Taxi for Aaron Briggs & Others

[Insidious]

I've never heard it called that before either.

Bamboo-watering?

Fair enough - coaches have used it, therapists have used it, both will continue to do so.

A pal of mine who brought the metaphor/concept/call-it-what-you-will to their therapist after I had talked about it to them about it got really into applying it to daily life and is, relative to where they were, absolutely thriving.

Watering the Bamboo as an idea is now part of their "contract" if you like.

The principle/metaphor is simple enough -

Giant timber Bamboo spends time underground prior to sprouting. Water it for a year, nothing. Water it for two years, nothing. Water it for three years, nothing. The fourth year though, it breaks up and within a 60-day spell it climbs to 90 feet.

Those who farm the plant give it due care, despite knowing there is no immediate reward. It's an investment.

You put diligent care into something, with no immediate gratification, but the work pays off.

e seed and tend to it faithfully, diligently, and patiently even though there’s no visible evidence of growth for years. It's a basic enough principle, but a nice antithesis to the obsession with "overnight success" that is so in-your-face these days. We undoubtedly have evolved into a culture that worships immediate gratification and the cliché of overnight success. Most success that springs up suddenly is a result of loads of carefully managed, "unseen" work and managing the fine details.

I'd like to think we watered the Bamboo tonight and have been doing so for a couple of games. There's no trophy right now, there's no huge celebration of being out of the woods - but have we planted a seed/got something started?

Who knows. Time will tell.

[JockStrap]

That's a fantastic description. I must admit to being a bit facetious though.

Drain the dragon
Choke the chicken
Water the bamboo

[Nineteenx]

Clean sheet
Concede to a deflected goal
A game we control under Konaté's error
.

It was a series of errors pay attention rather than scapegoating

Jones directs Szobo to pick their lad up, he doesn’t and actually makes it easy for their lad to be released in space behind him and carry the ball forward 30 yards with no challenge or pressure

He plays it to their wide player and Gomez on for Bradley backs off and stands off, too far off and invites them into our area, this causes an issue for Konate who makes a clumsy challenge there wasn’t enough in to give on VAR review for me, not a clear and obvious error but as Liverpool players you HAVE TO know not to give VAR any excuse.

Gomez did the exact same for their second too, it’s why he and Quansah will never make top centre backs as they do that far too often and that’s why Quansah’s no longer with us

You don’t back off their you get to the player forcing him to go where you want

On scapegoating Konate got blamed for clearing the danger out for a corner rather than a throw the other game, it’s on all the lads to defend corners refs give them when they’re not too.

[Insidious]

I'm aware that most of these things start somewhere and one thing leads to another - same with goals on the positive side.

For me, whilst Konaté is forced into a decision, he still makes the wrong one. Square the player up, or attempt to run it out, or slide in front to try and block an incoming cross - not commit a foul in the box.

He'll make mistakes - they all do. That was one for me.

Thought he was excellent tonight and hope he can return to his best form. Looked much more like the Ibou of 24/25.

[Nineteenx]

Because we pressed and counter pressed and picked up really well most of the time, even all the very best defenders need pressure on the ball to assist them playing their best game

Even the best defenders get done when there isn’t pressure on the ball and they have runners in and around them, they can’t play offside and the runners have the run on them and it kind of disorients them and cases perceived errors and decision making because it’s really hard to have your man or hold a line and anticipate when the ball is coming when there’s no pressure on it

[Nineteenx]

Our defending of set pieces and countering immediately from them has gone to shit, we were always very well organised, we’d have Mo further forward about half way as an outlet to potentially go long and a player hugging the touch line about halfway to half way the opposite side ready to lead the instant counter and clear it to those areas regularly

Attacking corners we’d set up so the ball was going penalty spot to far post so the majority of time it was headed clear it would go towards the far post corner of the box and we always had a player there to pick up that second ball and put it straight back in, usually to the opposite far post where our players would have an overload and were drilled to get back inside and be taking positions ready for the recycled ball coming back in with the opposition defenders not set