I wanted to start some discussion on why we are so poor at defending the set piece.
Has been a real weekends of this team for a few years now. This post might turn into a bit of a novel so bare with me. Gonna look at it two ways
[/b]personnel[b] - some of the blame has to go on the players who are defending the set piece, whether it's a corner or free kick I always find myself holding my breath. Agger and skrtel just seem to get lost and very inconsistent when it comes to this part of their game. Skrtel was decent at the start of the season where as agger has only just begun starting again. It just makes you wonder how hungry they are for the ball. You need ball winners, guys that are going to go up and win the ball in the air against the lukaku's of the world. I just don't see it with these two.
I thought BR did really well addressing this in the transfer window both sakho and toure look so much more comfortable in the air. But without them playing we've looked really vulnerable at the set piece. Both goals from set pieces could have been stopped had we been proactive and attacked the ball instead of sitting back and waiting for the offense to make a move. ( which we do a lot of in open play too ) I've played sport at high levels and the key to good defense is being able to anticipate and be hungry for the ball. Any loose ball has got to be yours, you've got to be able to read a pass . You also need to have good angles ( which agger any skrtel are poor at IMO)
Enrique is one of the worst set piece defenders I've ever seen. He just turns and looks at the ball and his direct opponent moves off him. It's ok if your going to make a play on the ball but he just turns into a statue. Coutinho and even Gerrard have been guilty of this lately. Waiting for the play to develop rather than making it happen.
Second problem I see is the system.
This one falls on BR or whoever looks after the plan at set pieces. But there is no way that Johnson should be matched up on lukaku at that corner , lukaku must have been licking his lips, perfect corner and agger/skrtel had no chance to get there before lukaku. Just a poor poor play. You could also put this on the players as someone should have realized the mismatch.
I thought we looked a lot more comfortable at the set piece when we were playing with 3 CB 's not a lot of teams have more than 2 aerial threats or targets for a corner and with the 3 cb s we can cover both and have that one guy sweeping and making a play on the ball without the pressure of looking after a player. This would be the perfect role for sakho , who looks to have real good anticipation and is just a monster.
It a Definetaly something that needs addressing and I hope were working on it all week ( when everyone isn't kicking the [oops] out of that Allen scum.)
Could go on all day about this but that ll do for now , sorry bout the novel but needed to vent. Been [oops] off since last night lol
That’s a good post Ozyred, I think Rodgers might well have a blind spot where defending is concerned. Why spend 18m on a defender (Sakho) and then not play him? If you’re conceding often from set pieces then as you say, we have both a personnel and a system failure, and on Saturday that failure was compounded by a collapse at midfield (bullied) which resulted in our defense being over-run repeatedly.
