Why can't we hold on?

[ForeverAndEver 71,364]

27 minutes ago, jintybear said:

Did I miss the fact that we actually qualified? Did people see the group of champions league teams that we overcame to qualify? 

IMO we were knackered pure and simple. Sunday the players gave their all and last night in the first half they did the same 

Porto is the only team that can be considered a CL team considering Feyenoord’s been in it once in 16 years and I think YB have only ever been in it once ever

[ForeverAndEver 71,364]

It’s a pain in the arse. Happens all the time and we canny seem to push foward 

[Prso's headband 35,340]

Lack of killer instinct from the rest of our forwards other than Morelos. 

He’s ran in at an angle, 90% chance it’s coming off the keeper, not one of Aribo, Kent or Arfield gambled last night or on Sunday for a tap in. 

Twice it happened last night and once on Sunday. Needs to be addressed, we’d always have a player ready waiting for the tap in when balls like that are coming in from out wide

[dougie76 15,356]

11 hours ago, Bristol loyal said:

We sit back and invite pressure. I’ve said so many times defending a one goal lead is madness.

We are not good enough for it, we are far more dangerous when we take the game to teams. Yes it's hard to do that for 90 minutes but we need to be smarter in future as better teams will punish us with that second half display.

[MacBoyd 5,431]

We are a terrible park the bus side 

[theiconicman 2,975]

12 hours ago, j1mgg said:

We seem to shoot ourselves so many times in the foot, so many points dropped.

Because the reality is, we're not that great a team. Gerrard has done a fantastic job in taking a bunch of journeymen and getting them punching above their weight, but inevitably, we drop back to our level.

From that team last, night, only McGregor, Barisic and Morelos are European level.

Jack, Kent might get there.

Goldson, Katic, Taverneir, Arfield, Aribo, Kamara aren't. Ojo is a waste of a jersey.

 

[chris182 6,279]

24 minutes ago, Prso's headband said:

Lack of killer instinct from the rest of our forwards other than Morelos. 

He’s ran in at an angle, 90% chance it’s coming off the keeper, not one of Aribo, Kent or Arfield gambled last night or on Sunday for a tap in. 

Twice it happened last night and once on Sunday. Needs to be addressed, we’d always have a player ready waiting for the tap in when balls like that are coming in from out wide

SG spoke about this in his last few post match interviews. "The forwards need to be braver and get up in support"

[Bobby Hume 12,983]

15 hours ago, the brown brogue said:

I don't know if it's in the players subconscious now, but against Aberdeen you knew we weren't winning that game when it went 2 all, against the tarriers you just knew they were going to score with their only chance and tonight you just knew we were going to give something away the deeper and deeper we dropped. Once our effort and intensity levels drop we really struggle to raise them again and we lack a real character to drag the team through tricky spells, much like Gerrard himself did many times.

I think a lot of our squad are running on empty though, but they need to dig deep, put in a few massive performances over the next couple of weeks and hopefully recharge the batteries for a real title challenge after the winter break 

Good post mate 

..... only the last bit fills me with dread .... I hate all these breaks ... as ... like the International ones .... we always seem to come back  somewhat disjointed and struggle to get back into our stride .... I hope our coaching staff  will have recognised this occurrence .... and make sure it doesn't happen this time around .... it is vital we come out the traps at full speed if we want to be serious about winning the league this season.

🇬🇧

 

[Johnstone Burgh 1,637]

4 hours ago, ForeverAndEver said:

Porto is the only team that can be considered a CL team considering Feyenoord’s been in it once in 16 years and I think YB have only ever been in it once ever

To be fair YB are back to back Swiss champions and the league leaders this season, they are a far better side than many on here think. Doesn’t change the fact we should have beaten them last night and probably away as well. 

[Laudrup1690 1,064]

16 hours ago, j1mgg said:

We seem to shoot ourselves so many times in the foot, so many points dropped.

Because they punted it up field and there big striker mis controlled it and it fell nicely for there play to shoot.

last night was just unlucky nothing more 

[Jimfanciesthedude 24,494]

Im gonna defend the team here (fuck off you lot) but their goal was one hell of a lucky touch to start it, then borna deflecting it in, 99 times out of a hundred that bounces to our keeper 

Last night young boys started launching 60 yard long balls, completely missing out our midfield that dominated the whole first half, when teams start playing they kind of long balls you can't help but drop deep as they force you to

Their goal was massive luck, another night they dont come close to scoring at all, we played well and defended resolutely, 

[Thermopylae 15,286]

Obviously very pleased to be in Europe after Christmas for the first time in a while but again we just didn't quite do it in a big game 

[Boybluesy 3,693]

First half we were brilliant.  Coming off Sunday's game we were always going to have a dip at some period in this game. Mentally and physically.

[loyalfollower 1,543]

When we get in good positions we seem to make a bad choice with the pass I.e when to release the ball, which player to pass to, fancy back heel, or not quite hitting the pass with enough purpose.

all would be remedied with superior players or extra training.  Add in Morelos and how he likes to go low and hard all the time- maybe mix it up a little and show more composure.  He’s got 25 goals this year but with the misses he’s had could be touching 40 in all comps.

the midfield bar jack seem to opt for the pass rather than shoot in good positions, the centre backs don’t get enough headers on target from set plays and can be at times equally as bad at defending set plays.

all this can be worked on.

[BILLYBOY50 1,638]

19 hours ago, GA1972 said:

Inviting pressure far too much and horrendous at defending set pieces 

Think the last good goal someone actually scored against us was the boy at Porto sticking it top bin from outside the box since then we’ve conceded 6 goals that I can think of (2 Aberdeen, 2 Feyenoord, Scum and YB) and every one of them have been comical defending apart from the blatant offside 

100% correct mate we are losing goals that we shouldn't and if we can cut them out then we might just have a chance of winning some silverware at last.

[delparlane 5,639]

15 hours ago, Prso's headband said:

Lack of killer instinct from the rest of our forwards other than Morelos. 

He’s ran in at an angle, 90% chance it’s coming off the keeper, not one of Aribo, Kent or Arfield gambled last night or on Sunday for a tap in. 

Twice it happened last night and once on Sunday. Needs to be addressed, we’d always have a player ready waiting for the tap in when balls like that are coming in from out wide

This. The lack of support/awareness up front can be absolutely maddening. Should be common sense, especially for footballers plying their trade at a professional level!

[Ben10 2,257]

I think his name is Goldson

[KingKirk 25,602]

Thursday it was fatigue Sunday's effects could be seen the last 20mins

[ChampionsAgain 1,373]

8 minutes ago, KingKirk said:

Thursday it was fatigue Sunday's effects could be seen the last 20mins

Agreed. Makes bringing on only 1 sub all the more baffling for me 

[Bertent 2,081]

Lack of self belief, and in some cases ability. 

[Dave Hedgehog 10,673]

A serious lack of a winning mentality coupled by a tactic of sitting on slender leads is why we can’t hold on.

You could see our whole teams mentality change as soon as we sat in. Started to panic in possession. Failure to do the basics in simple situations. Tavernier at the end with the 3 on 1 counter from the free kick was actually embarrassingly bad. 

[BILLYBOY50 1,638]

1 hour ago, Dave Hedgehog said:

A serious lack of a winning mentality coupled by a tactic of sitting on slender leads is why we can’t hold on.

You could see our whole teams mentality change as soon as we sat in. Started to panic in possession. Failure to do the basics in simple situations. Tavernier at the end with the 3 on 1 counter from the free kick was actually embarrassingly bad. 

Great post but hopefully this is something that can be worked on and eradicated quickly. 

[Smile 26,600]

1 hour ago, ChampionsAgain said:

Agreed. Makes bringing on only 1 sub all the more baffling for me 

Gerrard subs still leave you shaking your head.

[JackAlex93 11,208]

7 minutes ago, Smile said:

Gerrard subs still leave you shaking your head.

If you bring Ojo on you are as well not making a sub at all

[Corky True Legend 2,682]

Tin hat on here but Alfie would score a lot more if he didn't try to play the ball across the keeper so often. As Ally said at one chance (Iknow, I know), if he had lifted the ball over the keeper it was in instead of coming off his leg. The keeper was already on the way down when Alfie hit it. There was also the stonewall penalty not given. With that and some of the other decisions, I think the ref must have had his instructions from Collum.