derry

Just keep bringing him back too early.

Lallana needs to play in a position he wants to play in and that suits him. He lacks the discipline to play in this team at the moment. Wide he doesn't create or score and doesn't support his full back by tracking back, the same in the hole. If he isn't delivering, clever play going round in circles, that doesn't create anything of value, is worthless. He has been told by one of the senior coaches to stop running around all over the pitch and pick out the space that creates and hurts the opposition.

Both Lallana at present and McGoldrick recently were picked wide but never played there. We never get to the byeline, get in early crosses, break quickly, create anything or score on the right side far post, also expose our right fullback and right side defence continuously. It's obvious, so why aren't the management doing something about it?

I know you weren't. This sums it up very nicely.

BWP has scored 3 goals from wide, and generally gives us width on that side. Because we have Lallana sucked in to the near post, we have no attacking threat on the far post when crosses come from the left Apart from Lloyd James we don't do crosses from the right. The problem is what to do until Holmes and Dyer come back.

Terry Paine, the best crosser with either foot we've ever had. A brilliant football brain and could dribble. Fernandez in comparison was an under 10 tyro standard who went round in circles, and almost never got to the byeline, always checking back.

It's an absolute waste of time picking Lallana wide, he just will not play there. He wanders everywhere but and destroys the shape, opening up our defensive right and neutering our right side attacking options. It is probably the main reason we can't win at home. McGoldrick was just the same when picked wide. I personally would not be sorry to see him leave. It wouldn't be quite so bad if he was performing and scoring goals.

I thought this thread was about postmatch comments. Not about sacking or bringing in players. David Armstrong was very critical today about our lack of width. Basically down to Lallana roaming all over the place. FFS all good sides have wide men hugging the touchline. Our attacking right side width, except for a supporting fullback is non existent. If Lallana does his own thing, then it destroys our ability to attack and spread the defence, the time has come to drop him. Along with McGoldrick and Robertson he has become a non scoring attacker, they are not even providing passes for goals. They don't get behind the defence, in fact they hardly ever trouble defences, especially at home because of this lack of width. The big problem for me is the management aren't even seeing it. The needs of the team are paramount not the self indulgence of showboating lightweight players. Maybe the time has come to play James wide right, Cork at right back until we get Holmes back. Burnley today in the first half showed us how to attack, they destroyed us with Eagles and Elliott wide, hugging the touchlines. They were getting behind us and putting crosses into pre assigned areas, being attacked by the other players. Not only did they score 3 goals, they hit the bar twice and caused us all sorts of problems. Somehow we have to pick players who will discipline themselves and play wide.

Surman even when not playing well, has always disciplined himself and played in his assigned position, whether LB, CM, WL, WR, support striker. He plays for the team and doesn't showboat. For his versatility alone, it would be sad if he leaves, however he is not irreplaceable. Lallana on the other hand is miles away from the finished article. He lacks a disciplined approach and never plays for more than a few minutes in his assigned role. McGoldrick is the same. They play like kids in the playground, obsessed with the ball. They between them have made us pretty impotent and lob sided by playing narrow down our right side. One or the other is never on the right far post.

It was just a bit on Solent, during sports headlines. Very brief, more or less as I said.

He did say that he now felt ready, after 100 games, that he was now ready to make the step up to Premier football. He felt that some players moved too early and ended up in the reserves. It sounded to me that he was not ruling out a move sooner rather than later.

What utter garbage, we have played 24 games this season, McGoldrick has started 23 of them and came on as substitute in the other one. People who make stupid comments on this forum totally devoid of facts are the joke.

Surman doesn't run games in the championship. He is an adequate player that I would like to stay but certainly replaceable. Lallana is an enigma, looks great sometimes with shimmies, flicks, feet changes, but really no end result. He mainly plays in positions of his own choosing, not his assigned position, doesn't hurt the opponents and is blocked off too easily because of his headless chicken, all action, positional play and is too easily sucked in ball watching. One of the senior coaches has told him to stop running about all over the place and try and pick out dangerous positions, where he can hurt the opposition. He obviously isn't listening.

It wasn't his job to hold the ball up, it was Robertson allegedly playing up front, he was either not playing as the support striker or not playing wide. Lallana was not playing those positions either. Both of them were self indulgent, headless chickens, dribbleing in circles and going nowhere. Neither of them played in their assigned positions, neither gave us width, got into dangerous attacking positions and followed the ball around like playground football. Our lack of a player wide, apart from James doing his best to fill two positions, was a disgrace and down in no small part to those two.

It's what he said, I heard the interview. If he goes to a premier club he will play a lot of reserve football. In any event if Surman or Lallana are sold for decent fees it would suit me fine. Surman better than Lallana, but neither are delivering.

Dyer, Thompson, Lallana, McGoldrick, James, Robertson, Surman, BWP, it doesn't matter they have to play wide. When was the last time Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Inter, AC Milan etc ever play without attacking players wide on the touchline? NEVER! So why do we think we can do it better than them, and play a revolutionary narrow formation?

We have hardly ever done it. Most forwards are a liability defending and don't mark anyway. I would like to see us leave 3 up, that would need a min of 4 to defend, probably 2 further would fill in outside, the box then add the corner taker. That would leave only 3 or 4 to mark for the cross, that would stop a lot of our problems. Also allow the goalkeeper room to manoeuver However the coach would need to have some balls to do it.

If that is the case, there is no way he could play at 100%. I somehow can't see either club allowing that, as a severe blow on already fractured ribs could kill him.

Lallana and McGoldrick need a bloody good talking to. Their roaming all over the pitch, like playground football, chasing the ball, is destroying our ability to score goals. They either have to play in the manner their designated position requires, whilst being self disciplined enough to get into dangerous positions or leave them out.

Robertson or Pekart?

Cross purposes here, I'm saying it doesn't matter about the so called system, 442, 433, 4d2h2w1h1f, 532, whatever, the same basic rules apply, the time to attack with pace is immediately on winning the ball, we don't do this, as we can't do this, because of the way individuals are not using width. The opposing defence is allowed to play close together. We have to open up the defence.

The designated wide men do not quickly get wide when we win the ball. They stay narrow, the left side is a little better than the right. Either McGoldrick or Lallana don't have the self discipline to do this, as they prefer the mid positions and don't bother going wide, staying narrow. This means our wide play needs the full backs to get forward wide. That takes too much time. As the players on the ball have to wait for the wide options to appear eventually, the ball is passed sideways and backwards allowing opposing players to get goalside en masse. That then means we have nowhere to go and really are not going to get into dangerous positions. The two wide men have to be on the touchline available to receive the ball and drive for the byeline supported quickly by the nearest players. In the meantime the other wide man is making a run for the corner of the penalty area, covering anything coming onto the far post, getting behind the last defender, who is likely to be pulled in, to cover the centre backs exposed by the quick break. So now we have two problems both McGoldrick and Lallana allow themselves to be sucked in to the near post area consequently the right side is empty and we are not getting past the defenders. The players who win the ball have to break quickly towards one side or the other, the wide men have to drive forward, the outnumbered defence has to be pulled across to cope, the other players breaking go for the box and the far post. The time to pass the ball around, is if there is rapid lateral interchanging movement from the front players, pulling defenders around and creating space to allow a quick break. We tend to move up the pitch in straight lines, the frontman static and marked and the others passing the ball around and nobody going anywhere except into a massed defence.

FFS it's not the bloody system, numbers mean nothing. It's the way the players are not driving forward as soon as they get the ball, together with no wide outlets, available immediately to receive the ball and drive for the byeline. Then supported by other players, busting a gut to get into the box.

The big problem is that we have four players holding the ball, whilst running in circles and except for BWP, nobody scoring, or even getting into a good position to score. We should let Robertson go back, we need a right sided wide player badly.

He has ability on the ball, but he doesn't have the self discipline that is needed to keep his position and get into dangerous areas, by gambling on runs into the box on the offchance, if playing in the hole/up front, or staying wide and attacking the far post if playing wide. We are not playing anything like total football, as the empty spaces would be taken up by someone getting into them.