Gerrard In or Out?

[Chris Smith]

Why are people talking about shape? Is that what you think the difference was yesterday, shape? That a tactical tweak yesterday was what happened 2nd half? I'd be curious to know why. Neither manager impacted the game in a meaningful way 2nd half.

Conte didn't need to. The difference was, Son. He's world class. If he wore claret and blue, he'd have scored 6 yesterday. But he doesn't and we're absolutely his bunny. 3 shots, 3 goals, poor individual defending from our centre halves. Not shape, not closing lines or low blocs or gengenpress, just a player that has the highest chance conversion rate in the league, almost twice that of Salah. And he gets to play with Kane. While we have Danny "he's 5 years younger than me? No fucking way" Ings and Ollie "Gavin McCann hold my pint" Watkins.

Spurs didn't defend better than us, they gave up a raft of chances. The games simple and goals change games, there's a cliché that is appropriate.

Yes, Son is world class but our shape made us easy to break against which gave him the opportunity to show it. It’s a recurring theme.

[Risso]

We had a system based on wing play and now we are very narrow leaving multi-millions worth of talent (Traore, Bailey) completely surplus to requirements. That is a definite shift and a big one.

Did you happen to watch any of Bailey's games under Smith? He played in 6 and we lost 5 of them. His performance against Southampton was as bad anything I ever saw N'Zogbia do (or not do, as the case may be). He's been an utter disaster of a signing so far.

As for the youth, who out of them played very much under Smith? Ramsey last year, which has carried on this year. Chukwuemeka had one sub appearance under Smith in the league this season, he's had 8 under Gerrard. Promising youngsters like Archer are out getting much needed and valuable league experience. Keinan Davis was mostly left to rot before, now he's got his career back on track with a loan at Forest.

I know things are a bit shit at the moment but there's no need to make things up to try to make them look worse than they are.

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Why are people talking about shape? Is that what you think the difference was yesterday, shape? That a tactical tweak yesterday was what happened 2nd half? I'd be curious to know why. Neither manager impacted the game in a meaningful way 2nd half.

Conte didn't need to. The difference was, Son. He's world class. If he wore claret and blue, he'd have scored 6 yesterday. But he doesn't and we're absolutely his bunny. 3 shots, 3 goals, poor individual defending from our centre halves. Not shape, not closing lines or low blocs or gengenpress, just a player that has the highest chance conversion rate in the league, almost twice that of Salah. And he gets to play with Kane. While we have Danny "he's 5 years younger than me? No fucking way" Ings and Ollie "Gavin McCann hold my pint" Watkins.

Spurs didn't defend better than us, they gave up a raft of chances. The games simple and goals change games, there's a cliché that is appropriate.

Yes, Son is world class but our shape made us easy to break against which gave him the opportunity to show it. It’s a recurring theme.

You're chasing a game, it gets stretched. The timing of the 2nd killed it really. We ought to have had at least 3 in the first. You cannot excuse that, not when you're playing a side who are (annoyingly) 4th.

This isn't the Championship when you're waiting for the first mistake. We're generous in our defending and generous in our profligacy.

[Risso]

What's this major philosophy change? Smith mainly played 4-3-3 and we're playing 4-3-3. All managers are different and all are going to have their own style, even if it fits within certain parameters. Who else would we have got who would have played in excactly the same style as Smith, who deprived of Grealish was leading us into a relegation battle, let's not forget.

I think what's been referred to is the plan to bring through the youth, rather than the playing style. I might be wrong but I'm sure Gerrard has come out and said wants players who are going to do it for him now. The likes of Chuck have not had a look in at all the last few games. It does seem a bit of a waste.

He had one sub appearance under Smith. Whether he should be getting more chances is another thing, but there's been no big shift in policy.

[Beard82]

Yeah but they were able to go direct in the second half with longer balls and cut out our team.

Clearly they have better players and we shouldn’t have missed out chances but we made it easy for them at points

[cdbearsfan]

Not sure. But if there's no improvement by May, get rid. Every time we sack a manager we have to put up with the "you can't get a top manager mid-season" cliche. I'd rather we got a world class manager in May than went shopping for the best available in October. And, if he goes, Purslow has to go too. No more appointing someone because they're your mate or they had a good playing career.

He was very unlucky yesterday, though. We could have been four-one up at half-time.

[brian green]

Things are not a bit shit.  They are dire.

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Yeah but they were able to go direct in the second half with longer balls and cut out our team.

Clearly they have better players and we shouldn’t have missed out chances but we made it easy for them at points

They were looking for the long diagonal in the first half, we just pressed them better to cut it out. The 3rd was such amateurish defending, why you'd go to engage there I don't know.

But if the game is 3-1 to you and the crowd is bouncing, you find your legs. If all you can see is blue seats and everytime Son goes near our box he scores, confidence wanes and so does your press.

[Beard82]

Yeah but they were able to go direct in the second half with longer balls and cut out our team.

Clearly they have better players and we shouldn’t have missed out chances but we made it easy for them at points

They were looking for the long diagonal in the first half, we just pressed them better to cut it out. The 3rd was such amateurish defending, why you'd go to engage there I don't know.

But if the game is 3-1 to you and the crowd is bouncing, you find your legs. If all you can see is blue seats and everytime Son goes near our box he scores, confidence wanes and so does your press.

Undoubtably if we take even one of those chances it’s a completely different game

[AlexAlexCropley]

Yeah but they were able to go direct in the second half with longer balls and cut out our team.

Clearly they have better players and we shouldn’t have missed out chances but we made it easy for them at points

They were looking for the long diagonal in the first half, we just pressed them better to cut it out. The 3rd was such amateurish defending, why you'd go to engage there I don't know.

But if the game is 3-1 to you and the crowd is bouncing, you find your legs. If all you can see is blue seats and everytime Son goes near our box he scores, confidence wanes and so does your press.

I was wondering when you were going to use the empty seat card again.Bingo!

[Clampy]

What's this major philosophy change? Smith mainly played 4-3-3 and we're playing 4-3-3. All managers are different and all are going to have their own style, even if it fits within certain parameters. Who else would we have got who would have played in excactly the same style as Smith, who deprived of Grealish was leading us into a relegation battle, let's not forget.

I think what's been referred to is the plan to bring through the youth, rather than the playing style. I might be wrong but I'm sure Gerrard has come out and said wants players who are going to do it for him now. The likes of Chuck have not had a look in at all the last few games. It does seem a bit of a waste.

He had one sub appearance under Smith. Whether he should be getting more chances is another thing, but there's been no big shift in policy.

That's wrong. He started a couple of games at least under Smith and got off the bench a bit more often. The last time I remember him playing was when he came on in the 2-2 draw against Man Utd.

[Risso]

Things are not a bit shit.  They are dire.

No, things were dire under Smith and we were in a relegation battle. At the moment we're safe in midtable in a bad run of form.

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Yeah but they were able to go direct in the second half with longer balls and cut out our team.

Clearly they have better players and we shouldn’t have missed out chances but we made it easy for them at points

They were looking for the long diagonal in the first half, we just pressed them better to cut it out. The 3rd was such amateurish defending, why you'd go to engage there I don't know.

But if the game is 3-1 to you and the crowd is bouncing, you find your legs. If all you can see is blue seats and everytime Son goes near our box he scores, confidence wanes and so does your press.

Undoubtably if we take even one of those chances it’s a completely different game

Yep, what does £55m worth of strikers get you? No guarantee of goals these days unfortunately. Some of the chances were harder to miss.

[cdbearsfan]

Not being in a relegation battle might be considered a success for Norwich or Fulham. Not for us.

[Ads]

Yeah but they were able to go direct in the second half with longer balls and cut out our team.

Clearly they have better players and we shouldn’t have missed out chances but we made it easy for them at points

They were looking for the long diagonal in the first half, we just pressed them better to cut it out. The 3rd was such amateurish defending, why you'd go to engage there I don't know.

But if the game is 3-1 to you and the crowd is bouncing, you find your legs. If all you can see is blue seats and everytime Son goes near our box he scores, confidence wanes and so does your press.

I was wondering when you were going to use the empty seat card again.Bingo!

What do you win?