The bog standard 4-4-2 at home won't do anything except make us play in exactly the same way we have for 10 years. There's no going back - as a club, if we want to play well and win at home, we have to do things we have never done before, and just fucking move on from the same old Britisher tactics that just couldn't be more screamingly inadequate.
We are desperately short of an attacking midfielder who can unlock defences, like Ben Arfa. It's painfully obvious and must be addressed.
Quote from: Montbert on September 15, 2013, 01:55:15 PMThe bog standard 4-4-2 at home won't do anything except make us play in exactly the same way we have for 10 years. There's no going back - as a club, if we want to play well and win at home, we have to do things we have never done before, and just fucking move on from the same old Britisher tactics that just couldn't be more screamingly inadequate.The problem is I'm not sure we've got the quality to play the more modern, attractive approach. Were trying to play with a certain subtlety, but ending up looking even more unrefined than if we were playing the old school 4-4-2. I'd love to see us to dominate home games and dictate the tempo of games but we don't have the quality in midfield. What we do have is solid players to put in the middle, and pace on the flanks. I think looking at our squad, if anyone is going to possess a bit of guile, its probably one of our forwards. Certainly Benteke, potentially Helenius. Again though, not signing the "number 10" is going to cause us problems. The frustrating thing is, that given how Lambert apparently aspires to play, that sort of player is essential and he's not signed a single player of that ilk yet. Hes signed 4 six foot center forwards though. I can only see us struggling if we continue setting up like we have been at home. There's no subtlety. Keep Gabby quiet and you're half way there. Keep Benteke isolated and we're buggered.
Now, he could actually play better stuff than we did yesterday with the players that we have, just by training them to do it. Players will revert under high-pressure to what they feel comfortable with, and if you train them to feel comfortable passing and moving then they'll revert to that. As it was, they reverted to bypassing the midfield hopelessly for long spells of the game yesterday. It was clueless.
It's a good idea that, Mister E. It would feel harsh to drop Gabby though - as bad as the miss was yesterday he has been one of our most incisive threats this season.
This is not a recent thing. In last 10 years we have only won 78 home games, lost 50 and drawn 62. Thats an average of 8 home wins a year and just 28 points a season. Just twice we have got to 10 wins. At least twice its cost us a really good go at the top 4.
I suspect more teams will also have us figured out when we play on their patch. I think we'll struggle to get a really solid run of away form again like we have done on occasions in the last few years. If we don't sort out our home form, we'll be in trouble. I actually think resorting to a bog standard 4-4-2 might be the way to do it at home. Have Gabby and Tonev on either flank and perhaps have one of our front men dropping off slightly, either Benteke or Helenius. At least that way we can introduce a bit of width to our game and try and get crosses into the box for the big men, as well as help out our fullbacks defensively, because they're our weak link at the moment. I don't think our centerbacks have been all that bad. We have to resign ourselves to the fact that we're not technically proficient enough to play a possession game. In all honesty, the way to go about it, is the O Neill way. Play at a high tempo get the ball wide as much as we can and feed the two front men. It's not pretty but I'd rather be average at home than piss poor. Our away form will be good enough on the whole I suspect.What with Albrighton still at the club, might he be a worthwhile option to slip in wide right? He works hard, he provides width. It's for want of a better option granted, but it's also surely his last season at the club to try and make the grade. If he got back to his form under Houllier, he'd be an asset, particularly with Lowton to overlap.