Lallana in Pyjamas » Thu Nov 08, 2018 5:55 pm wrote:ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Thu Nov 08, 2018 4:33 pm wrote:Lallana in Pyjamas » Thu Nov 08, 2018 12:28 pm wrote:The front three scored a hell of a lot more goals once Coutinho left last season
Everyone seems happy to go at the midfield with full barrels and yet the front three get a free pass - sorry but they have been inconsistent at best - missed chances all season , played countless poor final balls , poor link up play and at times a lack of urgency and energy
The platform is there for them but they aren’t playing consistently well yet
The platform isn't there for them though, our midfield only dominates the ball against the no hopers of this world, any half decent team (i.e Leicester) and our midfield struggles to stamp their authority on the game.
The platform is there and every single game they have had chances to win every single game we have played so far but they haven’t taken those chances - it’s not fair or correct to continually point fingers for the front not taking their chances - even on Tuesday we should have been 2 up before they scored but Sturridge missed an open goal and poor final balls from Mane threw away others.
The midfield do need to chip with goals and to get control and it’s a shame we have missed Henderson and Kieta in the last couple of weeks.
The way we are set up we are overly reliant on the front 3 to win games for us and to be fair to Mo, Sadio and Bobby this system does ask a lot of them, out of the XI players we generally start games with only those 3 mentioned are primarily attacking players, the others do get involved in attacks but their primary role is to stop the opposition playing.
If City's front 3 just had yeoman like Fernandinho and Delph behind them instead of Fernandinho + 2 creative players i'm sure they wouldn't be as prolific as they are.
IMO our front 3 need help, we need to get at least 1 AM sitting in behind them in Coutinho's old position, I'm not a fan of Lallana but he was stuck out wide on Tuesday, it's very difficult to be a Dalglish/Beardsley type schemer out there.
We need to find a midfield pairing who can hold the fort like Fernandinho does for City allowing us to play the extra man (be that Shaquiri, Lallana or whoever) behind the front 3.
Wether that pairing is Keita/Henderson, Keita/Fabinho, Fabinho/Wijnaldum, Keita/Wijnaldum or whatever, we desperately need to find one.