Captain

[Nineteenx]

True but for me - Great teams don’t rely on counters.


Team is smashed mentally - Fatigued - and cant blame them ..FFS it has been coming - so obvious. We have been scraping past shite sides and making them look shit hot.

Yes, but Henderson wasn't all about counters, his playmaking and overall distribution was absolutely sensational, in his absence at No6 players are making runs in which he had been consistently finding them and there's no-one in our midfield to play those passes, now it's taking us 2 or 3 passes to find a full backs run, a midfielder or forward pulling out wide and our build up is incredibly slow and laboured and by the time they are found, they have no space and the opposition have 10 men behind the ball covering all their options

[teesred]

I think someone said it earlier but maybe its time to start relying on the squad again like around the WCC period. We have Minamino and Origi. We should use them.

[Nineteenx]

I think someone said it earlier but maybe its time to start relying on the squad again like around the WCC period. We have Minamino and Origi. We should use them.

WHO is going to make the play?

Gini's brilliant at what he does, but can't make the play and doesn't have a left to right or right to left switch, Fabinho's great at what he does against sides who are better than us with the ball when he plays as a high destroyer, but his distribution and playmaking ability's not of the required standard, he was converted to a DM from being a RB after all and he doesn't have a left to right or right to left switch or a centre to left or centre to right switch either, it's pretty fucking important our midifelders can play those passes given how we use both our attacking full backs

[Insidious]

I think someone said it earlier but maybe its time to start relying on the squad again like around the WCC period. We have Minamino and Origi. We should use them.

If we are using them, can Origi PLEASE go up top and not on the left?

[Steveo]

Yes, but Henderson wasn't all about counters, his playmaking and overall distribution was absolutely sensational, in his absence at No6 players are making runs in which he had been consistently finding them and there's no-one in our midfield to play those passes, now it's taking us 2 or 3 passes to find a full backs run, a midfielder or forward pulling out wide and our build up is incredibly slow and laboured and by the time they are found, they have no space and the opposition have 10 men behind the ball covering all their options

He was superb playing in there no doubt at all - a revelation in fact and let’s be honest - Fabinho has been poor since he came back - so it’s a double whammy losing Hendo and having an off form Fab, but as others have said - the whole team we miles off it today.. Virgil was asleep - Lovren was poor but in truth he was surrounded by absolute dross today.

Felt like Trent’s luck in that FB position well and truly ran out today.

Bad day at office.. Hopefully a kick up the backside

[Steveo]

If we are using them, can Origi PLEASE go up top and not on the left?

This - need a direct forward who is hungry

[Nineteenx]

He was superb playing in there no doubt at all - a revelation in fact and let’s be honest - Fabinho has been poor since he came back - so it’s a double whammy losing Hendo and having an off form Fab, but as others have said - the whole team we miles off it today.. Virgil was asleep - Lovren was poor but let’s be fair he was surrounded by dross today.

So we not only missed his fantastic distribution and organising of the press and counter press, we're very obviously missing his drive, combative nature and leadership and organisational skills to make sure all the other lads are on top of their games too

Edit: He was a revelation and then some I've always backed him and I know how hard he always works to improve and develop, but he absolutely shocked me, I was completely stunned by what he was producing, loved it, but I was absolutely gobsmacked, he was simply out of this world, it's why I wouldn't have changed it.

In my opinion he also picked up his injury as a result of the change, because the press and counter press was then being broken as it wasn't at the levels it had been both RCM and LCM were suddenly doing longer sprints and more of them to chase back they hadn't been used to doing and your body gets used to playing a certain way, if that's not a recipe for a hamstring tweak, I'm not sure what is

[LEGS]

Fabinho needs these games to bed himself back in the man is quality his form will return.

We cant do anything about the Henderson injury but carry on hopefully he is back for Athletico.

Some people are losing their heads we are still in the mix for 3 trophies and if honest at the start of the season "only" winning the league will make me a very happy man.

We will be back we are too good not to.

[teesred]

WHO is going to make the play?

Gini's brilliant at what he does, but can't make the play and doesn't have a left to right or right to left switch, Fabinho's great at what he does against sides who are better than us with the ball when he plays as a high destroyer, but his distribution and playmaking ability's not of the required standard, he was converted to a DM from being a RB after all and he doesn't have a left to right or right to left switch or a centre to left or centre to right switch either, it's pretty fucking important our midifelders can play those passes given how we use both our attacking full backs

Well hopefully Hendo comes back in the next couple of games and we still have Trent and Robbo.
The front 3 just looks like it needs shaking up a bit. That might just be me knee jerking after today but as a unit they haven't looked "on it" for a while but I guess you could say that about all of them.
I said to my mate when the game kicked off that you know when you're hitting the "business end" of the season when it's still daylight on a late kick off.
We need to rest some of the players who play non stop. Milner should be back soon also, that means Robbo may get a rest.

[CCTV]

Erm we created zero in Madrid and made Norwich look like friggin Barca at times.. We haven’t played well for a while and Hendo was part of that.

We missed him today - no doubt - BUT that was not why we lost.

Agree. Imo our patterns of play today were awful. Too predictable. When up against the lower block we are failing to engage them centrally and all they've to do is focus on the wide areas which they seemed primed to attack.
Same in madrid that 4 in front of their back r was rarely shifted around. Need to be braver in the middle and play some football.