robsblubot

Think Andreas is still ahead of tomori, who does look like an amazing prospect - must be said. tomori is very fast, strong, and actually good on the ball (twice as good as zouma). What he is lacking right now is discipline and, well experience. For example, he puts pool player onside when kepa saves azpi bounce. He’s just very focused on the player he’s watching and misses the line push. Experience.

You hit the nail right there: football is not about performance or volume of play, or who looks good on the ball. It’s about scoring and not conceding, so when we say we played better in the second half, that is true, but deserved to win? Nope 2 clear cut chances is the second bats was a free header and they both went wide. Tammy misses 1x1 in the first - at least on goal, but still poor finishing. and no it’s not being unlucky. It’s lack of quality and inexperience. Suspect we have few shots on target today actually.

I seem to always watch a different game than you guys. The team is overly using alonso on the left as an escape route. Bc his first touch is good and he can pass. O he’s not fast, so he needs players around him to get behind the opposition line. When he does get behind their line, the balls were actually very good. A perfect cross to bats and an assist to mount. That’s pretty good in my book. why bats is playing is a mystery to me. He and Tammy are the same player, while Tammy is better. The fact tammy missed that free header sums up how shitty his sub was... what the fuck was frank thinking.

2 great balls by alonso and both players fucked up. Bats then Mount.

Wow! Kante!,,, what a goal! much better second half btw. Zouma needs to stop giving the ball away tho.

Firmino is the fucking striker and wears #9, so why is he always unmarked!?

Tomori speed help alonso. Might even push him up since his crosses seem to be causing pool some problem, for a change.

I do too. But as poor as Willian final ball is, and it fucking is, he’s one of the few players able to keep the ball for longer than a second. Our direct play has been ok, but we can only play in that style, which is a big problem in here kind of games. the team is both inexperienced and disorganized. We are just a tier below Liverpool... it’s that simple. we need to come back sharper and compete in 5e second because otherwise they will score a couple more.

Have to disagree with you better team by far is winning. they are controlling the game. Tammy is having a very poor game and mount has been poor as well. We can’t keep the ball and as a result are constantly under threat.

Well firmino scored and Tammy put it wide... ;(

Lol fouls in that area will always be difficult to defend against and set pieces are a mystery to frank. azpi was haven’t a great game - stupid foul.

Easy game for liverpool

What a clearance by azpi, but this won’t last unless we start playing footy. Very much a Liverpool game so far.

Agee regarding Moses, but not Alonso. even if I did not like him as a player, I do, his numbers during the winning campaign are kinda hard to dismiss. and much of what I saw during that time reappeared just like magic when he’s back in the wb position. that’s one can of worms tho - we’ve been there before. btw, my point above was that even if Moses did an ok job in that position, Pedro could’ve done that too against Valencia.

you probably refer to azpi. azpi is a renown defender, regardless of position. Never really considered good at attacking. So, the problem wasn’t so much that azpi wasn’t playing cb, but that he was playing in the most ineffective position for a player of his characteristics. Also, the 3 cbs aren’t good at joining the middle either, like luiz did, so that also hurt us in that formation. so, a far better manager wins the pl with azpi playing cb very well and in every match. Now the first time frank uses a 3cb formation, he ignores all that? Perhaps azpi would have been used to playing cb in a 3cb? btw I did think that was the wrong choices to face Valencia at home(posted on match thread before the game).

Pedro? Yes even Willian. In my view the wb need to be more midfielders than defenders, otherwise the system becomes too defensive. We won he league with Moses these, so hes, yeah pretty sure Pedro can do about the same. @bigbluewillie Unfair... Did I not explicitly state what I disagreed with? Don’t even have a problem with his starting xi, aside from zouma heh (and Valencia weird formation), but more with his match management. do people here really think that frank is close, as a manager to say, conte, or even sarri, really?

I also had another reason to doubt eden would be a huge hit in RM. he’s not a hard worker, so he needs players to cover for him and a system working for him. this is very familiar to what I see in Brazil nt over the years. When you have too many stars, it may be difficult to convince them that they have to work hard. And sometimes even if convinced, the players can only do that once or twice, but not consistently enough. This leaves the team unbalanced. I think he will settle there, well because he’s a very good player. He will never be a bit huge hit there tho, or at least no bigger what he was here. at least that’s my take before things unfold.

Think frank is underusing giroud. Tammy had a poor first half against Valencia and should have been subbed off at halftime or early second half. thats part of the learning as well. Start him again against Liverpool, but show him what he was not doing, via different player. also did not like azpi as rwb. Wrong player for that position. Conte won the fucking league with azpi as a cb in that formation! Any clues?! have to be honest here: I dislike frank as a manager so far.

Right at which point, we will have more information as to which tier each one these youngsters will belong. having mount close to odoi in terms of wages and performances isn’t bad at all! I’m not as confident about the others, regardless whether they will become good players or not.

Think odoi being only 18 actually helps here, because he will be around 23-24 when the deal ends, at which time he either has fulfilled his potential or not. I just can’t believe some folks still think this has anything to do sarri. All we know about contracts, or any negotiations, is that leverage is everything and we had none.

And his passing in the middle is actually good, joining the midfield and cutting inside work well when he’s wb. Not to mention free kicks. Imo it is very important for the wb to help the middle, which I think azpi does not do enough of and why he should play cb in that formation. But yeah Emerson is better at LB.

Fair enough, but even then that's not exactly it. He may choose to give minutes to a youngster who's still far inferior to the senior counterpart. So, it's more like a number of goals that the manager is evaluated on and reckon the weight of these goals also varies depending on the club ambition. Reckon, as said before here, that the club fully understands the situation we are in, therefore, Frank's goals might be more about long-term than usual.

So athletico beat internacional in Porto Alegre yay! watched the game and Bruno Guimarães was a bit subdued. Kept on trying to slow down and control tempo, but the game did not agree with him. It was a topical final with all players giving a lot physically. its normal tho - he’s only 21 and it’s his first big final. Won the cup all the same tho so congrats to him. Aside from Bruno, athletico has got 3 other very interesting players: the two cbs bambu 21 and leo Pereira 23, and the winger rony, 24.

Not true. Match management involves the whole season, hence why there is rotation. Games are not equal nor are player form and fitness over a long season. They may think pulisic needs time to settle to the tempo of the pl or perhaps even improve physically, who knows? franks message is the odd part, given pulisic has plenty of CL experience and would have been comfortable with Valencia slow tempo. i guess is just another case of frank also learning on the job.

Odd... And hasn’t pulisic played cL already? pedro was really bad, it he was coming back from injury, so hope he improves from that.