Stu the Red » Tue Dec 03, 2013 12:00 pm wrote:Currently Southampton have this absolutely nailed on and its a model I think Rodgers needs to look at and needs to bring in the appropriate players for.
Its very simple what they're doing. They're allowing players at the back just enough time to get the ball under control then bang, they're onto them. They're pressing goal keepers ruthlessly aswell and its forcing alot of long balls from the opposition which, turn, is making it very easy for their big, powerful centre halfs and central midfielders to win the headers and turn what should be spells of opposition possession, into a battle.
They're stopping other teams from playing in a really effective way.
Even against Chelsea the other day, I'd say for large periods Chelsea found them very difficult to play against. It was only really down to two set pieces that Chelsea managed to get the win. Thats a side with Hazard, Torres, Oscar and Mata in struggling to create chances.
How can we press though? I've seen Suarez, Sturridge and Henderson press high up the field. But once the opponents beat their press Gerrard and Lucas are far far behind on the halfway line or even deeper.
If Stevie and / or Lucas press higher and get beaten they are nowhere near fast enough to recover.
It requires an awful lot of pace, fitness and discipline to press high up as a team. Pace and fitness are 2 things we lack in CM. Even some of our CB's would struggle with pushing up.
Our team frustrates me sometimes because I think Rodgers has a great vision of how he'd like us to play but we just can't do it. We tried at the start of last season and had to ditch it in favour of much needed results.
