Our problems

[Dirk]

Essentially, imo, we're poor because our use of the ball is fucking diabolical and it's largely down to atrocious decision making. We're keeping the ball when we should be releasing it, we're underhitting passes and overhitting passes; the catalyst of which seems to be a lack of confidence. Fuck thinking about playing, just do it.

 

We're static when we should be dynamic, our movement off the ball is non-existant and support coming from the midfield in the final third is nowhere to be seen. There are too many lacklustre individuals in the team dithering and not playing with enough effort.

[Rashid]

Pass and Move died when Evans was sacked... get him back on the coaching staff. I fucing mean that... I am sick of all this tactical shite...

[MLB]

I can only agree. Our passing is poor mainly because our movement is poor, and distance between defense, midfield and attack is often too great. The difference between the mancs and us isn't in the quality of the players, it's in the coherence of the unit and ability to change gears in attack with fluidity and clever movement.

[Rashid]

Our problems are in ATTACK and they have been in attack ever since Rafa has got here... Rafa's teams rarely score lots of goals... unfortunately that shite won't work in the Premiership.

[Cardie]

defence get the ball and either hit it long or pass to midfield and then they stop.

 

Midfield Get the ball, knock it long or hit it to the striker and then they stop.

 

Attack don't get the ball, have no one to pass it to, can't get a shot off and then they stop.

[Dirk]

Our problems are in ATTACK and they have been in attack ever since Rafa has got here... Rafa's teams rarely score lots of goals... unfortunately that shite won't work in the Premiership.

 

Weren't Valencia top scorers in his final season?

[MLB]

defence get the ball and either hit it long or pass to midfield and then they stop.

 

Midfield Get the ball, knock it long or hit it to the striker and then they stop.

 

Attack don't get the ball, have no one to pass it to, can't get a shot off and then they stop.

 

 

That just about sums it up - particularly away from home.

[Cardie]

That just about sums it up - particularly away from home.

 

Chelsea, United and Arsenal on the other hand - the defence is an extension of the attack and the attack is an extension of the defence.

[1892-LFCWasBorn]

Crouchy should be starting every AWAY game.

 

He helps us control and dictate games away from Anfield and gives our defence much needed relief in crucial spells during games.

 

Two season ago, we were fuckin dreadful away from home. Crouchy helped us improve this last season and his failure to make the starting line up this season in away games is one of the reasons why we've been shite.

 

We're far too easy to play against. :wallbutt:

[Rashid]

Weren't Valencia top scorers in his final season?

 

They scored 71 - one less than Real Madrid.. previous to that they scored 51 in 2002. That is in a league where defenders are shite!! By keeping a clean sheet you knew you would win.

 

In England you have to go at teams, Rafa never does that. Our problems are in attack, he can't get the best out of the strikers and the wide areas remain a problem. Rafa has not sussed out this league yet not by a long way.

[drewy]

Our problems are in ATTACK and they have been in attack ever since Rafa has got here... Rafa's teams rarely score lots of goals... unfortunately that shite won't work in the Premiership.

 

Really? I think our biggest problems this season have been in defence where we have been nothing short of shambolic. Carragher has been atrocious and Hypia not much better. Almost every important goal we've conceded this season has been down to defensive errors.

 

I take your point about the attack but you must have patience. Fowler hasn't played this season and up until 3 months ago 2 of our strikers had never clapped eyes on each other never mind played together for a full season.

 

The midfield has also been well below par so far this season and that goes for all of them. Just watch the personal attacks on Rafa posted on this forum today, it knocks me fuckin sick it really does. £50 nicker says we'll have the first "sack Rafa" post today.

[Dirk]

They scored 71 - one less than Real Madrid.. previous to that they scored 51 in 2002. That is in a league where defenders are shite!! By keeping a clean sheet you knew you would win.

 

In England you have to go at teams, Rafa never does that. Our problems are in attack, he can't get the best out of the strikers and the wide areas remain a problem. Rafa has not sussed out this league yet not by a long way.

 

 

But they did score lots goals, though?

[Rashid]

But they did score lots goals, though?

 

YES but that was not the normal in his 3 seasons at Valencia he got 51, 56 and 71. So NO they didn't score lots of goals as the norm.

 

Since arriving here we have for the first time in about 50 years a striker crisis in scoring goals. Rafa's problems have been in attack pure and simple. We just don't look like scoring... even last season we were poor in attack.

 

The chickens have come home to roost this season because the defenders and midfielders are not bailing the attacking players out.

[Guest TK-421]

There are problems throughout the team and the main one is confidence. You have to wonder if the players understand what Rafa is wanting them to do. To me they look confused and don't know what is expected of them and perhaps some of them are doubting Rafa's methods and ideas.

 

I think things will improve (they can't get much worse) but it may be too little too late as far as the league is concerned.

[crazy_pool_fan]

Our problems are in ATTACK and they have been in attack ever since Rafa has got here... Rafa's teams rarely score lots of goals... unfortunately that shite won't work in the Premiership.

 

Saw you repeat this over and over again.

 

Unfortunately not true - our problem is defence not attack - look at arsenal scored 3 conceded 2 away from home, sitting pretty with 7 points out of 3. Lets not take the opposition and their quality into consideration.

 

We concede first the whole team just loses the plot of attack, midfield loses confidence on the back four, quality of service to the strikers degenerates - all this especially away from home. We need to stop conceding, especially first because that does the confidence of the team.

[Rashid]

Saw you repeat this over and over again.

 

Unfortunately not true - our problem is defence not attack - look at arsenal scored 3 conceded 2 away from home, sitting pretty with 7 points out of 3. Lets not take the opposition and their quality into consideration.

 

We concede first the whole team just loses the plot of attack, midfield loses confidence on the back four, quality of service to the strikers degenerates - all this especially away from home. We need to stop conceding, especially first because that does the confidence of the team.

 

I am not going by just this season. I am going by Rafa's 2 years here - he cannot get the best out of the strikers and has had serious problems in his attacking fluidity and goals.

[derykw]

Saw you repeat this over and over again.

 

Unfortunately not true - our problem is defence not attack - look at arsenal scored 3 conceded 2 away from home, sitting pretty with 7 points out of 3. Lets not take the opposition and their quality into consideration.

 

We concede first the whole team just loses the plot of attack, midfield loses confidence on the back four, quality of service to the strikers degenerates - all this especially away from home. We need to stop conceding, especially first because that does the confidence of the team.

 

 

How is it not true? 1goal from 5 away games and that from a fortunate penalty.

[Red Mist]

In the summer we must blow our entire budget and bring Owen back to the club! We have had no cutting edge since the little bastard left us.

 

In the meantime, Rafa can try getting the players to learn how to fucking pass and keep the ball. The amount of times we gave the ball away today was shocking.

[crazy_pool_fan]

I am not going by just this season. I am going by Rafa's 2 years here - he cannot get the best out of the strikers and has had serious problems in his attacking fluidity and goals.

 

He got the best out of Crouch (who you never used to rate), Cisse (enough said about him), Nando (who everyone knows found it difficult to adapt to premiership), Fowler (still struggling to find his fitness and first team) last season.

 

Attacking fluidity well explained in my previous post.

[BatChainPuller]

Crouchy should be starting every AWAY game.

 

He helps us control and dictate games away from Anfield and gives our defence much needed relief in crucial spells during games.

 

Two season ago, we were fuckin dreadful away from home. Crouchy helped us improve this last season and his failure to make the starting line up this season in away games is one of the reasons why we've been shite.

 

We're far too easy to play against. :wallbutt:

 

Spot on - that and Momo's form last season were the main reason we improved away last season - time to revert to what we know is effective and build on that.

[Guest comebackkings]

We're just not good enough, that's all there is to it

[Dirk]

An Exploratory Study of the Effects of Pregame Speeches on Team Efficacy

Tiffanye M. Vargas-Tonsinga2 and John B. Bartholomewa

 

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of pregame speeches on team efficacy. Male (n=45) and female (n=45) soccer players were presented with descriptions of two teams who were to play in an imagined soccer competition. Participants were asked to imagine themselves as being a member of team B. After reviewing team descriptions, participants listened to one of three randomly assigned pregame speeches. Speeches contained one of three themes: (a) uniform/field information that acted as a control, (b) strategic information, and © an emotionally persuasive plea. Results indicated that those exposed to the persuasive pregame speech reported significantly greater team efficacy beliefs. The control and strategy groups did not differ in team efficacy. Gender differences were also found.

 

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.0021-9029.2006.00049.x

 

The sample size was only small so it's difficult to make generalisations and also, it doesn't figure in the type of tactics and the players confidence in the tactics and it lacks ecological validity (means it doesn't transfer to real life settings properly), however, it's an interesting article.

 

Whilst we're lacking confidence it's best, imo, to simplify the approach. For instance, by being overly cautious it can transmit to the players as a lack of confidence in the players by the manager and by giving them too many instructions when they are struggling it could ovewhelm them. It's important to get the players playing confidently and from there to build on the tactics. We should keep it fucking simple for the time being.

[Wig]

Our problems are in ATTACK and they have been in attack ever since Rafa has got here... Rafa's teams rarely score lots of goals... unfortunately that shite won't work in the Premiership.

 

The first goal today was a defensive nightmare, Paul Scholes was on the 6 yard box by himself waiting to score. But I know what you mean Rash, looking at the bigger picture of things, your right.

[Captain]

In the summer we must blow our entire budget and bring Owen back to the club! We have had no cutting edge since the little bastard left us.

Aye, very good call that. Owen has been pissing all over Premiership defences since his return.

 

Fucking hell.

[crazy_pool_fan]

How is it not true? 1goal from 5 away games and that from a fortunate penalty.

 

Sadly it is not. While 1 goal from 5 away games is a fact but the 9 we conceded everytime we conceded first (which is a fact as well).

 

Said before when you have new players trying to gel in mostly attacking positions there's hardly any confidence in them to string together passes to score goals. Just see today after we conceded how were we attacking? We were being played all over.