Useful Idiot

Unfortunate that Pep finally decided to field his best XI in a 4-2-3-1. Wish he'd served up the team that Monaco thrashed in that unbalanced 4-1-2-3 he kept trying to get to work instead. Kompany and Otamendi with Toure and Fernandinho in front are a difficult nut to crack. If all for had played the majority of games for them this season then they'd be up with Chelsea on points.

I think it's because some posters prefer to watch technical play while others prefer direct football. I think we play some great stuff under Puel, as good as we did with Poch as our coach. We seem to have a style of play we want to keep to again. We really didn't have one under Koeman, who was probably the best tactician of the three but also the most pragmatic and concerned with results over style of play.

He's not terrible in the air, but he was comfortably the 3rd best defender in our squad in that respect before Font left and Van Dijk was injured. Compared with Van Dijk, who is absolutely outstanding in the air, he is a big step down. Ake wins about 1.9 aerial duels per game, a similar number to Stephens. Van Dijk is the best defender in the league with 4.7, while Yoshida manages a respectable 3.9. Point being Ake is a huge step down from Van Dijk in aerial prowess, and relying on one CB who is decent (not great) in the air is a big gamble, especially as the rest of the team aren't exactly giants. To be frank, Liverpool aren't exactly renowned for playing with a big, powerful forward and Yoshida is alright when not up against a devastating aerial threat. He was also respectable against Ibrahimovic in the cup final, but also gave away a lot of fouls because he couldn't fairly match him in the air and Ibrahimovic was clever enough to go down under contact. It is not impossible to be good in the air when not being the tallest, Ferdinand or Shearer were both very good (they were clever enough to get a run at defenders), but were both outscored by Peter Crouch in that department. Who would have thought a 6'6" forward would score more headed goals than a 5'11" or a 6" player? Anyway, a better comparison would be Cannavaro, Mascherano or Moore who are/were all excellent defenders without being aerially dominant, although they all had a powerhouse defender alongside them to make sure they weren't outclassed in that department (Nesta, Pique, Charlton).

This could be great! Stephens: 6'1". Decent on the deck, poor in the air. Yoshida: 6' 2". Good on the deck, not great in the air. Ake: 5'11. Think I'm noticing a pattern here... Oh yeah, as a bonus if he stays: Caceres: 6' Not seen him play yet but can't see him really competing in the air against a 6'3"+ striker such as Benteke, Zlatan, Lukaku or Carroll. I can imagine playing against anyone with a decent target man will be great next season with these as our probable CB options.

To be honest, I think it works better the way they had it working in the France vs Spain game, referrals only after the ball is in the back of the net and on the ref's call, no reviews by managers. I assume he would also call for penalty reviews if he were not 100% sure of the decision. If there is no break in play then no replay reviews are used.

Don't know if anyone else watched the France vs Spain game, but the video referee stopped a goal being incorrectly awarded to France and reinstated one incorrectly ruled out for Spain. As I had imagined, it broke the flow of the game for about 30 seconds during each incident, but the correct result was obtained and it built up a sense of anticipation over ref's final decision. Overall, I think this would be really good for football.

His performances this year have been a long way below par. To me, he generally seems to be moving stiffly and seems incredibly uncomfortable when kicking. Is he carrying an injury that is impacting his performances but we're having to play him because of lack of competition in goal?

Well, according to Quantum Multiverse Theory there will be multiple realities created for each and every action that occurs during the game tomorrow and in an incalculable number of the universes created by those bifurcations we will win. Hopefully the reality that our consciousnesses share tomorrow is one of them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Many-worlds_interpretation

Sorry, that should read Gabbiadini from the right, not left. Had a brain fart.

As Puel's had a couple of weeks to work on the team I wouldn't be surprised if he reverts to a diamond, especially due to his comments about how he wants to play Tadic centrally and our lack of a strong DM presence alongside Romeu. I'd be half inclined to play PEH to get anoter tall player into the squad, but considering how bad he's been at marking from set pieces he's probably not much of an improvement on JWP in that respect. I think Puel might well go for this, especially as Gabbiadini is supposed to be excellent at cutting in from the left: ---------------------Forster-------------------- Cedric------Stephens------Yoshida------Bertrand ---------------------Romeu--------------------- ----Ward-Prowse----------------Davis---------- ---------------------Tadic---------------------- -----Gabbiadini-----------------Redmond--------

Did you actually watch the game yesterday? Tadic played as a 10 with the option of drifting out to either wing, Ward-Prowse and Redmond started wide then drifted into the 10 spot when Tatic drifted out of a central role. We tucked into a 4-4-1-1 to defend. To me it looked much more effective than the 4-3-3 than we've been stuck in for ages.

I agree. He simply hasn't done his job this year at all. Absolute shambles.

Unless we change from this 4-3-3 that we seem set on starting with every week and move to a formation with more creativity in the middle of the pitch we will struggle to create chances and break down teams that are set up to defend. We offer very little support to whichever forward we leave isolated up top with the current formation. We need Boufal central to create chances and hopefully get a few free kicks when he inevitably gets fouled. He's wasted playing wide.

Our central midfield offers absolutely nothing going forwards. Long works hard but can't hold up the ball or bring other players into the game. Redmond and Tadic have lacked supply and when they do get it they're grnerally forced back away from goal. Overall, we deserve to lose against a physical side who defend deep and look to score from set pieces and counters, again. I like Puel, but his 4-3-3 tactics simply don't work against this sort of team. We have no creativity through the middle of the park at all and just end up cycling possession from side to side until we cross for either Long, Redmond, Davis or Clasie to try to score against a tall, set defense. Overall, I think the game could last for a week and we'd still not score.

Palace, Burnley, Leicester 9 Watford 8 Boro 7 (+Ramirez 1196 mins) Surely they should be above us as well?

Probably has more to do with him having to complete fewer high intensity sprints per match as a CDM than a wide player/full back/striker/shuttling CM has to.

Exciting attacking football under Koeman? Are you serious? Lump it up to Pelle and hope it sticks or spam crosses until someone hetas their head on it. Really exciting. Our best football under Koeman was due to individual brilliance from Tadic (who has been injured for a large chunk of this year) or Mane (who, in case you hadn't noticed isn't here this year). Leicester havn't exactly been great in the league this year either, so I really don't see what your point is there, either. We really lack pace and power up top this year, which is hurting our ability to counter attack. Leicester have plenty of both. Redmond and Boufal are skillful players, but neither has Vardy or Musa's pace. Long is probably our only really quick attacking player and he can't control a football, pass or score at the moment. I think Jay is probably our best option up top in all honesty, but he really needs a goal to get his confidence up. Hope he finds the back of the net soon. We really miss Pelle and Mane and havn't directly replace what they gave us, physical power and blistering pace.

Only we didn't play a 4-2-3-1 under Koeman, we played a 4-3-3 with two defensive midfielders and a CM. There was a bit of rotation among the centre three and the two wide players dropped into the AM position when the fullbacks overlapped. We never played with a central AM, though; the closest thing was Davis as a sort of forward thinking CM. The last time we played a proper 4-2-3-1 was under Poch. Puel's used it before but seems set on a Mourinho-esque 4-3-3 with a narrow front three and no target man, which I think we need if we're going to achieve much of anything in this system unless we get someone like Aguero or Suarez, which we're really not going to.

Terrible officiating. Long is also the most frustrating footballer in the world. World class off the ball, League One on it.

I used to get a bit fed up with his posts, but now I just laugh at him. He tries to get under people's skin so just don't let him, every time you do he's won. He's obviously dealing with some psychological issues and likes to use this website as a place to enable them, so don't let him get reinforcement for his behaviour or he'll never recover.

We're moving the ball far too slowly through midfield for the way this system is supposed to work, not enough one-twos or movement off the ball. They're packing the midfield in front of their back five and we're never going to score with a header from open play against their centre backs. We either need to push runners through the middle or hope this awful ref actually gives us a free kick or two. He seems content to let their back three pull shirts and kick strips off of Long and Redmond all game without doing anything about it at all. Still, it's not exactly unusual for us to be crap during the first game of the season. Hope for better next week.

I wish I was a prestigious a poster as that fine gentleman. I'm actually a long-time lurker who has only just managed to get a university email account so I could join, before that I only had hotmail and wasn't able to sign up. I've always thought you've sounded like a lovely chap though mate. Nice to get a kind comment from you.

Why do people bother responding to SFt3 and Glasgow? They're both obvious trolls on here for the windup. Just stop feeding them and they'll eventually get bored.

As they managed 9 between them last season, with JWP & Romeu only playing about half the season each, I'd be disappointed if they didn't.