bigmick wrote:sgs wrote:Most of the static play IMO is coming from poor movement in the last 3rd, and the lack of sharpness by Gerrard and Torres, esp the former...a point peeps never mention as all the focus is on Lucas.
What Rafa has done so far is not simply play Lucas as replacement for Alonso; he's effectively playing two CMs and pulling Yossi esp, and Kuyt centrally to provide the creative impetus starting from the 3rd zone, along with SG dropping into the hole; while using the wide backs to provide width.
The option of SG in CM is fraught with all the limitations that led to he's being played further upfield in the first case. His performance in that role in the 2HF proved it...
What Liverpool fans are doing is killing a young talent, Lucas, with OTT criticism and expectation, to the point where he IS everything wrong with the team atm. That is simply wrong and at this rate, I seriously doubt if he will survive...To see it unfold right before my very eyes makes it even worse! I seriously doubt, if this were Spearing, if he would be treated in this manner...
That said, rather have poor form in August than January as we did last season...
I disagree with just about every word of this post.
I don't FWIW think that most of the poor play is coming because of "poor movement in the last third", particularly not from Gerrard and Torres. Look, the main difference for us this season to last is the straight swap alonso for Lucas, and Riera not being selected and Benayoun playing in his place. Put Insua in instead of Aurelio, and Johnson in for Arbaloa and you have four changes, only one of which has been beneficial to the team.
Now it's pretty obvious that we are missing Alonso, and that's coming from someone who was not slow to play down the amount of influence he had over our play. The key though is we've replaced him with Lucas, who is by no means an awful player but he's not performing at the moment in a manner which is beneficial to the team. He's being asked to fill a role which he isn't capable of filling The lad looked absolutely lost tonight, he wasn't dropping in and picking it up, he wasn't picking it up off of Masherano, he was reduced to moving round and round in and around the centre circle but never actually receiving the ball. When he did get it, like Masherano and Carragher, Villa simply stood off and invited him to play. Because none of the three are liable to pick a pass, you very quickly run out of ideas. We either need to play Masherano OR Lucas on a sustained basis, but not both.
Funnily enough on the question of movement, our limitations on that score from wider areas is getting exposed right now. I know he huffed and puffed, but I thought Kuyt was very poor toinight in terms of his awareness and build up play. He's not normally very good, but tonight he was awful. Similarly, Benayoun constantly tracks inside so it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation. The passers aren't great but nobody creates an angle. Essentially, without a good enough mover of the football in the centre of midfield it's too easy to cut Gerrard and Torres off. As they are our two best players, to prosper we must get them on the ball, and the only way to do that currently is to move Gerrard back into the centre (where despite his rash challenge tonight he is absolutely World Class lets not forget). If we do go down the route of moving Kuyt central (not my choice but there you go) moiving Benayoun right would probably give us more chance of getting Johnson on the ball too.
It's not down to Gerrard and Torres's movement though, not in a million years.
Wonder if u actually read my post!
First Lucas may have replaced Alonso but his role in the team is not the deep-lying playmaker Xabi was.
2ndly, width in the team is being increasingly made to come from the wide backs, with kuyt and yossi taking more of the mantle for creative play from central areas..Poor play from yossi is esp hampering the team...
As for gerrard, he has played in patches and has repeatedly given the ball away or had his touches not come off successfully. Torres in turn has looked jaded...They maybe running aroundm but they are not creating spaces..