Midfield_General

Good on you for arguing and expanding on your points in a polite and civil way. You're right that these things can be discussed without it degenerating into abuse, so thanks for not calling anyone a sad fuck this time. However, this And this do seem to be rather contradictory points. And a 'dog whistle' is defined as 'a subtly aimed political message which is intended for, and can only be understood by, a particular demographic group', so I'm not entirely sure what that's got to do with anything, unless you consider the topic of whether Ryan Manning should practice spot-kicks to be a particularly inflammatory potential vote-swinger in the upcoming election. Anyway, I think I'm still with the German national team on this one.

'If you practice things, you get better at them' Is that really being argued against?

Agree with the others but not sure Lallana fits on that list. When he was fit he was a regular in the Liverpool squad that came runner-up in the Europa League and Champion's League, and won the Premier League, Club World Cup and Champion's League.

Very surprised that the COT have been beaten to the punch on this one. Come on lads, up your game.

Fair play to him. He was challenged to show he had a Plan B, he found one, and it worked. Now let's cut out the silly defensive mistakes and do it next Sunday when it really counts.

Couldn't agree more

What do you mean?

Aaaah I see

He can’t have been watching very closely then because we did! It was 6-1. Tessem scored for us. Both sides rested players but their reserves were unsurprisingly a bit stronger than ours and we were 5 down after 26 minutes. Strachan took Fabrice Fernandes off in disgust after 27 minutes and subsequently dropped him for the Cup Final. Jermaine Pennant scored a first half hat-trick. I was behind Jones’s goal at Highbury for that one. As the goals flew in he was getting some stick from Saints fans behind him, and he turned round, looked them dead in the eye and said straight to them ‘They are quite good actually’, which made me smile at the time.

Yeah I'm the same. The 'first team' (if such a thing exists anymore) haven't exactly covered themselves in glory losing the last three on the bounce, so that alone makes it perfectly natural for that to open the door for some of them to be dropped, and for other players to be given the chance to step in and impress. Turn it into a positive - give some of the youngsters a start, and tell them that it's not because the others are being rested, but because this is their chance to work their socks off and play their way into the team for the play-offs, some of the highest-profile games you can get. Give them the chance to give the manager a selection headache for the semis.

Well that didn't last long 1-2 Ipswich

1-1 Keeper will be disappointed with that

What do we want tonight then - who fancies Leeds coming into the playoffs with us (i.e. almost certainly what would happen if Ipswich win tonight), and who'd prefer that there was still a chance that Ipswich end up in the playoffs? (i.e. would prefer them to lose tonight)

Isn't the point though that we shouldn't have to overcome a goals against tally like the one we have? That goals against tally shouldn't be how it is, making it such an uphill struggle all the time, that's the point. All successful teams are built on having a solid defence and not conceding many goals. You have to get that right so that it opens up the possibility of still winning games 1-0 on days when you're under the cosh or the chances aren't going in. Being hard to beat and being able to grind out results when you need to, is built on being hard to score against. Going into matches or second halves thinking that you need to score at least 2 or 3 because you're incapable of keeping goals out at the other end just isn't a credible approach for a team with any ambition, and will never deliver proper success, ever. Also, when the opposition know that that's the case, it gives them the incentive and motivation to keep going even when they go behind, as we've seen time and time again. They know that they just need to keep plugging away and it will probably pay off, rather than thinking 'oh well that's that then' when we score against them, and their heads going down, like they would against a team who they know can defend. And as others have mentioned, with the apparent pedigree of the core of defensive players we've got at our disposal, we simply shouldn't be leaking goals at the rate we do. More than half the other teams in the division, all the way down to Stoke in 18th, have conceded fewer than we have, generally with apparently inferior players (goalkeeper not withstanding). That is simply not a foundation on which you can deliver success.

Look at that pattern of play for our equaliser. 89th minute, facing two banks of four sitting deep. We play out from the back. Receive the ball, turn and play it forward. Receive the ball, turn, look up, play it forward. Receive the ball, lay it off, drive into the box. Get a lucky ricochet, turn and bang one from 16 yards out. Goal. It's not route one hoofball, it's still playing football, but it's front to back in 10 seconds and so much more direct and effective. I know it's been done to death, but we simply don't score that goal under this manager. When the ball came into midfield we'd stop, look up, play it wide, stop look up, play it back, ad nauseum until they re-set, we lose the ball or the final whistle goes. Football can be such a simple game. Driving at people can cause them to make errors like that little touch in the penalty area that brought it to Rasiak for that great finish. We never seem to just try those simple things anymore and it's so, so frustrating.