Benny The Noon » Sun Aug 11, 2013 10:09 am wrote:It was clear that Henderson isn't suited to that wide berth when playing in his first season and last season he flourished through the middle.
You say that players brushed through the middle so why would you move Henderson out and leave Lucas and Gerrard exposed ?
Playing Coutinho in the middle does exactly that - I can remember which game it was but with Coutinho in the middle last year behind a front three left us outnumbered in the middle. Coutinho may sort of play the wide role but he roams a lot around the pitch. Coutinho certainly is being pushed out wide to shoehorn because that's where he has played most of his career and where he was most effective. Henderson certainly wasnt anywhere near as effective out wide. The best results and performances we had last year where based on Coutinho out wide and Henderson through the middle. Not sure why you would want to swap them around Yakka ?
coutinho is better centrally where he can see the whole picture and use his full range of passing, stuck out wide you are only really influencing half of the pitch, if that.
look at some of his highlights from last season, the pass through to sturridge with the outside of his foot against fulham, the pass against newcastle where sturridge and hendo linked up to score, his goal against QPR.......all executed when he was playing in a central area.
hendo wouldnt be playing as a traditional winger hugging the touchline getting chalk on his boots, he would be dropping back into midfield helping out gerrard and lucas and getting forward to help the attack. at times we during the game we would be lining up like this
lucas gerrard hendo
coutinho
aspas sturridge
and at other times when we are on top we would be like this
lucas
coutinho gerrard
aspas sturridge hendo
it`s very a fluid formation, which is what rodgers wants to play. playing that way you get your most effective attackers (sturridge & coutinho) playing in the area`s where they can do the most damage to the opposition but you also have enough legs in midfield to cover our obvious weakness in there (our lack of athleticism)
infact i wouldnt mind seeing this formation in a cup game or something just to see if we would be better off going for energy rather than ability in the DM area
allen hendo
coutinho
aspas sturridge ibe