Soccer

So, I finally watched the tape of it. I'll stick to my conclusion that if Torres had been on, we'd have got something from the game with the vastly improved pressure in the second half. He's better at taking chances and is a far bigger worry to the opposition and that opens space for others.

I firmly believe that you can't always blame a manage if the players aren't producing. Yes, I understand that the manager is there to motivate them. And, if that is the case, why was Roy Hodgson hired?? Does anyone think he will motivate anyone?

Okay, I don't want to jump too hard on Roy's head, but there was some real strange shit going on in that game:

Meireles out right.
Dirk almost central
Cole too far back and more central/left
An inferior central mid [Poulsen] there instead of Meireles.
Carragher at Left Back.....sure there may have been little choice here.

Now I understand that losing Torres after hardly anytime threw a wrench in the works, but he was replace like for like.....well, not really but you know what I mean.

So of the above. It's not hard to understand why things went all wrong and really this all comes down to Roy's set up [not removing the fact that players have to bust their arses]

1 - Meireles is clearly way better than Poulsen as a CM, even Lucas is better. So why put Meireles RM, a spot he's hardly ever played. We took one of stronger players and made him ineffective.

2 - It's almost like Dirk was playing the Cole role and Cole was stuck further back on the left. Now, I love Dirk, but he's not as good as Cole in that roll so why put him there? Dirk's best games in a Reds shirt have always been RM [not saying there aren't better out there] so why play him central and even left forward and play Cole out of position.

3 - See above.

4 - See 1 above.

5 - I love Jamie too, but he's rapidly getting near the end of the road and the much maligned Insua would have been better here....but where is he?!?!

So, Roy minimized 3 of our better players and they all became much more effective when Poulsen went off and they reverted to thei normal positions.

Now for Ngog - I don't dislike this kid and he's young [that said a real star is going to look like a real star by 21.5 years of age and he doesn't] and would be fine as a fourth choice until he shows more. Of course, playing in a team firing on all cylinders would help him a lot. There is one glaring thing with him though as a striker, is that he takes up poor positions. Top strikers seem to know where to go. When to burst forward, when to drop off. He doesn't.

One glaring thing this season, is that the other teams close us down quick [which obviously you expect them too] but we give the opposition so much time.....until that changes, nothing will get better.