Football: Boehly has a little Lamp

[Spockydog]

And whose fault is that? 

[polishgenius]

6 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

Mudryk. Lol. 

Hey, he's probably in the top 15 left-sided forwards/wingers in the league? I think? Maybe?

 

2 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Idk how good he is or not, but it feels like the team is largely comprised of a bunch of overpaid players that don't clearly fit. 

 

It is and it's not all his fault, but he doesn't seem to have any ideas to sort it out. And he's just bad at getting teams working in the final third. The fact that Brighton turned into a scoring machine the instant he left proves that, and we're starting to see some of the same shortcomings at Chelsea now. 

 

He's too afraid of letting his players play through the lines. It's always hold on to the ball, go around, until they have to put a ball into the box, by which time defences are set and the shots get rushed. 
 

[Raja]

Feel bad for Mudryk.  Not his fault how much chelsea paid. Chelsea is just not the place to go in it's current state to try and develop as a player

[polishgenius]

6 minutes ago, Raja said:

Feel bad for Mudryk.  Not his fault how much chelsea paid. Chelsea is just not the place to go in it's current state to try and develop as a player

 

I'm not even sure what role he's meant to be playing today, and I don't think he is either.

He's definitely not being put into positions to take players on directly, which is what his best strength clearly is. It's baffling tactics. 

[Spockydog]

I don't feel sorry for him at all. He chose money over sporting glory. And his neck tattoos are abominable. Glad I don't have to look at them every week. Twat. 

[The Sunland Lord]

Peak Lukaku & Inter moment

Spoiler: he missed this

[A Horse Named Stranger]

1 hour ago, polishgenius said:

It is and it's not all his fault, but he doesn't seem to have any ideas to sort it out. And he's just bad at getting teams working in the final third. The fact that Brighton turned into a scoring machine the instant he left proves that, and we're starting to see some of the same shortcomings at Chelsea now. 

Chelsea had been struggling to score under Tuchel, too.

Don't get me wrong, I said back then, that the Tuchel sacking felt harsh, as nothing was really broken for them at that moment, and Chelsea might have very well been safely in the top four by now had they kept Tuchel.

I think it's a bit too early to label Potter a bust just yet. They are still in the CL. So there's a still chance to salvage this season for them. But they really have to show signs of significant improvement rather sooner than later.

Chelsea's scatter gun approach to signings under Boehly is the real issue.

They sign young and promising players, give them very long term contracts (7-8 years) and hope they pan out. Mudryk is one of them. This is a high risk approach. And the question is, what happens if they don't develop. Then they are stuck with those players for the duration of their contracts, for which they (then) overpaid. And with their bookkeeping trick to write off the transfer fee over the course of their contract, that means that they will also impact their transfer budget for the next seven seasons - with little chance of getting their initial investment back.

I mean, we've all been looking with a mixture of amusement/anger/horror at Barcelona engaging in those high risk gambles (pulling a lever at a casino), Chelsea is essentially doing something very similar. If things go bad, they go really bad.

[Raja]

2 hours ago, Spockydog said:

I don't feel sorry for him at all. He chose money over sporting glory. And his neck tattoos are abominable. Glad I don't have to look at them every week. Twat. 

Nah, I think it was his club more than him given that chelsea were paying more up front than we were.

3 hours ago, polishgenius said:

He's definitely not being put into positions to take players on directly, which is what his best strength clearly is.

I guess that can be difficult in a 3-5-2, I need to look at where he was playing properly but he defo did not seem like he was getting into 1v1s close to the touch line

[polishgenius]

Fucking lmao

[Iskaral Pust]

7 hours ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

Till now I was of the opinion that 3 high quality players next season would be enough for Klopp to work with, but now I think anything less than 5 players and we won't make top 4 next season too.

Too many players have looked disinterested on top of any fatigue.  VVD and TAA seem like the worst cases of no fucks left to give.  I know I’m a broken record but that squad looks burnt out.  

[Rorshach]

Not sure what happened to VVD, he's been shockingly passive this season. 

TAA, on the other hand, I suspect has lost all confidence. He's been a top class back for several seasons, having played on a system where he could showcase his strengths and have the system compensate for his weaknesses. 

Now, the system doesn't help him in attack, and he's exposed defensively. So he's more or less in a situation where he can't utilize his strengths, and opposition is constantly harping on his weaknesses. Granted, a top class RB should be able to cope somewhat, but he doesn't seem to be able to.

[Consigliere]

11 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Too many players have looked disinterested on top of any fatigue.  VVD and TAA seem like the worst cases of no fucks left to give.  I know I’m a broken record but that squad looks burnt out.  

I think this is the correct assessment. On paper, Liverpool has a strong squad. Certainly better than United's, Newcastle's and Spurs'. The only area that needs beefing up is midfield with 2–3 signings. The problem this season is that the players look burnt out and we shouldn't discount the mental fatigue as well. Liverpool have had 97, 99 and 92 point seasons and only one league title to show for it. Coming so close to achieving the greatest season in English football history only to lose out on the league title by a single point to City yet again and lose the CL final to Real yet again must have shattered the players.

[BigFatCoward]

7 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

Coming so close to achieving the greatest season in English football history only to lose out on the league title by a single point to City yet again and lose the CL final to Real yet again must have shattered the players.

I don't think this is in doubt and I imagine the biggest issue. To come away with only a league/FA Cup double will weigh on them forever. 

[polishgenius]

3 hours ago, Rorschach - 2 said:

Now, the system doesn't help him in attack, and he's exposed defensively. So he's more or less in a situation where he can't utilize his strengths, and opposition is constantly harping on his weaknesses. Granted, a top class RB should be able to cope somewhat, but he doesn't seem to be able to.

The TAA thing is the one part where I think Klopp is singularly, unequivocally and unforgivably at fault. He's fucking throwing the kid to the wolves, week after week, refusing to alter the system to help him and seemingly unable to coach him into something closer to what's needed. 

[ljkeane]

So the Alexander-Arnold thing to me is a bit down to the media narrative around him. For a lot of the last few years he's been the best attacking right back in world football but he's not been getting into the England team. Because it's England and he's a Liverpool player that attracts a lot of attention and the reason why is his defending. So the media give more attention to his defensive errors than basically any other defender in the league.

To a degree that's not incorrect analysis, Trippier and Walker are better defensively than him and Southgate cares about that more than their attacking attributes. When you look at the stats though he's not a good defender but he's basically about average. The problem is the combination of being a sort of median level defender and being asked to push forward so much in Liverpool's system so obviously teams are going to play in behind him and with the press not functioning it's looking pretty easy to do that this year.

ETA: With Van Dijk he's always been quite a passive defender for as long as possible to try and delay attackers and allow his team mates to get back in. The problem this year is his team mates aren't getting back effectively. On top of that since his knee injury I don't think he quite has the acceleration he used to to snap in and take the ball when he does decide to make a challenge.

[BigFatCoward]

The only way TAA should get near any team is as a wing back. If you aren't going to change formation to accommodate, you might as well cashin and buy a proper right back. 

[Consigliere]

TAA is fine as an attacking RB. He needs the midfield to cover for him defensively though and that has not happened this season so he's been exposed defensively but also has to push forward because he is absolutely crucial to Liverpool's attack as he's the teams best creative player. Liverpool's midfield were pressing monsters and probably the most adept in the league at disrupting the opposition but that aspect of their game has fallen off a cliff this season.

[Rorshach]

12 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

The only way TAA should get near any team is as a wing back. If you aren't going to change formation to accommodate, you might as well cashin and buy a proper right back. 

Think that's harsh. Coleman was a useless defender when he first came to Everton. His positioning was poor, and from the Irish league he seemed to be used to getting out of trouble through his speed. So for the first year or so at Everton, Moyes played him as a winger. 

His loan at Blackpool didn't help at all, since Holloway didn't train defenders either. 

But after that, over a season or so, Moyes had him drilled defensively, and he became rather a good RB. So TAA can become good too, but if so he needs his manager to actually focus on that side of his game.

[Consigliere]

 

[Darryk]

So how much of Leicester's decline is down to Rogers and how much down to their financial restrictions?