Let's recap our manager's mistakes today:
1. Starting Allen over Lucas - inexplicable and disastrous. We might have been able to get away with a 2-man midfield against the Saints had it been Lucas and Gerrard, although I could also see a case for a 3-man midfield from the start. But with Allen and Gerrard as the only CMs we had no chance. Really, what the fuck was he thinking? How can a manager who knows his tactics, knows the league and has a cool head (which he showed in the Tottenham game) become so incompetent and indecisive in the next game? Baffling.
2. We had a decent enough first 15 minutes in the 2nd half. But after that our energy started to drop and Saints again started using the spaces in midfield that got for a time closed down because of Lucas's introduction, but now were too wide for him alone to cover (as Gerrard started throwing himself forward more in search on the equalizer). Any fan could tell an infusion of energy from another midfielder was needed. To wait until 85-minute to throw Henderson on was another inexplicable mistake.
3. Mentioning "top-4" again before the game. This was a similar situation to Villa and West Brom games: we come after a good run against a team we are confident of beating - there is a danger of our players not respecting the opponent enough. This is psychology, not superstition. And it's a pattern we all noticed - as soon as we start looking up the table and talking about top 4 before the game, we lose to a team we should never lose to. Rodgers wasn't as overt in his comments as he was before Villa and Brom, but he only half-learned his lesson, and it doesn't count.
And I don't agree with the view that players let him down today. No, with this lineup and tactics we were set up for failure. We had our best attacking 4 up front, but they were chasing shadows instead of attacking because we were completely overrun in midfield. Can you really blame Coutinho or Downing for this? Or even Gerrard and Allen? They were set up wrong from the start and even the half-time introduction of Lucas was too late.
Everybody gets starting lineup wrong from time to time, but Mourinho would have made the change after 15 minutes, if he saw his team being overrun like that. I think the players have to be completely absolved of any blame for this defeat, it's squarely on the manager.
1. Starting Allen over Lucas - inexplicable and disastrous. We might have been able to get away with a 2-man midfield against the Saints had it been Lucas and Gerrard, although I could also see a case for a 3-man midfield from the start. But with Allen and Gerrard as the only CMs we had no chance. Really, what the fuck was he thinking? How can a manager who knows his tactics, knows the league and has a cool head (which he showed in the Tottenham game) become so incompetent and indecisive in the next game? Baffling.
2. We had a decent enough first 15 minutes in the 2nd half. But after that our energy started to drop and Saints again started using the spaces in midfield that got for a time closed down because of Lucas's introduction, but now were too wide for him alone to cover (as Gerrard started throwing himself forward more in search on the equalizer). Any fan could tell an infusion of energy from another midfielder was needed. To wait until 85-minute to throw Henderson on was another inexplicable mistake.
3. Mentioning "top-4" again before the game. This was a similar situation to Villa and West Brom games: we come after a good run against a team we are confident of beating - there is a danger of our players not respecting the opponent enough. This is psychology, not superstition. And it's a pattern we all noticed - as soon as we start looking up the table and talking about top 4 before the game, we lose to a team we should never lose to. Rodgers wasn't as overt in his comments as he was before Villa and Brom, but he only half-learned his lesson, and it doesn't count.
And I don't agree with the view that players let him down today. No, with this lineup and tactics we were set up for failure. We had our best attacking 4 up front, but they were chasing shadows instead of attacking because we were completely overrun in midfield. Can you really blame Coutinho or Downing for this? Or even Gerrard and Allen? They were set up wrong from the start and even the half-time introduction of Lucas was too late.
Everybody gets starting lineup wrong from time to time, but Mourinho would have made the change after 15 minutes, if he saw his team being overrun like that. I think the players have to be completely absolved of any blame for this defeat, it's squarely on the manager.
