guess its time for the obvious

[floyd the barber]

now i dont think its his best position, but still....he will do a much better job than all other options..

 

Steven Gerrard has to move back to central midfield..........move benyoun up alongside torres, with Riera (if hopefully fit) on the left..

 

today lucas and masch were sitting far too deep and really are too similar.....

 

Villa did a great job nullifing our full backs getting forward, without this option...we look strangely dull with a lack of options...so many times tonight we picked up the ball in the middle and had no options..

 

Lucas is ok.....he was found out tonight though, first half....20 mins i believe, he had time on the edge of the box and was far too slow in releasing the ball...this has always been his problem..

 

Yes moving Gerrard breaks up the partnership between him and torres, still until when Aquilani is fit... i see no better option

[richwilks]

Personally I feel somone like Babel or N'Gog needs to be put up alongside Torres. Someone to take some of the defenders away from him.

 

Gerrard needs moving back until Aquilani is fit.

[johngibo YPC]

Did neither of you watch the game last night? When Gerrard moved back we lost our best attacking hope, and he tackled like an absolute bellend

[Swipe]

If Aurelio was fit i'd stick him in central midfield was Masch.

 

I fear we'll lose more points with Lucas and Masch in midfield. It's so bereft of any attacking thrust.

[Beardsley]

  johngibo YPC said:

Did neither of you watch the game last night? When Gerrard moved back we lost our best attacking hope, and he tackled like an absolute bellend

 

 

Plus, last night I don't think he had one successful pass after moving back into midfield.

[Swipe]

To be fair, I think Stevie just has one of those nights. Made no difference where he played, he was just poor.

[johngibo YPC]

  P_Neal said:

Plus, last night I don't think he had one successful pass after moving back into midfield.

 

When i walked out last night i actually thought 'well at least people on YNWA will stop banging on about Gerrard in central midfield now'

[Hassony]

when is Aquilani likely to be fit?

[Stevie H]

i'd be interested to hear how gerrard taking five and ten yard passes off our centrebacks just outside our area makes us a better team to be honest. or how it improves our goal threat.

[sean]

  Stevie H said:

i'd be interested to hear how gerrard taking five and ten yard passes off our centrebacks just outside our area makes us a better team to be honest. or how it improves our goal threat.

 

 

I think this is all garbage too. Him sitting and playing neat and tidy stuff makes us less of a threat than we are currently. We just need to start playing with some confidence.

[richwilks]

For me Gerrard just seemed to get more involved. Don't think he got a touch of the ball for about 20 minutes in the first half last night.

 

That said he was poor when he dropped back in to the middle but I think he just had "one of those games".

[Andy @ Allerton]

  johngibo YPC said:

Did neither of you watch the game last night? When Gerrard moved back we lost our best attacking hope, and he tackled like an absolute bellend

 

 

To be fair he was a load of s**** well before he got moved back.

 

For him to be so poor yesterday and the other day at Spurs, you can only assume he's carrying some injury? If so - he needs to be rested - a fully fit Gerrard is a massive boost for any team - but the way he's playing at present is a liability.

[Hassony]

I was surprised with how we started, no urgency from the start, and when that chance gone with torres, gerrard and yossi all missing ball went, you just knew it wasn't our day.

[Smith]

  Stevie H said:

i'd be interested to hear how gerrard taking five and ten yard passes off our centrebacks just outside our area makes us a better team to be honest. or how it improves our goal threat.

 

But surely that's not what he has to do, is it? I'm sure Mascherano can do this, as long as Gerrard makes himself available for the second pass.

 

The Lucas/Mascherano experiment has not turned out too well. But still, this is only one of our failings at the moment. We lack cohesion, confidence and dare I say it, desire.

Edited August 25, 2009 by Smith

[Swipe]

The lack of tempo is startling.

 

If truth be told it was also evident against Stoke at times. We dropped off after the first goal.

 

We never even got it started last night. Worrying.

[Falconhoof]

Lucas and Mascherano isn't a good partnership. Gerrard doesn't look fit.

We have few alternative to these 3 and Torres playing every game. God help us when we are into the Champions League group stage and there are injuries and suspensions among those 4.

 

Still, mustn't grumble.

[smithdown]

  johngibo YPC said:

When i walked out last night i actually thought 'well at least people on YNWA will stop banging on about Gerrard in central midfield now'

 

 

Tactical geniuses, JG, visionaries so they are.

[Dan]

Lucas was not that bad last night. He was ok but he wasn't the problem. We would have had the same problems last night if Alonso was playing.

 

Too many other players were sh*t. Benayoun and Kuyt especially in the first half were totally ineffective. Gerrard and Torres were also sh*t as has been discussed.

 

Rafa was bang on when he said our senior players need to step up.

[schmuckdonald]

Lucas DID have attacking thrust. He was the one who was constantly getting in the box, it just never fell right for him. Gerrard tried to take everything on himself, hence playing like a bellend. And that's why I don't want him dictating the way the entire team plays. We don't look sharp, but that'll come in time.

[Damian_de]

  Smith said:

We lack cohesion, confidence and dare I say it, desire.

 

It's a strange one alright, last season a number of the players were quite vocal about how we needed to turn draws into wins, keep playing until the last second etc, and they were vocal about the fact that it's absolutely necessary if you want to challenge for the title. This season that seems to have disappeared.

 

It looks like we don't actually believe we can win it. Where the confidence has evaporated to I have no idea, but it does look very much like there are some 'issues' about the place.

 

I thought Villa got their tactics spot on - you could see Mascherano and Lucas looking to move the ball wide to the full backs who were so often not getting forward that they had to constantly turn back inside and we finished the game off just trying to thread magic passes through 6/7 packed defenders. But it's a worry if we've been sussed this early on the back of one game (Stoke), and I bet they can't believe they scored 3 with that performance! (I can't!)

[Hassony]

villa were lucky, they were gifted their goals and they could easily have conceded 4! We lost the game by playing poorly, it had nothing to do with the tactical genius O'neil

[matty]

  Stevie H said:

i'd be interested to hear how gerrard taking five and ten yard passes off our centrebacks just outside our area makes us a better team to be honest. or how it improves our goal threat.

 

Because he'd be 2000000 times better than what's there at the moment. It's not exactly difficult to comprehend is it?

[Chili Palmer]

  matty said:

Because he'd be 2000000 times better than what's there at the moment. It's not exactly difficult to comprehend is it?

 

 

but Voronin is 2000000 times worse than what was up front so the net result is zero.

[richwilks]

  Chili Palmer said:

but Voronin is 2000000 times worse than what was up front so the net result is zero.

 

 

Gerrard needs moving back there until Aquilani is fit but we need someone to come in and play up top with Torres, take some of the burden of him and stop this ludicrous situation where Gerrard drops too far away from him and Torres ends up being marked by 3 defenders.

 

If we can't afford anyone then I'd prefer to see Babel get a run of games up top with Torres than Voronin. Other than that get Riera back on the left, Benayoun on the right and put Kuyt up top.

[Chili Palmer]

  richwilks said:

Gerrard needs moving back there until Aquilani is fit but we need someone to come in and play up top with Torres, take some of the burden of him and stop this ludicrous situation where Gerrard drops too far away from him and Torres ends up being marked by 3 defenders.

 

If we can't afford anyone then I'd prefer to see Babel get a run of games up top with Torres than Voronin. Other than that get Riera back on the left, Benayoun on the right and put Kuyt up top.

 

I'd worry slightly about Johnson bombing forward and Yossi being drawn in (which he does) could leave that side wide open.