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Continuing from a post in another thread, I thought it might be worthwhile (or even just cathartic) to discuss why we are playing so badly at the moment, and what we might be able to do to fix it. Apologies if this goes on a bit, but clearly we have a lot of problems... Defense: 1) We are defending too deeply. This might be because of a lack of pace or it might just be the way that Roy likes to play, but either way it is causing the midfield to drop back much further than it should and leaving the front two horrible isolated. It also leads to way too many aimless punts from the back by Carra that are meat and drink for any modern defender worth his salt. 2) Johnson. His form is not good, and defensively he looks worse than he ever has right now. He is out of position far too often and needs a fucking haircut. 3) Set pieces. I shit myself every time we concede one. Obviously we have changed the way we defend them, and it might take a while before we fully adapt to man marking again after playing zonally for a few years, but you would like to think that a group of experienced internationals and Paul Konchesky would be able to get the hang of it in short order. Oh, and Skrtel's Steven Regal impressions in the box need to stop as well. Midfield: 1) No width. By that I mean no one who is able beat a full back and/or create something from wide areas. Jovanovic is a trier but he makes Milan Baros look like Jari Litmanen with his "head down, run as fast as you can into a blind alley" routine. On the other side, Kuyt is badly out of form and Maxi just doesn't look arsed. No wonder Torres spends so much time running into channels when he should be the one in the box trying to get on the end of things. I honestly don't think any of our current wide players are even as good as Vladimir Smicer. 2) Poulsen and Lucas. This needs no explaining really. I think I will have a fucking aneurism if these two line up together against the Mancs. They are far too similar, and neither of them is really good enough. I'd give Poulsen the nod if we have to pick one of them though as he can't possibly offer us less than Lucas. I'd rather have a concussed Daniel Agger in midfield than Lucas. Attack: 1) Only point here, really. I know he's coming off an injury and he is largely starved of service, but that's no excuse for strolling around with a face like a smacked arse when you should be pressuring defenders and closing people down. Say what you want about N'Gog but he always puts the effort in and, in my opinion, has given more for the team in his few appearances this season than 'Nando has. In general: 1) Late substitutions. We've had years of this under Rafa, but Roy seems to be just as bad for it, if not worse. If the game is drifting from us and we're showing no signs of creating anything the last thing I want to see is the manager sitting on his fucking hands. I can't deal with another season of us failing to turn up for the first 45 minutes and then not seeing any changes made until it's too fucking late. 2) Defeatist comments in interviews. This needs to stop now. It makes my blood boil. It's de-motivating and corrosive to our confidence. Simple as. Solutions: 1) Play Agger and not Skrtel. He's a better defender, better passer of the ball and he's also quicker. He's no Usain Bolt like but he would definitely allow us to defend a bit higher up the pitch, and would also provide us with an outlet by bringing the ball into midfield and picking out passes. 2) Either drop him for Kelly, who has played better than him when he's been given the chance, or try him on the right wing. It's hard to imagine him giving us less there than Maxi did yesterday, and he would at least try and take on the full back now and again. 3) Not much that we can do about this except work on it in training. We could play the Greek, who would definitely help us to deal with aerial balls, but we can't play both him and Agger unless we drop Carra (or play him at right back, where his lack of pace could be badly exposed.) Midfield: 1) As above, we could give Johnson a try on the right. In the absence of the two new wide players that we need, it has to be worth a go. I would also consider giving Babel a go on the left. He could potentially be even worse than Jovanovic if I'm being honest, but I don't see that we have much to lose by giving it a go. It's depressing to consider the options we had though, and the fact that we didn't go after any wide players in the summer. 2) Right now I would play Gerrard deeper. So far this season he has looked a lot better there than he has behind Torres, where he has been isolated and unable to make any impression on the game. Then we could either play Meireles alongside him and Cole off Torres, or Poulsen alongside him and Meireles off Torres, with Cole occupying one of the wide positions. He is just not able to effect the game right now and we badly need him to be the heartbeat of the team. Attack: 1) Fuck all we can do about this really except hope he gets his act together soon. Creating some decent chances for him might help of course. Any thoughts?