10 Games In - Your Verdict

[StriderHiryu]

10 games into the season is usually a good time to asses how the team is doing and usually is quite representative of where a team will finish come May.

 

I can probably tell how this thread will go, but regardless of the result today, it's still worth doing.

 

The Good

- In general scoring lots of goals.

- Patson Daka looks like a phenomenal signing.

- Soumare looks like a good addition.

- Lookman looks like a good addtion.

- Much better squad depth than last season on paper.

- Still in all of the cups.

- Great home win against Man U.

- Shown great team spirit in several games, e.g. Spartak away and Man U at home.

- Won a trophy already this season.

 

The Bad

- Awful defence. Conceding on average 2 goals a game in the last 7 matches.

- Vestergaard and Bertrand look like busts from what we've seen so far.

- Too many slow starts in many games.

- No real improvements in key games we lost last season, specifically West Ham away and Arsenal at home.

 

Overall Grade

C+. Things could definitely be worse, but it's a very disappointing start given we won the Shield and looked fantastic against Villareal until Fofana got injured.

 

How do you think we've been so far?

[Ric Flair]

If you take away the fact that Man Utd allowed us to play without any pressing and that to date we've not a single good performance vs a team that do press us and its very perturbed. Defensively we are a disgrace and there's now more questions than answers again as the 3-4-1-2 looks every bit as dubious as 4-2-3-1.

 

Let's see if we can get Ndidi back doing what he does best at the base of the midfield and helping Evans and the put of sorts Soyuncu. Can we still play 2 up top and wingers as well? Maybe with Ndidi but I think Rodgers will drop Iheanacho again and then it will be back to Daka barely getting any minutes as he seldom brings 2 strikers on a game.

[Mike Oxlong]

More clean sheets please 

[shailen]

It's been average. Some good attacking play, Daka, Vardy and Nacho showing their quality. 

 

I think what we've shown more than anything is how reliant we are on Tielemans. We only play well when he does. Need to find other avenues and ways to win football matches. 

[davieG]

I think you’ve got it about right. Ido wonder if there’s a bit of complacency present because it seems to take conceding or an incident to get this team going so maybe the 2 cups has made them soft or unaware that we are now a great scalp for teams to get. If we want to be a top team then we need to start playing as if we want to.

[Silver surfer 1]

C+ for me .  Shows how brittle Brendans plan was without Wes . Other injuries not long term enough to tell .

[lee7]

We look dangerous going forwards but absolutely abysmal at the back. 

Evans has tightened things up a bit since his return but losibg little Wes is a huge miss. 

It seems we have no real quality cover at CB when we lose either of the two mentioned above.

 

As soon as the likes of Ndidi, Justin and Fofana return we should be able to kick on

Edited 30 October 2021 by lee7

[dannythefox]

We’re about where we should be but the good thing is we’re still not far away from 4th/5th it will be nice when Justin is back it give us so many options having him in the team. Let’s see where we are after Xmas. 

[Matt]

[StriderHiryu]

1 minute ago, Matt said:

Nah go for it! We need the full spectrum of views.

 

For example Man U and Spurs have been universally derided as being awful and yet both are above us in the table. -2 goal difference after 10 games is also appalling.

[Stevosevic]

WTF is happening with our defending. Way too many goals shipped and it's making it hard work to win a game. 

 

That's my main take. 

[StanSP]

Could do a lot better. 

 

Some players aren't consistent enough. Some experienced players need to pull their finger out. 

The team in general are not consistent enough in results either. I can fully trust Rodgers to find that consistency and inspiration for the players to improve considerably. 

 

The good thing is that we can score and do so regularly (barring today). I have a lot of hope in Daka to keep playing and in doing so, finding the net and keeping his confidence. 

 

The defence is just all over the place. Whether it's individuals underperforming or lack of organisation, lack of discipline and concentration it's just not good enough. 

 

We have better squad depth this season to manage the extra games. We will continue to utilise that and hopefully keep players fresh but when those players come in, their performances have to be better. 

The last couple of weeks signify an improvement so I don't think it's panic stations just yet. And shouldn't be for a while. The confidence in some of the players still needs to be found but I think they're still suffering from the slow and poor start. 

 

Going back to basics worked before the Utd game. I think that indicates what we need to do for future and maintain getting that right first before getting creative. 

[StriderHiryu]

Regarding defending the crazy thing is that it's often individual errors. Goal off a corner today, and then a misplaced pass from Vardy to Maddison and another one conceded today. Soyuncu giving the ball away against Spartak, Amartey against Legia. Set pieces in both Brighton games, etc.

 

Often times it's people switching off at the most inopportune times.

[kingfox]

We’ve very much gone backwards, recent wins have just papered over the cracks in all fairness, Man Utd was the only match where we’ve actually played well. The performances against Spartak, Brentford & Brighton were all crap, we were fortunate to win all three.

 

What’s annoyed me the most is the lack of intensity, we let too many sides walk all over us, then when we decide to wake up, it’s quite often too late.

 

The defensive combinations is what is costing us, they never play well at the same time, for example Amartey will play well in a game, Ricardo will play crap. Castagne will play well in a game, Soyuncu will play crap. Every single game one or two defenders end up being a liability, as I said a few weeks ago, these are international quality defenders, who currently aren’t playing like international quality defenders. Evans has done well since returning, but I’m still very much concerned about Soyuncu’s form in particular, he never looks comfortable playing as LCB, especially in a three.

 

There’s many teams around us, that we’ve been much better than in the past two season’s, this season however we look on par or worse.

[StanSP]

Just now, StriderHiryu said:

Regarding defending the crazy thing is that it's often individual errors. Goal off a corner today, and then a misplaced pass from Vardy to Maddison and another one conceded today. Soyuncu giving the ball away against Spartak, Amartey against Legia. Set pieces in both Brighton games, etc.

 

Often times it's people switching off at the most inopportune times.

This is the frustrating thing for me because at times last season and in the past few seasons we were considered defensively solid and reliable. 

It's quite a stark contrast to what we see now. 

 

Really hope that when Fofana comes back (albeit not rushed) he settles in quickly because he gave us an air of solidity and confidence most of the time. 

 

Amartey has done well to fill in but he's not good enough to consistently be a first team regular. Evans and Soyuncu are a good partnership but the latter's clumsiness and erratic nature has crept back in. Get Soyuncu's confidence back up to scratch and it solves a lot of problems. The less said about Vestergaard the better but if he comes in and plays well then I'm all for it. 

[adejo92]

An incompetent defence is costing us too much.

 

Evans is great, but there's only so much he can do to keep Thomas, Armatey & Soyunchu In order. Neither three of those mentioned are THAT bad, but all three on the pitch together is too much strain.

 

Our defence will really let us down this season.

[Cadno'r Cymoedd]

43 minutes ago, StriderHiryu said:

10 games into the season is usually a good time to asses how the team is doing and usually is quite representative of where a team will finish come May.

 

I can probably tell how this thread will go, but regardless of the result today, it's still worth doing.

 

The Good

- In general scoring lots of goals.

- Patson Daka looks like a phenomenal signing.

- Soumare looks like a good addition.

- Lookman looks like a good addtion.

- Much better squad depth than last season on paper.

- Still in all of the cups.

- Great home win against Man U.

- Shown great team spirit in several games, e.g. Spartak away and Man U at home.

- Won a trophy already this season.

 

The Bad

- Awful defence. Conceding on average 2 goals a game in the last 7 matches.

- Vestergaard and Bertrand look like busts from what we've seen so far.

- Too many slow starts in many games.

- No real improvements in key games we lost last season, specifically West Ham away and Arsenal at home.

 

Overall Grade

C+. Things could definitely be worse, but it's a very disappointing start given we won the Shield and looked fantastic against Villareal until Fofana got injured.

 

How do you think we've been so far?

Pretty spot on assessment.

 

The inconsistency even within matches is maddening in many aspects. I am not really clear what type of game we are trying to play. I appreciate that is governed to a big extent by players availability. But I can't see any discernible pattern. 

 

We only beat Manchester United because they were clueless tactically. 

 

Still lack an outfield leader in my opinion. 

[urban.spaceman]

 

[Sly]

So far I’d rate us as a 5/10

 

4th worst defence in the league, although xA has us in at 11th, so we’re doing worse than we should be. 
 

6th best goals for and xG actually has us at 8th. 
 

Saying that, park the stats for a minute, the defence is disgustingly bad and we’re patchy in the respect we are capable of increasing the tempo and playing better. 
 

We’ve proved to be criminally our own worst enemy at times and like today, I get we were comfortably the better team after the first 30 minutes. 
 

We’re in desperate need of some defensive shape and big improvements are needed from set pieces, attacking and defensively. 
 

I still think the squad is still unbalanced somewhat and Brendan doesn’t know his best team, even when everyone is fully fit (which will never happen). 

 

 

Edited 30 October 2021 by Sly

[Guest ttfn]

First 10 league games of this season have been a continuation of the last 15 from last season.

 

We’ve been in mid-table form for about 2/3 of a regular season now: we’re a mid-table side playing mid-table football. There are extenuating circumstances of course, injuries have been a killer but with the players and squad we probably ought to be doing a bit better.

 

It might sound daft but today did seem like a bit of a season-defining game - are we serious about competing for the top 4 this season again or not? Last week’s results gave us a chance not to lose touch with the top 4, and having knocked together 4 wins on the bounce (3 of which we played poorly in) perhaps that would provide some confidence that would lead to a better performance. Instead the first 20 minutes today were absolutely horrible, unspeakably poor given the circumstances.

 

Plenty of time to turn it around but it really does seem like we’re on a long-term trend to being a mid-table side.

[Haywood_6]

10 games played and 1 clean sheet.

 

That tells you everything. The last three seasons we've had at least 10 clean sheets or more a season. We'll be lucky to get that this year.

 

It's like having a decent fridge in your kitchen. Generally reliable, big, solid, calm, cool. To having a knackered one, cracks appearing, it's leaking and smelling bad.

[Quorn_fox]

There’s very little difference in quality between the teams in 5th and 15th this season, we are where we should be considering how we’ve played.

 

Defensively we’ve been dreadful, individually, collectively, in open play and at set pieces. Vestergaard and Soyuncu have been incredibly poor and the full backs/wing backs (Ricardo aside) have offered nothing going forward. Our pressing (Man Utd and Brighton in the cup aside) has been atrocious. 
 

Attacking wise we’ve perked up in the last few weeks and that’s given some grounds for optimism. Getting Youri further forward has been key to this but we could really do with the wing backs (if we do stick to a five) taking a chance now and again. 
 

With Vardy, Daka and Iheanacho up front I’m not worried about us taking chances, but when you need to score two every game to have a chance of winning it you know where the problem lies. 
 

Focus has to be on the defensive shape which has been woeful for a long time. 
 

 

Edited 30 October 2021 by Quorn_fox

[EnderbyFox]

 

[jmono84]

Really bad defensively as a team epitomised by today’s performance. BR needs to be more flexible with the squad/selections and not just stick to a formation because it won last game.

 

Also Nacho needs to be our main man especially if we go back to playing one man up front.

 

Were still way off the pace performance wise but not far off the top 6.

 

Things could be better but it could be a hell of a lot worse is my take on the season so far.

[Sol thewall Bamba]

Feel we've been found out a bit but here we are.