Tactics Under Maresca

[Claudio Fannieri]

9 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

Mavididi may well play as a striker, will be interesting to see what our XI is once the transfer window has shut.

 

I think we believe we'll get Casadei and Palmer, which would be unreal if we did.

Agree I wouldn’t be surprised if we have 4 or 5 loans lined up/agreed in principle once the majority of pre-season prep and final assessment has been completed and the clubs have made the decision that the players need to go out on loan. I really do think this week we will see a flurry of activity and the squad/starting XI will really take shape. 

[lcfcsnow]

It just feels a bit Paulo Sousa, the idea behind the tactics is good but we don't have the tools. That second goal yesterday where Vestergaard plays a nice pass into midfield but its Ndidi receiving it, and it just bounces off him and Liverpool score from it. The same was happening with Daka.

[Simmo86]

1 hour ago, Thebluefox85 said:

I was buzzing for the season to start after yesterday Im dreading it now big reminder of the players that are still at this club that just won’t **** off that need to go! And if we play like we did yesterday we will be lucky to be in the top half! This pre season trip will come back to haunt us I just hope we can clear 2-3 out this week and at least bring 2 in 

You do realise we played one of the best teams in the world yesterday don’t you? 

[Simmo86]

4 minutes ago, lcfcsnow said:

It just feels a bit Paulo Sousa, the idea behind the tactics is good but we don't have the tools. That second goal yesterday where Vestergaard plays a nice pass into midfield but its Ndidi receiving it, and it just bounces off him and Liverpool score from it. The same was happening with Daka.

It’s nothing like Paulo Sousa, he tried to turn a bunch of cloggers into prime Barca. We actual got technically proficient footballers now but they’ll still make mistakes because they are a month into learning a new style, we played one of best pressing teams in the world yesterday and finally I’m pretty sure the three players you mentioned won’t be playing a big part this season.

[trooky]

Based on yesterday's first 25 minutes we created several chances for Ndidi.

 

He's not an ideal No. 8 and not good enough technically to play the Winks role so we have to hope we can move him on and get a natural 8 before the window shuts.

 

It will be interesting to see if he starts next week or is replaced by Praet.

 

The team is still in the early stages of the rebuild and I just hope we can sell Ndidi and Castagne soon.

 

I'm not so sure why they've feature so much if we've transfer listed them, unless it's to keep them integrated in the squad if we can't shift them.

[davieG]

I'm wondering after Klopp decided to close down Winks & Ricardo whether Maresca deliberately chose not to do anything about it but to see how the back 3 / goalkeeper and wide men would cope with them blocked off. Obviously not that well but at least it showed that there's plenty of work to do with this set up at the back when in possession.

[Lionator]

The Paulo Sousa comments are literally just because it's a handsome foreign manager. If Dean Smith was implementing this football, you wouldn't be comparing it to Paulo Sousa.

[BenTheFox]

3 minutes ago, Lionator said:

The Paulo Sousa comments are literally just because it's a handsome foreign manager. If Dean Smith was implementing this football, you wouldn't be comparing it to Paulo Sousa.

Also, Sousa was trying to implement a style with even more limited footballers. Pearson overachieved finishing fifth with that squad. Although our current squad lacks balance, most of them have played at a higher level of football and are technically better. Maresca should also be able to bring in a few more players to make this work. 

[Vindaloo FOX]

I said it before and I will say it again.

 

It will not surprise me if we don't go up this season.

 

Massive wholesale changes when it comes to players and style of play.

 

Think It may take sometime to gel if it ever does.

 

Maybe Enzo has bit off more than he can chew with us.

 

 

 

 

[Gamble92]

55 minutes ago, Lionator said:

The Paulo Sousa comments are literally just because it's a handsome foreign manager. If Dean Smith was implementing this football, you wouldn't be comparing it to Paulo Sousa.

We'd be comparing it to Mike Bassett

[Dames]

45 minutes ago, Vindaloo FOX said:

I said it before and I will say it again.

 

It will not surprise me if we don't go up this season.

 

Massive wholesale changes when it comes to players and style of play.

 

Think It may take sometime to gel if it ever does.

 

Maybe Enzo has bit off more than he can chew with us.

 

 

 

 

We aren't going up this season. We've not made the changes needed to the squad. The board have failed again.

 

We start the season in 6 days with absolutely 0 creativity in the team. 

 

People will claim there is another month left of the transfer window but Enzo needed a good solid preseason with the type of players he needed in, he got neither. 

[Simmo86]

16 minutes ago, Dames said:

We aren't going up this season. We've not made the changes needed to the squad. The board have failed again.

 

We start the season in 6 days with absolutely 0 creativity in the team. 

 

People will claim there is another month left of the transfer window but Enzo needed a good solid preseason with the type of players he needed in, he got neither. 

It’s a pretty bold to claim we definitely won’t go up this season. We’re lacking attacking players but on the whole we’ve still got a very good squad for the division and one which has brought into the managers ideas 100%. Even if we have a slowish start they’ll be plenty of time to turn it around. Christmas is the vital period. I’d be very surprised if we aren’t around autos/playoffs for much of the season.

 

We’ve also got a very kind start which is helpful in the current situation.

[KFS]

Sell Ndidi, Daka and Castagne as an absolute priority after what I’ve seen in pre season imo 

[Dames]

3 minutes ago, Simmo86 said:

It’s a pretty bold to claim we definitely won’t go up this season. We’re lacking attacking players but on the whole we’ve still got a very good squad for the division and one which has brought into the managers ideas 100%. Even if we have a slowish start they’ll be plenty of time to turn it around. Christmas is the vital period. I’d be very surprised if we aren’t around autos/playoffs for much of the season.

 

We’ve also got a very kind start which is helpful in the current situation.

Our weakness last season was being ineffective at breaking down a low block, essentially to beat us all you had to do was let us have the ball and pressure in midfield to either turn us over or force errors. 

 

Every single team we play will sit back against us and look to break and press and we've not signed a single player to account for that. Our midfield is also a lot worse. Its going to be a very long season.

[Lionator]

11 minutes ago, Dames said:

Our weakness last season was being ineffective at breaking down a low block, essentially to beat us all you had to do was let us have the ball and pressure in midfield to either turn us over or force errors. 

 

Every single team we play will sit back against us and look to break and press and we've not signed a single player to account for that. Our midfield is also a lot worse. Its going to be a very long season.

It's not all about signings. We also had coaches who had no idea to solve the problems that they'd created. We're changing our style of play.

[Dames]

5 minutes ago, Lionator said:

It's not all about signings. We also had coaches who had no idea to solve the problems that they'd created. We're changing our style of play.

We changed the style under Smith and still had the same weaknesses. We have the same players with the same weaknesses in midfield and attack and there hasn't been any signings to help balance that out. 

[An Sionnach]

19 minutes ago, Lionator said:

It's not all about signings. We also had coaches who had no idea to solve the problems that they'd created. We're changing our style of play.

Most on here were satisfied with our January deals, they wet their pants about Tete, considered VK a massive upgrade on Thomas and thought Souttar was far better than Amartey. The transfer market is not the answer to our problems . They are deep seated and will take time to resolve. We will win matches this season and lose them and we should cut the overreaction to results and watch for a gradual improvement. If we settle down and continue to improve throughout the season , we will be fine.

[jv1]

Not fussed about the score in that game yesterday but there was a lot of head scratching from me on team selection 7 days before first game - only he will know why but some of the decisions are definitely interesting if not difficult to understand 

 

castagne - chosen in front of both left backs and Justin and even moving Ricardo across to play 2 right back - if he is even potentially going then it’s a weird one - gaffer obviously doesn’t fancy either of the left backs at all and I don’t really disagree but just shows we have a situation where he is starting a guy who is potentially off and still doesn’t fancy any of the other 3 options in front of him

 

Justin - doesn’t seem to be in the starting 11 plan at all and  I thought he would be bang on to do great things this year - there have been plenty of opportunities to try him in other places or ply him in front of castagne or veste or even in midfield in front of preat or Ndidi or out wide instead of the youth - but no he has been reserve right back and not involved anywhere near enough - again you can only assume the gaffer doesn’t fancy him 

 

souttar - I had him as playing a big role this year - nope not even close - veste plying In front of him - didn’t see that - souttars best position was supposedly centre of a 3 and yet with Cody out he isn’t even second choice - again one I expected to play but gaffer obviously isn’t having him 

 

Ndidi- just plain weird playing high number 8 and quite obviously doesn’t want to be here - why is he playing ?? Surely play one of the guys who will be part of the squad but nope 

 

I thought they did ok for 20 mins yesterday- when it works it looks nice and you can see straight away what he is trying to do but I really don’t understand if he is preparing for Sunday why he picked the team he did - a weird mixture of the ones you thought would stay vs go and at least 3 playing in weird positions - I just don’t see how that helps for Sunday 

 

but and it’s a big but - I’m willing to give him the time to get his own players in to play the way he wants - if yesterday told us anything it just further confirmed our current squad is a mess of chancers , charlatans and new young decent talent - they need another 8 out the door and 6 in - that’s completely obvious now - however it isn’t happening in the next week so Sunday and the first few months could well be rather Rocky 

 

Never boring is it 

[LeePhilpottsBaldSpot]

8 minutes ago, An Sionnach said:

Most on here were satisfied with our January deals, they wet their pants about Tete, considered VK a massive upgrade on Thomas and thought Souttar was far better than Amartey. The transfer market is not the answer to our problems . They are deep seated and will take time to resolve. We will win matches this season and lose them and we should cut the overreaction to results and watch for a gradual improvement. If we settle down and continue to improve throughout the season , we will be fine.

This post should be stickied at the top of every thread about transfers and every thread posted after losses this season!

[Simmo86]

57 minutes ago, Dames said:

Our weakness last season was being ineffective at breaking down a low block, essentially to beat us all you had to do was let us have the ball and pressure in midfield to either turn us over or force errors. 

 

Every single team we play will sit back against us and look to break and press and we've not signed a single player to account for that. Our midfield is also a lot worse. Its going to be a very long season.

 

36 minutes ago, Dames said:

We changed the style under Smith and still had the same weaknesses. We have the same players with the same weaknesses in midfield and attack and there hasn't been any signings to help balance that out. 

Our weakness under Smith had nothing to do with low blocks it was conceding stupid amounts of goals (same with Brendan) and you're talking like this is a our final squad, we've got a month to make signings.

 

Mad how one friendly against one of the best teams in the world can make people completely lose the plot, especially when for 20/25 mins of that friendly we looked more than decent.

[Deeg67]

Not to mention Smith is a mediocre manager at best and whatever he changed he had to try and do mid-season.

 

We'll be fine, better than I feared when the season ended.  In the playoff range I imagine, with a chance to qualify for automatic.

[Dames]

23 minutes ago, Simmo86 said:

 

Our weakness under Smith had nothing to do with low blocks it was conceding stupid amounts of goals (same with Brendan) and you're talking like this is a our final squad, we've got a month to make signings.

 

Mad how one friendly against one of the best teams in the world can make people completely lose the plot, especially when for 20/25 mins of that friendly we looked more than decent.

Echos of 'play like that and we'll be just fine'. 

[Simmo86]

7 minutes ago, Dames said:

Echos of 'play like that and we'll be just fine'. 

Well we will  we've got a lot of positives going into this season, no doubt we need more bodies but to completely write off getting promotion this season is absolute crazy talk.

[Dames]

Just now, Simmo86 said:

Well we will  we've got a lot of positives going into this season, no doubt we need more bodies but to completely write off getting promotion this season is absolute crazy talk.

I want to be hopeful but that requires the clubs senior leadership actually pulling their fingers out and giving the manager what he wants/needs which i'm not hopeful about.

 

There's already signs in press conferences of Enzo starting to be annoyed and making remarks and he's barely been here a month and a half. 

[Simmo86]

3 minutes ago, Dames said:

I want to be hopeful but that requires the clubs senior leadership actually pulling their fingers out and giving the manager what he wants/needs which i'm not hopeful about.

 

There's already signs in press conferences of Enzo starting to be annoyed and making remarks and he's barely been here a month and a half. 

Fingers crossed Enzo getting frustrated gives Top the rocket up his arse that he needs! Doubt it though!