Awful

I think the thing I find most frustrating about Perez is the lack of assists. He doesn’t set anyone up, and neither does he look likely to. Barnes falls to pieces right now in front of goal but he has notched up some assists and got one today. He has played some fine passes and as BS says, is a work in progress. Perez has been bought to do a job and has been alrightish but not £30m’s worth of player so far.

Perhaps it’s partly because he would have been the main creative force at a Newcastle, whereas here that job is Maddison’s. He’s also gone from being a senior player at Newcastle to a relative newcomer here, so that might be a factor too.

comment by The_Dungeon_Master (U4830)
posted 1 hour, 7 minutes ago
Mersey - I’m not sure what you’d play instead. For me the formation was right but the wingers didn’t help out their full backs enough. The diamond would have been smashed. 5-3-2 might work.
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Take your pick Dunge:

4-2-3-1
5-3-2
4-3-3

Do you think 4-1-4-1 worked and it was just the players? Because you can still play that formation with different personnel. Praet or Albrighton side to cover more. Again - the managers fault for picking the wrong players.

Barnes and Perez might as well have watched from the sidelines.

comment by Black Starr (U12353)
posted 2 hours ago
comment by Admin1 (U1)
posted 10 seconds ago
I honestly thought you guys were good. But it's probably the first match I've watched in three months
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That’s good to hear! I guess the standards have been so high that it’s disappointing when the inevitable loss comes

I’ve just seen us do so much better recently - wasn’t expecting to beat City, but that was a very poor showing by our standards
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I thought you were quite poor today BS. City had most of the ball as you’d expect, but when you did have it you just kept kicking it back to them. Aside from a couple of vardy runs in behind in the first half you didn’t have any outlet, and basically just let city play a training session of attack v defence until they broke you down.

Thought you might have taken it to them a little more than that

Perez should be able to do it, particularly with a high press. Barnes doesn’t demonstrate the kind of tactical understanding that I’d want yet. He’s defensively very poor, much like Gray a couple of years back. I’d play Albrighton or Gray in place of him against Liverpool, but probably no other changes. Although given he limped off today, that may be enforced.

comment by Tiddles (U17634)
posted 32 minutes ago
comment by Black Starr (U12353)
posted 2 hours ago
comment by Admin1 (U1)
posted 10 seconds ago
I honestly thought you guys were good. But it's probably the first match I've watched in three months
----------------------------------------------------------------------
That’s good to hear! I guess the standards have been so high that it’s disappointing when the inevitable loss comes

I’ve just seen us do so much better recently - wasn’t expecting to beat City, but that was a very poor showing by our standards
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I thought you were quite poor today BS. City had most of the ball as you’d expect, but when you did have it you just kept kicking it back to them. Aside from a couple of vardy runs in behind in the first half you didn’t have any outlet, and basically just let city play a training session of attack v defence until they broke you down.

Thought you might have taken it to them a little more than that
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Can’t argue with any of that.

Was just a bit surprised Mersey, as I’ve seen you guys play some great stuff this season, against top teams too. Just didn’t seem to be at the races today.

Still having a brilliant season and i think you’ll make top four, which is fantastic. Today just wasn’t your day, not sure if it was Rodgers tactics or if the players just showed City too much respect

comment by Merseysidefox (U4842)
posted 49 minutes ago
comment by The_Dungeon_Master (U4830)
posted 1 hour, 7 minutes ago
Mersey - I’m not sure what you’d play instead. For me the formation was right but the wingers didn’t help out their full backs enough. The diamond would have been smashed. 5-3-2 might work.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Take your pick Dunge:

4-2-3-1
5-3-2
4-3-3

Do you think 4-1-4-1 worked and it was just the players? Because you can still play that formation with different personnel. Praet or Albrighton side to cover more. Again - the managers fault for picking the wrong players.

Barnes and Perez might as well have watched from the sidelines.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
There’s very little difference between 4-3-3 and 4-1-4-1, they are versions of the same thing. We play Vardy upfront and Barnes and Perez either side, more as wide forwards than wingers

N’didi sits behind Maddison and Tielemans, they are pretty much the same thing. We don’t really play with traditional wingers (like albrighton), so I would argue it’s. 4-3-3 personally

Going to a 4-2-3-1 couldn’t work, two defensive midfielders. You basically lose either Tielemans or Maddison and replace with Praet or Choudhury in a more defensive role

There isn’t reallly a formation that deals with the fact we play with wing backs basically who attack, cut inside naturally and leave huge spaces behind. The likes of Perez and Barnes aren’t players who can effectively cover like Albrighton used to

You have to accept that our greatest strength is also one of our biggest weaknesses

Sorry 4-2-3-1 could work, not couldn’t

5-3-2 could be more solid if we want to be more defensive but still play wing backs BS. 4-2-3-1 does a better job of being compact and preventing the space between the lines, but still exposes the fullbacks a bit.

4-3-3 (or 4-1-4-1) needs Praet and/or Albrighton on the wide roles to protect our full backs against the top teams. Yes it negates our strengths, but let’s be honest, Perez and Barnes were about as usesful as chocolate fireguards yesterday.

Tiddles- it was indeed frustrating and what was most disappointing was how poor we passed the ball. Our young players looks overwhelmed by the game and we didn’t play our usual composed passing game. City did a good job of pressing us high but it was still poor.

We’ve also been struggling for the last few weeks. Either the busy Christmas period is affecting us or we’re having a wobble. Hopefully Rodgers can find a way to get us playing confidently again soon.

Also can someone let that cretin cheesynacho know.that him being booted off this thread and subsequently filtered is nothing to do with Admin. His pathetic childlike response is an absolute embarrassment