Playing like Champions

[Nineteenx]

VAR should work but it kind of can have the reverse effect too if you have an idiot/cheat in control it can/does change a result.

What I want, if City fail to slip up, or rather, if their remaining opposition all fail to turn up and try everything they can to make life as difficult as possible for them as they do against us, is to win all our remaining games and for Jurgen to make the point ahead of their Wolves game that Wolves might be looking for revenge as they lost the reverse fixture 1-0 to a penalty awarded for handball, that turned out not to be handball, and to then say he's still waiting for Mike RIley's apology for that decision and the one not to award a penalty to the bitters, as those 2 decisions were incorrect and have decided the title

It needs saying even if City do slip up, you can't have 2 decisions like that with the use of VAR decide or nearly decide a title, I'd like a huge deal made out of it to stop that happening again, as there's no excuse for it, it's obviously deliberate

[Nineteenx]

I think one element that is missing and different from 19-20 is the lack of the accidental playmaker at No6 and a lack of patience and probing against sides who set up like Tottenham - To my recollection we got the breakthrough goal in 6 or more games against PTB teams from a quickly up and down ball over the top of defences camped on their own 18 yard box from Hendo or Virgil (he got 2 assists like that)

It was never the Modric type probing people usually associate with playmaking, accidental or otherwise, to me it was knocking it about, moving it left to right while our players moved into great counter press positions to win any second ball, rather than charging about as frenetically as they did v Spurs, and our forwards getting into position to run off the back off the fullback and/or CB for the pass and when they were set, Hendo would play that ball, or lay if back to Virgil to, and if it was defended, we almost always won the second ball and often scored from those positions too

[Nineteenx]

Just a quick bump before I disappear for a bit, this is what made us successful, people running the show need to have a serious look at how much of that they ditched in an ill advised alleged evolution of our play and how it was more successful than what their failed idea of evolution has delivered and address it this summer

I think there's been a bit of confusion among our players as to what this actually means, since winning the league there has been a lot of fannying around attempted fancy flicks that never seem to come off and an foul smelling air of complacency, they've not been playing like Champions at all.

To me playing like Champions means first and foremost playing with the same intensity, hunger, desire, work ethic and absolute beligerance in doing all those things and having an unshakable resolute determination that you will NOT be beaten and nothing less than a win in every single game is good enough.

I feel it is incredibly important to not start with the fancy flicks, showboating, over playing and over complicating of things uneccessarily and to never lose sight of what made you Champions and look to improve on doing the things that made you Champions even better rather than trying to do different things.

For me what made us Champions was first and foremost an incredible hunger and desire and work ethic, an attitude that we will never be beaten and no game or situation was ever lost or beyond being won and an absolutely incredible press, never ever letting the opposition having the ball easy and never ever having time on it when they did get possession.

Play wise and why I don't like all the fancy flicks and over playing we've seen since we won the League, the press came first and foremost, we weren't and aren't an all singing all dancing expansive football side, but what we do is devastatingly effective.

We test teams in every imaginable way, switch balls to release or find our full backs and forwards on either side of the pitch in space are an absolutely essential part of our game, to find those players of the quality they are in isolation, in space or in a position in which the LCM RCM LB or RB will quickly be in support of them so we can play a ball they can chest or head or lay off to one of those other players first time before making their runs in behind is so so important to our continued success.

The other crucial part of our game in combination with our press is the constant runs in behind and playing those long balls over the top of opposition defences, even when they're camping on their 18 yard line and playing them to such a level of quality that we either find the forwards run or the ball is so near perfect the defender can only half clear it and we win any second balls and quickly form and attack form there or quickly work it to one of our full backs to put an early ball into the box with the oppositions line slightly disturbed and our forwards able to take positions to make their second runs escaping their markers attentions while their focus is on where the half cleared ball will go.

For me together with our set pieces and Trent's right to left switches to find Robbo making runs in advance of our midfield and forwards at times (Robbo needs to start returning that favour at times) they are all the things that made us Champions and I feel it is incredibly important we do not lose sight of that

[scientificred]

Just a quick bump before I disappear for a bit, this is what made us successful, people running the show need to have a serious look at how much of that they ditched in an ill advised alleged evolution of our play and how it was more successful than what their failed idea of evolution has delivered and address it this summer

I think there's been a bit of confusion among our players as to what this actually means, since winning the league there has been a lot of fannying around attempted fancy flicks that never seem to come off and an foul smelling air of complacency, they've not been playing like Champions at all.

To me playing like Champions means first and foremost playing with the same intensity, hunger, desire, work ethic and absolute beligerance in doing all those things and having an unshakable resolute determination that you will NOT be beaten and nothing less than a win in every single game is good enough.

I feel it is incredibly important to not start with the fancy flicks, showboating, over playing and over complicating of things uneccessarily and to never lose sight of what made you Champions and look to improve on doing the things that made you Champions even better rather than trying to do different things.

For me what made us Champions was first and foremost an incredible hunger and desire and work ethic, an attitude that we will never be beaten and no game or situation was ever lost or beyond being won and an absolutely incredible press, never ever letting the opposition having the ball easy and never ever having time on it when they did get possession.

Play wise and why I don't like all the fancy flicks and over playing we've seen since we won the League, the press came first and foremost, we weren't and aren't an all singing all dancing expansive football side, but what we do is devastatingly effective.

We test teams in every imaginable way, switch balls to release or find our full backs and forwards on either side of the pitch in space are an absolutely essential part of our game, to find those players of the quality they are in isolation, in space or in a position in which the LCM RCM LB or RB will quickly be in support of them so we can play a ball they can chest or head or lay off to one of those other players first time before making their runs in behind is so so important to our continued success.

The other crucial part of our game in combination with our press is the constant runs in behind and playing those long balls over the top of opposition defences, even when they're camping on their 18 yard line and playing them to such a level of quality that we either find the forwards run or the ball is so near perfect the defender can only half clear it and we win any second balls and quickly form and attack form there or quickly work it to one of our full backs to put an early ball into the box with the oppositions line slightly disturbed and our forwards able to take positions to make their second runs escaping their markers attentions while their focus is on where the half cleared ball will go.

For me together with our set pieces and Trent's right to left switches to find Robbo making runs in advance of our midfield and forwards at times (Robbo needs to start returning that favour at times) they are all the things that made us Champions and I feel it is incredibly important we do not lose sight of that

Have a good summer and a good break 19x!
We will miss you!
Hope you come back for next season in fine fettle!

[huyrob]

I agree with your bump.
Let’s enjoy what we have experienced and feel calm that Jurgen is with us for longer than we may have expected.
19x enjoy your break , watch us on rewind ,winning the 2 cups, forget var, remember Ali’s header and be ready to entertain and educate us next season. Best wishes.

[worldpanel]

A much needed summer break for the forum, as well as LFC
We were just a little tired in the final third. Too many games, and their keeper had a blinder. It happens.
Fuck we were good this year.
Onwards next season chaps.
Mrs worldpanel and I hoping to get to the UK in the summer

[Nineteenx]

There are a lot of things that used to happen that were integral to our success and our identity that no longer happen

Summer 2018- Summer 2020 Liverpool with the added quality in depth of this season would have walked the league and the Champions League final this season, that team with our current strength in depth would have sealed the quadruple this season no problems

Our proposed and attempted evolution has been devolution

[Steveo]

Double-oh-fekin-bollox

[vin]

Mrs worldpanel and I hoping to get to the UK in the summer

Why? Is it's awful here!

[Nineteenx]

Further to my original post on this

The press and counter press isn't anywhere near the levels it was at its best

Part of that was we regularly won possession, including quickly regaining it, in the opposition half from where we'd play very quickly and directly to create chances on goal

We were quite direct, we did try and play through sides, but we also had regular variation between our attempts to play through to reverting to being direct, medium to longer balls over the top and diagonals and we always had runs in behind

We had switches from Trent and Hendo to find Mane and Robbo on our left, in time and space and isolation quite a lot, and these were played after our attempts to play through had condensed most other players into an area

At our very best aside from Hendo playing the switches and medium to long balls over the top from No6 and also regularly feeding Trent and Virgil for them to join in making the play, we didn't have a playmaker or a player trying to act as one, and our ability of several players to suddenly create something from different positions and situations together with our press and counter press made us almost impossible to successfully defend against for 90 minutes and meant we gave precious little away in opportunities for successful or dangerous counters

A lot of the above is now missing, as I said it was in grave danger of disappearing from our game when we began trying to be tappy crappy and overplay early last season

I don't understand why and how we have got our attempted evolution so badly wrong, there was room for plenty of evolution to our game without ditching everything that made us Premier League and Champions League winners. it was noticeable that our overplaying and not making runs in behind, our numerous players making the play from different areas in different ways, our ability to be devastatingly direct and our ability on the counter got progressively worse the harder Thiago tried to dominate with the ball

Not having a designated playmaker and having 3 or players who can find our forwards and full backs and release them, being very direct was one of our greatest strengths and weapons to breaking sides down in combination with our bets pressing and counter pressing and winning the second ball if the first wasn't successful and playing quick and direct from a new position of attack - stopping doing all of that has even started to have a hugely detrimental effect on our once feared counter attacking ability

We did used to score from many of them, occasionally ballsing them up with the finish or final pass, but playing quickly, accurately and being devastatingly direct in those situations seems to have deserted us almost entirely, because we're not practicing all the elements of doing that throughout games as we used to, and if you stop practicing something, your ability to do it rapidly diminishes

Hate to say it again, but City have adopted a lot of what made us so much better than them in 19-20, they have gone from "Don't shoot Vinny" overly tappy crappy to being more direct at times always making deliberate use of variation and the press and counter press they employ is very much as ours used to be, whether being direct or tappy crappy, aside from one, sometimes 2 forwards making runs in behind, they don't get ahead of the ball or the opposition player that could lead a counter while they are attacking until the attack requires their involvement and they can do so without leaving themselves very open to being easily countered

People need to have a rethink