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Thread: Playing like Champions

  1. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by dicko1969 View Post
    Scapegoats
    Gomez won the league and Bobby won us a world club and Adrian a super cup.

    But there were 11 players +3 subs out there today.

    Summed up as Sloppy and complacent.

    Getting found out after 2 to 3 years playing high octane football.

    The high line is such a risk that teams are getting 4 or 5 big chances.

    Alisson saved us x2 v Arsenal.
    Adrian too v Villa.

    This team is on its 4th year of a cycle more or less.

    97 points 99 points , 2 champions league finals. It has peaked now expect a downturn in performances and results.

    Luckily only 3 points for a win but a big hit for the GD.

    Alisson Mané Thiago Matip and Henderson back soon hopefully.
    It's the high line that found us out IMO.
    Villa found a way to punish us.
    Other Premier sides, and others, will analyse the Villa game to FLICK, and try to emulate what they achieved.

    Some intense coaching, which may entail doing away with the high line, will be needed to prevent a repeat.
    There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief

  2. #22
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    Having the mentality of "expecting our form to drop off" after two good seasons is probably the most uninspiring thing to say. Why have that mentality and accept our form to drop off?

    Bloody hell!

  3. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by dicko1969 View Post
    Scapegoats
    Gomez won the league and Bobby won us a world club and Adrian a super cup.

    But there were 11 players +3 subs out there today.

    Summed up as Sloppy and complacent.

    Getting found out after 2 to 3 years playing high octane football.

    The high line is such a risk that teams are getting 4 or 5 big chances.

    Alisson saved us x2 v Arsenal.
    Adrian too v Villa.

    This team is on its 4th year of a cycle more or less.

    97 points 99 points , 2 champions league finals. It has peaked now expect a downturn in performances and results.

    Luckily only 3 points for a win but a big hit for the GD.

    Alisson Mané Thiago Matip and Henderson back soon hopefully.
    For me the high line isn't any issue at all as long as we have the right personnel in midfield and up front doing the pressing and counter pressing

    Trying to play through teams rather than use the switches because we don't have either Henderson or Thiago at CM to play them as none of our other midfielders can does increase the risk

    My Fabinho thing is very simple, he does have very bad lapses in the press and allows it to break down, and be broken all too easily making very basic mistakes and being entirely honest about it, as I wish others here could be, the midfield of Fabinho, Gini plus any other that isn't Henderson got found out and exploited from January 2019 onwards and was only fixed by bringing Henderson in from HT in that Southampton game onwards.

    Teams weren't just targeting Trent, they were targeting Fabinho also as a way of releasing players in behind Trent, finding players in behind Fabinho to then release a wide runner in behind Trent and all Villa did was brutally expose a weakness in our midfield with Fabinho in the centre that in truth was exposed and had become an achiles heal for us a very long time ago.

    I could illustrate with various scenarios of what Fabinho does to allow our press to be broken so easily

    I think people under estimate or simply don't appreciate the importance of the switches to how we play, I see most here talk about more attacking midfielders and trying to play through teams.

    It's not just finding our full backs, forwards or LCM or RCM advanced in space on the opposite side to create a new point of attack

    The effect it has is it disrupts the positioning of the opposition, it takes them out of positions they will have worked on trying to be in to try and create a transition to break our press, it also makes them look and move toward the area the switch has gone to and takes their attention away from the movement of our other players momentarily, and allows our players to all move and adjust their positions to be in better counter press positions and positions to win second balls and stop any potential counters AND make attacking runs beyond players that they simply do not see coming

    The effect of the switch balls is absolutely monumental and priceless and vastly under appreciated
    "If Everton were playing at the bottom of my garden, i'd close the curtains”

  4. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nineteenx View Post
    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
    There we go, you want to be Arsenal under Wenger in his later years, or Pep at City last season, give up doing all of the above and overplay, play too laboured tappy tappy trying to play through teams abandoning all that made you so successful and formidable
    "If Everton were playing at the bottom of my garden, i'd close the curtains”

  5. #25
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    Apr 2009
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    Oh fuck off why don't you be the manager??

    ever thought of trying to apply for a lower league team??

    Maybe you should take over klopp i'm sure we'd win the league

  6. #26
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    Quoting your own posts!
    For fucks sake.

  7. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by teesred View Post
    Quoting your own posts!
    For fucks sake.
    Worth quoting too, well worth it

    BUMP

    I do know a thing or two about this game Steveo, called it from the outset of this season

    UAE FC played like Champions today, played like last season's Champions to be precise

    I see some blaming Thiago, it's not on him, we started the overplaying and fancy Dan flicks before he was available to play, long before

    UAE FC are actually a joy to watch, they really remind me of us when we won 4 trophies, playing switches, playing direct and early when it's on, when a player has the opportunity to be very direct from a good pass or an opposition error, doing exactly that, see the difference between Foden with Alisson's error and Mane with Ederson's error

    UAE FC right now are what we should aspire to and what our evolution should have looked like, keeping our direct style so our ability at it and the relationships built up over 3 seasons playing like that didn't deteriorate and playing Thiago as the more attacking of the 3 mids, prompting new movement and greater variation of runs from the forwards and full backs with his array of passing
    "If Everton were playing at the bottom of my garden, i'd close the curtains”

  8. #28
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    Let's be honest, City played like champions. I wonder will Man Utd hand over the title they won 2 weeks ago ?

  9. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by ianlfc View Post
    Let's be honest, City played like champions. I wonder will Man Utd hand over the title they won 2 weeks ago ?
    They played like us the last 2 seasons with the additional midfield creativity we bought Thiago for, I thought to compliment our direct style and offer us more in possession taking 3 or 4 opposition players out of the game with one pass when we were playing possession football with a 2-0 plus lead and teams who were parking the bus HAD to belatedly come out and try and press us and for his variation of passing at the more attacking midfielder of our 3 to prompt and develop new and greater variation of movement and runs from our forwards and full backs when playing our normal direct game
    "If Everton were playing at the bottom of my garden, i'd close the curtains”

  10. #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nineteenx View Post
    They played like us the last 2 seasons with the additional midfield creativity we bought Thiago for, I thought to compliment our direct style and offer us more in possession taking 3 or 4 opposition players out of the game with one pass when we were playing possession football with a 2-0 plus lead and teams who were parking the bus HAD to belatedly come out and try and press us and for his variation of passing at the more attacking midfielder of our 3 to prompt and develop new and greater variation of movement and runs from our forwards and full backs when playing our normal direct game
    When the first 11 is available maybe thats when the passing game starts to work?
    Its clearly not working now and is costing us.
    It might not be a bad thing if Thiago starts being used less frequently.

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