Pep's a smart kid, I'm willing to give him a benefit of a doubt. With Barca he didn't need to adapt much since they were slaughtering everybody anyway. With Bayern he just went with what he knows best. Plus with Mandzukic leading the frontline its pretty hard to mix things up, he is very limited player. Lewandowski's arrival in the summer should be a massive signing that will allow them to play much more flexible football.
The Liverpool Thread
- Thread starter Steve*
- Start date
- Replies 44K
- Views 3M
Pep's a smart kid, I'm willing to give him a benefit of a doubt. With Barca he didn't need to adapt much since they were slaughtering everybody anyway. With Bayern he just went with what he knows best. Plus with Mandzukic leading the frontline its pretty hard to mix things up, he is very limited player. Lewandowski's arrival in the summer should be a massive signing that will allow them to play much more flexible football.
Pep is undoubtedly a smart kid, but he's a dogmatic smart kid. When Barca were at their peak he didn't need to do anything, but after that one remarkable season he had absolutely no idea what to do to halt the slide. ****, we even saw it yesterday. 3-0 down at HT, Pep takes off Mandzukic and... brings on another midfielder. That's CLASSIC Guardiola, and it did absolutely ******* nothing.
Rodgers has shades of that at times.
Surely the problem is that at Barca, he had Messi and Xavi to break even the most disciplined of defences. Messi is the best living footballer I have ever seen at playing in tight spaces, and Xavi didn't lead the assists in Spain season after season as he couldn't unlock a defence.
The problem with Pep at Barca was he overcomplicatd it, ended up actually stifling the team by playing more and more predictable defensive football. It's certainly football for pursists, but despite being a very strong advocate of possession football, I find his style boring to watch. Dropping Gerrard into a deep role between the CBs, and pushing the defensive line up and 'hoping his pure football will win the day' is indeed classic Guardiola. Ibra was bought for an alternative, and arguably the weekend is when a player like Carroll might have been useful for those knock-downs, to mix it up.
Seeing Arsenal play with Giroud this season, despite all the problems the side has had, has been a breath of fresh air as it's been the first time in many seasons we've had an aerial threat up front, a presence. Perhaps that pragmatism has to be tempered at some point, and despite Mourinho being a total ******* at times, more managers could do with looking at the weaknesses of the opposition and adapting to them, rather than sending out the same side every week with a somewhat idilic sense of 'the best footballing team will win'. Are you listening Arsene.
The problem with Pep at Barca was he overcomplicatd it, ended up actually stifling the team by playing more and more predictable defensive football. It's certainly football for pursists, but despite being a very strong advocate of possession football, I find his style boring to watch. Dropping Gerrard into a deep role between the CBs, and pushing the defensive line up and 'hoping his pure football will win the day' is indeed classic Guardiola. Ibra was bought for an alternative, and arguably the weekend is when a player like Carroll might have been useful for those knock-downs, to mix it up.
Seeing Arsenal play with Giroud this season, despite all the problems the side has had, has been a breath of fresh air as it's been the first time in many seasons we've had an aerial threat up front, a presence. Perhaps that pragmatism has to be tempered at some point, and despite Mourinho being a total ******* at times, more managers could do with looking at the weaknesses of the opposition and adapting to them, rather than sending out the same side every week with a somewhat idilic sense of 'the best footballing team will win'. Are you listening Arsene.
Not sure on that. Rodgers was more possession obsessed manager last year but this year he transformed Liverpool to play lightening quick counter attacking game with Suarez, Sterling and Sturridge.
I doubt his aim was to win at this point. The game was gone, they went to second half to try and avoid further humiliation and maybe score some consolation goal for the fans. So with that in mind, Pep's changes were fine. They slowed the tempo down, stayed on possession and were a lot more solid at the back. And Mandzukic was acting like monkey on cocaine, I figure Pep just took him off to avoid some sort of scandal.
Jose Mourinho's press conference was very telling. He basically said, if you have fast players then play lightning fast counter-attacking players. If you have intelligent players, play possession football. If you have limited players, play defensive football. Anyone who says Mourinho is 'anti-football' is rubbish. The fact is that this guy doesn't have a footballing philosophy. He is the ultimate pragmatist. Give him Messi, Xavi and Iniesta and he can play tiki-taka too
So why didn't he go back to slower, more methodical play when he realised Chelsea's deep block wasn't going to do anything other than sit there? He's either inflexible or a bit slow. I mean, the only tactical change he made made Liverpool NARROWER. That's not particularly encouraging.
The real litmus test will come next season, when everyone's figured out Liverpool are a lethal counterattacking side and just decide to set out in a deep block and let Liverpool try and counterattack that. Hull did it earlier this season, putting eight across the centre and letting Liverpool decide what to do, and Rodgers had no answer.
Mike and I were discussing this the other night. After Pizarro came on, he said that Pizarro would've been on after the second goal with Mourinho. I pointed out that it wouldn't even have to a second goal with Mourinho, and those are two reasons why Pep utterly mishandled the situation last night. If Pep was making changes to avoid total embarrassment then frankly he should be lambasted for not having the guts or the nous to make the changes BEFORE they were on the verge of total embarrassment. Maybe Mandzukic would've played better if Bayern had given him more than 17 touches despite having 70% possession.
He would do the same thing to Messi as I did on PES06, turn him into left back.
last week was so funny to see on motd
35-year old retired pensioner who's leaving at the end of season is hardly a game changing substitution. Mourinho keeps making striker excuses despite having a 100m woth of striker force, parks the bus vs Atletico side that was literally made out of cardboard and duct tape, and he gets away with it. But Guardiola's striker option actually *are* pretty ******* ****.
I remember that, the GIF doesn't tell the whole story. It was a clear foul and Suarez was visibly limping after the whole thing - he must have punched through the pain and went after the ball.
That is what I've been saying for years. In fact when I said they would sell Mata, it was for this very reason. He will do what it takes for his way to come out on top.
LFCMarshall
YNWA.
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2009
- Messages
- 14,836
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
Even then, i have my doubts
Getting hatred from rival fans? That's because Liverpool are relevant again, we're back and the others hate it.
Liverpool's unpopularity among rival fans proves that they are back - This Is Anfield
The Reds have been so poor in recent years that rival fans barely wasted their breath on them, but this superb season has
THISISANFIELD.COM|BY HENRY JACKSON
Liverpool's unpopularity among rival fans proves that they are back - This Is Anfield
The Reds have been so poor in recent years that rival fans barely wasted their breath on them, but this superb season has
THISISANFIELD.COM|BY HENRY JACKSON
My point is that he adapts his style according to the players he has. Other managers impose their style onto the players such as AVB or Guardiola even if it may come at the cost of them winning
...he clearly broke his leg... was out for 6 m̶o̶n̶t̶h̶s̶ seconds and recovered remarkably well...
And if he did that, it's because he felt it would give him a higher chance of winning. That's all he really cares about
I'd believe you if he hadn't of had massive budgets over the past 10 years.
Eh? I think my point was fairly clear. AVB came in and tried to get a poor squad playing tiki-taka, do you think Jose would have done the same with that squad? Nope