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A big Sakho shaped hole in our defence.

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Mystic

Mystic

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For me it's fair to say that the game started slipping away from us last night when Sakho was taken off injured, Johnson came on and didn't have a clue what he was doing, as such our defence started crumbling. Sakho's been massively important to us the last month or so, he's perfect for this back three which was really starting to look like a serious and solid defensive option going forward. Sadly, his injury leaves us with a predicament; apparently he had a back problem in the warm up last night, but was given injections to get through the game, however that gamble didn't pay off, and the injury has been aggravated further, this leads me to believe he's going to be out for a couple of games at least (scans later in the week for confirmation).

Unfortunately the games are coming thick and fast for us, including a difficult visit from West Ham this weekend, so, how should we line up? Glen Johnson was the solution last night, however he should never be the solution, he was atrocious when he came on, leaving massive gaps in our backline, absolutely awful. So where do we go? Does Lovren come back in from the fold? Could he play LCB? Personally it would be my choice, surely he's waited long enough for another chance? also the alternative would be shifting the defensive shape, and I really don't want to see that happen. Our options are pretty limited after that aren't they? I don't think we should be moving Can to the left side of the defence, Kolo's still away, who else is there? Christ, he's going to play Johnson again isn't he?
 
He has to play Lovren. Johnson is not a centre back in any way. As bad as he was last night he should have never been put on in that position. It's strange how Lovren is being frozen out. Him not getting a start against Bolton was baffling. He's been poor since he arrived, but there's no way he could have played any worse than Johnson last night. Why have him on the bench at all if Johnson is your backup centre back?
 
Can needs to be cloned, then it's LCB problem solved. In fact I think a team of Emre Cans would definitely make the top 4. He was even good at RB for last 15 minutes and won a very dangerous free-kick we could have equalized from.

Seriously though, he's going to play Johnson in all likelihood. Don't ask me why because I have no fucking idea.
 
Given West Ham's height, I think Lovren probably gets the nod against West Ham if he's fit. I think we might field Can - Skrtel - Lovren, with Johnson probably slotting in at RWB, though you can practically take the "wing" out of it because there's nothing resembling that coming anymore from Johnson.
 
Aidan O' Neill said:
He has to play Lovren. Johnson is not a centre back in any way. As bad as he was last night he should have never been put on in that position. It's strange how Lovren is being frozen out. Him not getting a start against Bolton was baffling. He's been poor since he arrived, but there's no way he could have played any worse than Johnson last night. Why have him on the bench at all if Johnson is your backup centre back?
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Well, it could be argued that giving some bench time for Mignolet seems to have done him some good so maybe Rodgers is trying to do the same with Lovren.
 
Lovren came on as a sub at RCB in one of the recent games and did OK, as far as I remember.
 
the count said:
Well, it could be argued that giving some bench time for Mignolet seems to have done him some good so maybe Rodgers is trying to do the same with Lovren.
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Good point. You'd think Bolton might be a game to play him and restore some confidence though. They were never much of a threat.
 
I don't know what Johnson actually brings to the team anymore. He's clearly lost more than a yard of pace but he seems to be playing within himself everything he's positioned on the right. He was never what one would describe as a rock in the defence but he seems to just amble along these days, allowing anyone going faster than jogging pace to breeze past him.
 
For me the whole thing lost it's shape after about 35 mins when Gerrard ran out of breath. With only coutinho and Sterling to start the early pressure we got bypassed and exposed. Had we introduced Lallana and given the much needed support to coutinho, who so clearly brought his magic boots last night, we would have had a very different game.

A game where Hendo and Lucas didn't have to try and close gaps between coutinho and Sterlings failed pressure.

A game where Gerrard even arrived late on the counter to meet the 2nd ball after another failed pass between coutinho and Sterling.

A game where everybody could confirm what we all knew; it's impossible to play the pressure game without all players at absolute maximum overdrive. Everybody gets exposed across the field when that happens.


A game where hapless out of shape Balotelli hadn't been exposed and drained for whatever self-esteem he might have left.


We had a fantastic 30 mins as long as Gerrard could keep up. It's not Gerrard bashing saying that he isn't capable of playing with the pressure needed.

Once again we chose to support the legend instead of our game plan and we paid dearly for it.
 
Leo said:
What do you think of the Sakho situation though?
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I thought his usual pass across the field to an opponent is starting to look like a disease more than a symptom. He has to cut that Shit out.

Other than that I find it hard to judge any particular player when the tactical setup gets so twisted as I think it wdid last night. The ground some players had to cover because of it and the counter attacks we had to suffer because of a manager who can't cope with the legend clouds the whole thing way too much.

I'm probably one of 3 or 4 posters who has this point of view here and I'm fine with it.

Take a dump in the mainstream.
 
Johnson hasn't been nowhere near as bad as Lovren has been for us.

Maybe the time out has improved Lovren, though wouldn't want to chance it against west ham
 
Sakho was definitely a loss. Made even worse by fact he was replaced with Johnson who looked totally clueless. Sakho did make a terrible pass but I'll put that down to being injured and give him the benefit of the doubt. He's been great for us over the last number of games.
 
A few things have changed since Lovren last started a game: (1) Lucas has come back into the starting lineup and done an excellent defensive job for us in the middle, (2) Mignolet's confidence has improved and he's looked quite a different keeper in the last few games, (3) confidence at the back seems at a season high right now (yes we still gift opponents chances but we're a much better lot now defensively than in the first half of the season), and (4) Can has been like a breath of fresh air at the back, taking the ball out of defence with great confidence.

Of course, there's a risk that reintroducing Lovren now (if Sakho can't play for a while) could upset things again and roll back the improvements, but there's also a chance that it works out well, like when we swapped Can in for Toure. We've got to play Lovren back into form somehow and rebuild his confidence, as we'll be better for it longer term if he can find his mojo again.

Given that the alternative is playing Johnson in an unfamiliar role, I would prefer Rodgers to go with Lovren - give him a start this weekend, and see how things go.
 
And he has to give Lovren a go. You can't stick with a player who's renowned for switching off, in a position that's also fairly alien to him. We lost alot of our bite and discipline against Chelsea, when Johnson and Mario came on, you could argue both were culpable for the goal - Mario gave a needless ball away playing a blind pass in a dangerous area, and the marking was slack from both of them.

Lovren has been garbage, but he's his signing, is our most expensive defender and has to have the chance to put it right and show what he can do.

Sakho's done well defensively, but like I said, when pressured by a top opponent, he looked all over the place at times the other day. Passing it into players who had bodies around them, repeatedly forced us to lose possession and that pass - he's more than capable of doing with or without an injury.
 
Such a shame Lovren hasn't settled in how everyone thought he would.

A back line with Sakho, Lovren and Can could have been potentially a great one.
 
rurikbird said:
He always takes long to recover, unfortunately. Hope it's not as serious this time.
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Its a back problem and he played with it for 60 mins against Chelsea. I don't think he'll be out for to long as it doesn't sound to serious, at least I hope he's back sooner rather than later.
 
mark1975 said:
Sakho would never have made a pass like that, had he not taken a knock. No sir.
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He's one of the best passers of the ball in our defence mate. Can and Sakho have given the team another dimension in possession. The two passes he made against Chelsea can be related to the injury.

Yes, he's given the ball away a few times. But he isn't a liability or an accident waiting to happen.
Nearly 90 % passing accuracy and he always tries to play it out of defence as Rodgers wants.
We've started countless of attacks with him passing it through the midfield area.
And with the set up we've got a few errors like that can happen.

If someone comments about his "gangly" and "akward looking" style of playing again they should be banned. As it means fuck all.

More importantly though he's a beast defensively. Doesn't get dribbled past (0,3 times pr game) and don't concede many fouls (0,4 pr game).

We need him back, asap.
 
Hansern said:
He's one of the best passers of the ball in our defence mate. Can and Sakho have given the team another dimension in possession. The two passes he made against Chelsea can be related to the injury.

Yes, he's given the ball away a few times. But he isn't a liability or an accident waiting to happen.
Nearly 90 % passing accuracy and he always tries to play it out of defence as Rodgers wants.
We've started countless of attacks with him passing it through the midfield area.
And with the set up we've got a few errors like that can happen.

If someone comments about his "gangly" and "akward looking" style of playing again they should be banned. As it means fuck all.

More importantly though he's a beast defensively. Doesn't get dribbled past (0,3 times pr game) and don't concede many fouls (0,4 pr game).

We need him back, asap.
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He made quite a good run on the touch line into Chelsea's half and got away from a defender closing him down in a tight spot with a neat bit of skill.

That and all the good stats however don't mask the fact that he made a couple of awful passes that could've easily led to goals.

He's got all the tools to be brilliant but he needs to cut out these crazy lapses in concentration.
 
keniget said:
He's got all the tools to be brilliant but he needs to cut out these crazy lapses in concentration.
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Good summary. I think he has these weird lapses or freezes where the outcome is either a bad pass or the opposition are allowed to challenge him.

The other night he had a pass in his head, a Chelsea player got in the way of that but he still went ahead with the pass anyway, giving away the ball. I've also seen him control the ball and seemingly know exactly what he wants to do with it but someone will press him in a way he didn't expect and he'll still proceed with his original plan to drag it past them and gets challenged. Or at least that's what it has seems like to me.

He has been playing very well though, hopefully he can get past picking up knocks every time he puts together a run of games.
 
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