Gerrard has some serious thinking to do

[The Godfather 72,681]

Just now, Jimbeamjunior said:

Kamara played on Saturday and we created 2 shots on target, one was from our right back

I said both. 

We will see when they are available again together and how it changes how we play. 

We didn't become a piss poor team over night it's been a combination of poor conditioning and preparation plus vital players being injured/banned. 

Folk want this to be a full blown disaster with no hope in sight. I can't get my head round that, Smiths superstars of the 90s and Advocaats millions lost piss easy European qualifiers too and won the league. 

We will do the same. 

 

[ShanksRFC 3,870]

Team seems to have stagnated, whole team needs to find form. I'd play the majority again on Friday night and hopefully get some confidence into them.

I'm bewildered why Helander never started? Was he injured?

 

[Jimfanciesthedude 24,985]

5 minutes ago, The Godfather said:

I said both. 

We will see when they are available again together and how it changes how we play. 

We didn't become a piss poor team over night it's been a combination of poor conditioning and preparation plus vital players being injured/banned. 

Folk want this to be a full blown disaster with no hope in sight. I can't get my head round that, Smiths superstars of the 90s and Advocaats millions lost piss easy European qualifiers too and won the league. 

We will do the same. 

 

Did advocaat qualified for the CL twice in a row and only lost the 3rd time to galatasary by a single goal, he also didnt win the league that year

Its got nothing to do with the midfield 3, its not them thats hitting the first defender with every cross 

Its gerrard and his 90mins of playing one setup, how many crosses have tav and barisic attempted so far this season, probably over 50, we've scored 1 goal from they 2, thats not including set pieces

When malmo went down to 10men last night, we never changed a thing, at that point aribo should have been moved right up to in front of their back line and we start playing in and around them, instead we bascially allowed them to keep their defense central as all we were gonna do was lump wastes crosses into the box

We badly needed playera at that point to run at them, take them on, bring them out of position, we did nothing of the sort

[five stars 1,739]

I agree with most of that except "move the ball onto other players as fast as possible" They don't move the ball quickly enough, often taking an extra touch and don't pass with enough pace. 

This makes it easier for the opposition to close down space.

[Jimfanciesthedude 24,985]

3 minutes ago, five stars said:

I agree with most of that except "move the ball onto other players as fast as possible" They don't move the ball quickly enough, often taking an extra touch and don't pass with enough pace. 

This makes it easier for the opposition to close down space.

What space, our setup means that we have 5 outfield players playing with the whole opposition team in front of them at all times, 7 if you include our fullbacks given they rarely take on a man anymore, 

If the opponents dont switch off then its usually 2v1 at all times not in our favour 

[JuliusC 87]

Last night was a must win against inferior oppo and we failed.

How many competitive games do we need to get up to speed? We have struggled against minnows and then there's Dundee Utd! How many games did that dross need to get up to speed? We had a decent preseason, but four competitive games in, we endure three defeats. Not the mark of champions.

We need better and different options. Player mentality an obvious issue and last night some empty jerseys out there. We are basically still running with the same starting eleven for 3 seasons now and with the same tactics.

Our format is well sussed and easily snuffed. Back to front ponderous and predictable and clearly no longer effective. No cutting edge. Let's give the oppo all the time in the world to settle and sit in. Just what happened to back to front in as few passes as possible? Many are simply passing on responsibility. A 5 yard square pass and its job done for many.

Davis again put in his shift, but what is around him is lacking. Little support. Alfie an inspiration up front, but a man alone. Hagi, someone with creativity and vision and that bit of magic that was badly needed, but how often is he a starter? Not very.

They were down to ten men. How many were we down to?

We had the easiest route to qualify and we failed. Down to Steven now and how he reacts, but if he insists on selecting the same old faces, with the same old system, we're in for a long season. Little merit in trying to dine out on last seasons spoils, as all that is left is left overs. The A La Carte is clearly off the menu. Time for a new one.

[five stars 1,739]

The midfield 3 didn't work. For European games we need 2 in midfield who can build the play but also be defensively sound. Both Arfield and Aribo can't do this, so just one of those 2 should play.

With Kamara and Jack unavailable that means playing Lungstram or young Kelly.

[peter huistra 1,740]

Team needs reshaped, most of these players have been here 3/4 seasons now and things have obviously gone stale.

Fuck knows what the right answer is I just hope we can salvage enough good form to still win the league, for me that's all that matters now.

[Jimfanciesthedude 24,985]

15 minutes ago, five stars said:

The midfield 3 didn't work. For European games we need 2 in midfield who can build the play but also be defensively sound. Both Arfield and Aribo can't do this, so just one of those 2 should play.

With Kamara and Jack unavailable that means playing Lungstram or young Kelly.

Sometimes we try to be too smart for our own good, sometimes simple is best, having flying attacking fullbacks is good, but not always, at 1-0 at them down to ten men we should have tightened up at the back, if that meant that tav and barisic sit and stay in line with the centre halves then so be it, then we deploy 2 sitting mids to cover if they do indeed try to break, and that leaves say aribo, Wright, kent and morelos up front (with the guys behind supporting them, not going beyond them, but being an option behind them if we need to keep the ball) 

Instead we stayed as we were, left big gaping holes and got caught out

[Orangeclement 578]

I felt like i had timr travelled watching that game, it felt like watching us from 2-3 seasons ago

[sausagetrunks 6,102]

9 minutes ago, Orangeclement said:

I felt like i had timr travelled watching that game, it felt like watching us from 2-3 seasons ago

This is why it needs rectified quickly before we fall into this trap. Changes needed fast personnel or change system. 

[five stars 1,739]

4 minutes ago, Jimbeamjunior said:

Sometimes we try to be too smart for our own good, sometimes simple is best, having flying attacking fullbacks is good, but not always, at 1-0 at them down to ten men we should have tightened up at the back, if that meant that tav and barisic sit and stay in line with the centre halves then so be it, then we deploy 2 sitting mids to cover if they do indeed try to break, and that leaves say aribo, Wright, kent and morelos up front (with the guys behind supporting them, not going beyond them, but being an option behind them if we need to keep the ball) 

Instead we stayed as we were, left big gaping holes and got caught out

Our full backs sitting deeper would of tightened our defence but we'd still only have one sitting midfielder. Davis does a reasonable job at covering defensively but not to the level of Jack. Both Aribo and Arfield are poor defensively.

Anyway second half we should of started with the same intensity as we did the 1st. Pressed them high, forcing them to go long. With 10 men they were still able to play it out from the back. We were unable to make our extra man count.

[VanVeenRangers 2,566]

It's worrying Davis has been our best player this season and he is 37. What does that say about everyone else?

[SIRB_72 4,085]

8 hours ago, beararse said:

Missed Roofe tonight, although he wouldn’t have been available even if he wasnt suspended.

 

We really did man. The thing is as well we dont know if anybody else can play in a two

[STEPPS BOY 75,068]

If we make Europa with this same group of players then there’s got to be a tactical review of how we play.

We can’t keep conceding two goals a game and expect to compete/progress.

Including Antwerp we have conceded 12 goals in 6 matches and only in Prague did we concede less than 2.

[SeparateEntityMyArse 54,293]

10 minutes ago, STEPPS BOY said:

If we make Europa with this same group of players then there’s got to be a tactical review of how we play.

We can’t keep conceding two goals a game and expect to compete/progress.

Including Antwerp we have conceded 12 goals in 6 matches and only in Prague did we concede less than 2.

We need last season's top players to start turning up. Our entire defence (except FH) have been abysmal. Our midfield at present is Davis, Arfield offers nothing. And I've contributed from my seat in the Broomie as much as Kent has.

They need a few home truths. And certain players like Kent and any if our starting defenders last night need dropped not given time to play their way back into form.

[ForeverAndEver 72,163]

31 minutes ago, MorelosRangers said:

It's worrying Davis has been our best player this season and he is 37. What does that say about everyone else?

Has he? Helander’s been our only good player.

[ayro 3,153]

22 minutes ago, STEPPS BOY said:

If we make Europa with this same group of players then there’s got to be a tactical review of how we play.

We can’t keep conceding two goals a game and expect to compete/progress.

Including Antwerp we have conceded 12 goals in 6 matches and only in Prague did we concede less than 2.

There was a confidence last season in the EL from scoring away against Benfica, Liege and Antwerp that got us into a we will score more than you scenario however as we continued to keep clean sheets in the league, the conceding of goals in EL was ignored, with hindsight the goals conceded against Malmö are no different to the piss poor goals conceded in the EL last year.

That confidence has crossed into arrogance and complacency unfortunately which is a fine line from being assertive and confident in how we go about it, we are not a good enough team yet to fall into those traits.

Only way out of this is a lot of hard work from GK to striker but most importantly the coaching staff need to collectively have a right good look at themselves as they looked a bit lost last night when Malmö equalised.

[Johnsey 1,540]

The amount of times we turn back instead of playing a pass is infuriating. First half you could see Morelos, Kent, Wright, Aribo making runs in behind but we refused to take the risk of playing the pass.

It's gone back to that slow and ponderous style we used to play under Gerrard. Pass sideways and backwards, if it does go forward it's returned almost immediately. 

If it's to change we need something else and in order to fund that we need to move a few on. A few weeks from the window shutting, something has to happen soon.

[STEPPS BOY 75,068]

1 hour ago, SeparateEntityMyArse said:

We need last season's top players to start turning up. Our entire defence (except FH) have been abysmal. Our midfield at present is Davis, Arfield offers nothing. And I've contributed from my seat in the Broomie as much as Kent has.

They need a few home truths. And certain players like Kent and any if our starting defenders last night need dropped not given time to play their way back into form.

Agree.

[The Blues 375]

We needed to freshen up the team. More players that have not made an impact should have been moved on and a couple of landmark signings made. I think we were waiting for the CL money but it’s now too late.

We need a new midfield player (Lewis Ferguson would be my choice)who can make an impact and a more robust bigger striker that can give an alternative up front. Patterson and Bassey now deserve more game time. Katic deserves another chance now he has put on more muscle.

Sadly I can now see AM and GK leaving for discount prices. Maybe CG also.
 

We must as a minimum now qualify for Europa group stages in order to shore up our income.

[sausagetrunks 6,102]

1 hour ago, SeparateEntityMyArse said:

We need last season's top players to start turning up. Our entire defence (except FH) have been abysmal. Our midfield at present is Davis, Arfield offers nothing. And I've contributed from my seat in the Broomie as much as Kent has.

They need a few home truths. And certain players like Kent and any if our starting defenders last night need dropped not given time to play their way back into form.

I’d start on Friday night. This is a chase to bring in different personal and system but we will play sane team and 4-3-3 and watch Dunfermline sit in and frustrate, it’s seems to be easy against us after all look at our last 3 games two mediocre sides have exposed us. 

[Blacky Bear 912]

9 hours ago, Drunk and disorderly. said:

Hope to fuck you don't work for the Ministry of Defence mate or we are doomed!

Couldn't sleep thinking about that fucking shambles.

Done by basic Tactics with desire, and our lack of. Basically killed by 4 goals in 20mins spell over 2 games.

They go down to 10 men, and have to adapt to how we play. So we should have changed our Tactics at HT to.

[Jimfanciesthedude 24,985]

We need to sell morelos badly, like pre covid, our team becomes so obe dimensional due to his style of play and them thinking we can just throw it up to him and alls good, 

He is a cracking player but unless the mentality of the rest of the team changes and they dont expect him to do it all, then we'll struggle to break teams down unless another striker is on the pitch like roofe

[Boybluesy 3,816]

I think Gerrard got his tactics wrong second half.  We could have played Lundstram for Arfield and brought on Calvin Bassey for Barisic who was having a nightmare. Both would have tightened our defence up.  Also with the crosses going into the box Itten should have been brought on.  We had 75 minutes to score a winning goal against ten men going in at half time.