess...