KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum Why cant Liverpool play good football

The point being, Reclaim, that even when Benitez was at his worst he scored more points in 6 games that Roy could in 8. And it was with Houllier's squad!

Never worse than 9th is the lesson here. Roy is not the right man for the job.

I do not necessarily think Roy is the man for this job, but I also think some people are going well over the top with their comments about him.
I agree with Emp that he is limited in style of play by the players around him, I actually thought Roy had Fulham playing some very nice football when he had Bullard and Spud playing in the middle for him, 2 clever players who could get on the ball with a bit of confidence as well as put in an honest shift, we have not had those players to use for a long time (Alonso was good enough to cope being the only ball player in the midfield). I just hope that with a few more games under their belt Shelvey and Meireles will take on those roles and get us playing some football.
For the big games though, I would still drop Gerrard in there to use his power where it's most needed and let Cole take the role off Torres (although he needs selling if he doesn't take his head out of his hole).

just shows you roy is the journalists (old) boy

Liverpool played some great attacking football under Benitez at times Growler. His valencia side played some of the best attacking football in the world at the time and he is playing nice attacking football with Inter. Hodgson is a step down from the last couple of managers, he doesn't know how to put a top team together. I thought we would have performed better as an interim manager but he hasn't. He said judge me after 10 games, what's the verdict then? For me, not good enough.

Even if we win tomorrow he should get the boot. He just isn't the right guy for the job. There's more than just the football and the transfer window to managing a top club like Liverpool. There's also the academy and the press, and he's handled those two aspects well, hasn't he?

The longer he's in the job the more things I find to criticize about him; everything that he could get wrong he has. Maybe if we were in the top 4 right now given the start we had all these off-the-pitch failings would be easily ignorable, but we're so far from even the lowly expectations HE SET that he simply must go. But relegation zone or not, his mind is too set in ways that are contrary to everything LFC stands for.

He did a few things okay by me in the beginning, but since then he's just not been good enough in ANY aspect of his position. FAIL.

We're the same on the other flank. Johnson comes forward and the right mid goes....goes...nowhere? Covers the hole behind him? I can't remember the last time I saw the wide midfielder and the wingback both on the edge of the opposition 18' yard box. I think it's the main reason Maxi suddenly started to look so bad - I really don't remember him being this poor last season.

It suggests to me that we're so focussed on covering ourselves should we lose the ball going forward, that we either don't get forward or we lose the ball anyway because everyone is so nervous about losing the ball! Wrong tactics and lack of confidence - vicious cycle waiting to happen.

I thought maxi was doing alright last season. Also don't think it would of mattered either if we have another striker upfront. We play slow progressive football and don't press high enough up the pitch

I watched Arsenal play last night and tried to understand what made their football so effective. Most teams know that they will dominate possession (a bit like us in most games, even in the Ged and Rafa era) but we always seem to be ineffective in the final third.

The key was that they know when to pass the ball to the feet and when to play the ball for the player to run onto. The players instinctively know the ANGLE of the run and the SPACE to run into. the passer knows the WEIGHT of the pass and the PLAYER to pass to.

They play the basics very well, good control and first touch and pass to the open man. When a pass is made, they make a diagonal run to the player with the ball and give that player an option to play the ball back. When the situation demands that more than one player gets stuck in to win the ball, more players come to help and stand around the "area" just in case they win the ball or the opposition wins the ball by then a third or fourth player gets stuck to win in.

The team is tight going forward, Wing backs become wingers and wingers become "edge of the box" strikers. DMs and CMs hover around the penalty area looking for a run into the box of waiting for a clearance.

That's how the game should be played. I watched a programme an it showed arsenals training. They where having an 11 v 11 in one half of the pitch, where it was so tight that they had no options to make a forward run at different angles to get the ball. It's a bit like the old days at Liverpool where they'd have constant 5 a sides. It helps with your movement off the ball. We just don't seem to have any in the final 3rd. Look at when we finished 2nd. The final 10 games we ripped teams apart, I'm not saying it was down to the training but when you let footballers off the leash, especially the one we've got where going to rip teams apart.

Everything comes down to training. When I know what kind of runs you're always looking for, and when you know what kind of passes I'm either looking to make or am capable of making a high percentage of the time, then our understanding is generally going to be so good that teams can't close us down ever. Between the signing of Torres and Alonso leaving, LFC had a very stable front line, so all those players were switched onto the same wavelength. That kind of setup takes years to produce, and is incredibly effective, but look what happens when even one cog is missing. Suddenly you're looking at other players to make those passes, but they're either incapable or not even aware of what you're doing.

It works so well at Arsenal because they have the structures to take these players from when they're 16 through to the first team, and to slot in with players who are already aware of the master plan. LFC is starting to produce first-team candidates from the academy, but I somehow feel our integration is rather more haphazard, and therefore won't bear the same fruit.