Unai Emery

[PaulWinch again]

That is interesting and mirrors some of my views - at least in as much as the lack of control in midfield is a key issue.

[jon collett]

That is interesting and mirrors some of my views - at least in as much as the lack of control in midfield is a key issue.

Mine too and I think he's struggled to work out his best side. I think the Onana injury may well do him a favour this weekend and hopefully might lead to a more settled team onwards.

[Demitri_C]

That article on BBC highlights why we are struggling beautifully.

Its clear duran and watkins cannot play together so this must be dumped and not done again.

[Chris Smith]

That article on BBC highlights why we are struggling beautifully.

Its clear duran and watkins cannot play together so this must be dumped and not done again.

I disagree with your last line, it must be worked on so that it becomes a reliable option rather just ditching it.

[Mister E]

Its clear duran and watkins cannot play together so this must be dumped and not done again.

It's really not that binary. If we choose to play Duran and Watkins together, it is the make-up of the midfield and supporting players around them that will determine its success. Taking off Rogers for Duran clearly wasn't a smart move at Spudddds.

I'd add that the use of the inverted fullback (in the article they mention Maatsen) would be extremely helpful in maintaining a more effective MF.

[Olneythelonely]

That article on BBC highlights why we are struggling beautifully.

Its clear duran and watkins cannot play together so this must be dumped and not done again.

I disagree with your last line, it must be worked on so that it becomes a reliable option rather just ditching it.

Also, it’s happened so rarely, them playing together is not a huge contributing factor. Our best striker by miles missing the last 20 minutes of every game might be.

[Demitri_C]

That article on BBC highlights why we are struggling beautifully.

Its clear duran and watkins cannot play together so this must be dumped and not done again.

I disagree with your last line, it must be worked on so that it becomes a reliable option rather just ditching it.

I hope it will work but its not worked and as the bbc report says it effects our shape like we saw vs spurs which spurs totally took advantage of.

Just dont seem to compliment each other at the moment

[Drummond]

That article on BBC highlights why we are struggling beautifully.

Its clear duran and watkins cannot play together so this must be dumped and not done again.

I disagree with your last line, it must be worked on so that it becomes a reliable option rather just ditching it.

I hope it will work but its not worked and as the bbc report says it effects our shape like we saw vs spurs which spurs totally took advantage of.

Just dont seem to compliment each other at the moment

Nah, they've both said nice things about each other recently.

[Demitri_C]

That article on BBC highlights why we are struggling beautifully.

Its clear duran and watkins cannot play together so this must be dumped and not done again.

I disagree with your last line, it must be worked on so that it becomes a reliable option rather just ditching it.

I hope it will work but its not worked and as the bbc report says it effects our shape like we saw vs spurs which spurs totally took advantage of.

Just dont seem to compliment each other at the moment

Nah, they've both said nice things about each other recently.

😂

[Smithy]

Has anyone got any idea why we don't play a high line any more?

I think its because our teams become slower and if a player with pace gets in behind our high line we are stuffed. Either that or unai just felt we got found put towards end of last season

Our back 4 has been the same as last season. How has it become slower?

Injuries mainly I would guess. We have only played three times in the league this season with the same defense. Unai maybe thinks it is a bit risky to expect players coming back from injury to be fully up to speed and play the high line.

That might be true. I think it’s more likely a deeper tactical change than that though.

I suppose we’ll see if it returns at some point.

A high-line ONLY works if you are pressing high, and limiting time on the ball for the opposition's ball-playing midfielders.  The moment you give any time to a player who can competently play 40 yard passes, you're screwed - because then it just becomes a case of "when" a forward times his run, rather than "if".  We were at our best with a high-line when that transferred that into a high-intensity high-pressing game.  We don't seem to press as high or as aggressively this season - and I don't know if that's by design, or just the personnel on the pitch make it harder, but it does seem pretty glaring some times.

We also feel slower in our build up, but that might also be part of the fact we're now a "Champions League" club, which means some teams will defend differently, and deeper against us, so quick, piercing attacks happen less often.

What I do know, is that I trust Unai and his team to figure out the required tweaks so that our current style becomes more effective, or to ditch it for something else.  What they won't do is keep doing something indefinitely that isn't working.

[Smithy]

I'm sorry, but getting done at a corner because we didn't leave a single player back isn't 'small details' it's just terrible tactics. I don't know if it's more MacPhee's domain than Unai's, but to then repeat the same mistake nearly leading to another goal a few minutes later is unbelievable. I keep banging on about it, and I will do until it improves, but the defence is awful, and has been for nearly a year. However hard Unai is working, he hasn't solved that issue, or even got close to sorting it.

Getting done from our own corner, twice, was sickening, but for the first, every single Liverpool player is in the box, with Salah on the penalty spot being their most advanced player.  Nunez was on the front post.  We had both Digne and Bailey outside the box to pick up clearances (I'm assuming Bailey to use his pace in case of a break). I don't think the fact that Salah and Nunez then both sprinted away from our players is a "tactical" mistake.  I just think they were much more switched on to the potential break than our lot.   Onana, supposedly our most defensive-minded midfielder, was stood waiting for the ball to come back into the box while Nunez has run thirty yards past him up the field.

I do think our approach to corners was risky, but I also think the players handled it very badly.  Too many of them switched off and didn't go with their runners when the corner broke down.  I can't believe they were under instruction to let those forwards go without tracking their runs.

It will be interesting to see how many we commit at our first corner tomorrow, as I'm quite sure teams will be trying to replicate Liverpools success against us on the break.

[nick harper]

That article on BBC highlights why we are struggling beautifully.

Its clear duran and watkins cannot play together so this must be dumped and not done again.

I disagree with your last line, it must be worked on so that it becomes a reliable option rather just ditching it.

Also, it’s happened so rarely, them playing together is not a huge contributing factor. Our best striker by miles missing the last 20 minutes of every game might be.

I agree with this. I think Watkins form and confidence is being affected by the thought he hasn’t got much more than an hour per game. We know he doesn’t react well to competition which is part of his make up unfortunately but we are a better side when he is leading the line.

[eye digress]

That is interesting and mirrors some of my views - at least in as much as the lack of control in midfield is a key issue.

Mine too and I think he's struggled to work out his best side. I think the Onana injury may well do him a favour this weekend and hopefully might lead to a more settled team onwards.

Someone's going to lock you in a room with Percy, Carlos and Konsa before long... 😀

[Risso]

What I do know, is that I trust Unai and his team to figure out the required tweaks so that our current style becomes more effective, or to ditch it for something else.  What they won't do is keep doing something indefinitely that isn't working.

The defence hasn't been working for nearly a year now, when are they going to tweak/fix that?

[Chris Smith]

What I do know, is that I trust Unai and his team to figure out the required tweaks so that our current style becomes more effective, or to ditch it for something else.  What they won't do is keep doing something indefinitely that isn't working.

The defence hasn't been working for nearly a year now, when are they going to tweak/fix that?

Although that BBC article suggests is perhaps not quite as bad as we imagine, it’s individual errors rather than the way we setup that is the major problem.

 “ They’re making far too many errors leading to shots - nine already, compared with 11 across the whole of last season - but their expected goals against per 90 minutes statistic is actually down, from 1.56 per 90 last season to 1.08 (not including penalties).
That's the fourth best score in the division behind Arsenal, Nottingham Forest and Liverpool.”