Every team goes through periods of poor form throughout the season, that's just a fact of life. Certain aspects, such as our attacking play has improved greatly, but our defensive frailties are still being badly exposed.
Zonal defending has worked really well for us in the past (with a better record than man to man marking). But like any system it only ever works when the players put in the effort.
The season is only 6 games old and we've already conceeded 8 goals from set pieces. No doubt Rafa is focusing on this with the lads, but for now set pieces have become a slightly nerve wracking experience. It seems like such a simple fix, and will greatly improve our title prospects once resolved.
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One of the big problems at the back is Carra. He is a legend but he is also over the hill and the sooner Agger comes back the better. Johnson is awesome but he is still bedding in at Liverpool. My dream back 4 is Insua, Agger, Skrtel, Johnson.
Carra's only had a few bad games. If he keeps it up then he might lose his place, but I dont think hes over the hill yet. I'd rather see a fit fabio in back than insua any day.
Would u believe I predicted that 2nd goal by Carlton Cole when Liverpool were defending the set pieces. Needless to say I was right and am always afraid when we need to defend them.
I hope it will be worked out soon.
Yeah...but for once, Babel looked all right when he came in...cool enough to win, though :-)
@gunthar - hope your next prediction is that it will be worked out very soon ;-)
@Isak - Babel did look cool, but he's always had that tendancy to look great, then look crap a week later. Consistency ain't his strong point... Am just glad for another 3 points...
Carra and Škrtel looked horrendous in the first-half against West Ham, but Rafa played them in a flip-flopped sense. Carra has been at either right-back or right-sided centre-back, but he looked highly uncomfortable at left centre-back at the weekend. I'm not trying to make excuses for their incredibly poor performance, but it may have had something to do with it.
It's hard to say that Carra just isn't good enough anymore, but the time will come when the lads of that era (Carra, Gary Neville, Ledley King, etc.) just won't be able to take the pounding that they're getting week in and week out.
@epiblast - maybe Rafa was thinking along the lines of getting Skrtel used to right centre in anticipation of Agger returning shortly ?
Good call, didn't think of that.
Yeah, it was almost impossible to miss this one glaring weakness at the moment.
I've always thought zonal was a bit over complicated, why not just give each players someone to stay glued to at each set piece and be done? But Rafa knows best.
In regards to the whole Carragher situation, I had predicted that he would slowly be phased out this season to be replaced by Agger. Sadly this has been delayed. I see Carraghers role very much that of what Hypiia used to play, a very strong adept centre back who can be relied upon to fill in when needed.
@Azza - I wonder if Carragher is ready for the transition to a Hyypia style role. He must know it's coming but I reckon he's not accepted it yet.
I doubt he is prepared to have it happen quite so soon. But it's gonna be happening sooner rather than later in my opinion.
Don't get me wrong he's a brill player, as was Sami, but you can tell he's been struggling to keep up with pace scince at least part way through last season.
Carra may be a loyal scouser no question but don't compare him to Hyypia when the latter can do a better job than him even now!
It's no coincidence that the typical early Carragher gaffes have resurfaced in the absence of Hyypia! it was bad last year but becoming more obvious now.
Carra owes Hyypia a big debt of gratitude perhaps even his anfield career.
I may going slightly too far here to hammer home my point but he needs to be dropped soon to refocus. preferably tonight versus Leeds.
@Azza - it's a shame though...
@RedMan - it would be great if he could hurry up and refocus, either that or Agger will surely take his place...
With all things said, Carragher's a king and i'd love to see the league won with him on the team...it should be won for him, with all the things he have done for Liverpool. I really hope he'll get it together, mentally, and regain he's form in the next few weeks
I agree with Paul. Set pieces seem like a fairly simple fix. What is also worrying is how poorly we defend against pace! Speed KILLS! Aaron Lennon! And we were very lucky to get away without Hines causing severe damage.
@Isak - it's only a matter of time before we win it, and as long as he plays at least 10 league games that season (hopefully this season) then he will deservedly get himself a Premier League winners medal :-)
@shinyshani - i dunno, I think a backline of Insua, Agger, Skrtel, and Johnson would probably be the fastest backline in the league.
Where speed kills is when we get caught out of position. But look at Liverpool over the few seasons when we had a slow backline but we weren't dropping many goals because of pace.
It's just our form this season has been so poor that everything seems to be getting exposed.
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