24 Apr 2017 18:11:52
Time to talk about lack of leadership and poor mentality again.

For the second goal, Townsend hits a shocking corner, Firmino, Matip and Lucas are all easily in place to deal with it, and none of them do. Firmino is put off too easily, it goes through Matip, and Lucas has gotten out of the way by the time it gets to where he was. Not one of them was focused enough and willing to take responsibility for clearing that ball, they all switched off. I can live with one guy switching off, they're only human. But three? Come on lads, not good enough. It's particularly disappointing for me this time because I consider Firmino and Lucas to be among the better pros in the team. Milner wasn't a million miles away from potentially cutting it out either, and Can ignores Benteke running away from him.

And yet again, there is no reaction. Migs shakes his head in mild annoyance and that's it. No Simon, that won't do. You have every right to lose your head with them for that carry on, so lose it. Make it clear that isn't acceptable. We seem to have too many nice blokes in the team. Milner and Lucas captained the team yesterday. Nice blokes. Good pros in their own right. Not suitable for captaining a team of complacent, fair weather players, though. Henderson has a more aggressive streak in him, but he tends to exclusively direct it at the referee.

And let's not allow Sky Sports to convince us that goal is about zonal marking either. Cos it's not. First off, three players are in the path the ball takes with another one close by, so players are in the correct place to deal with it, and deal with it comfortably. They just didn't deal with it. Secondly, we zonal marked under Rafa, and as much as Andy Gray would go on and on about how evil zonal marking was if we conceded, we actually had one of the best records defending set pieces in the league. Why? Because Rafa had Carragher. Rafa had Hyypia. And Agger. And Reina. Those were fellas with a set of balls who would take responsibility on the pitch. Stick Carragher in place of anyone out of Firmino, Matip and Lucas on that corner and its cleared. Seriously, if we concede from a poor, flat, delivery that shouldn't beat the first man, then man marking won't change anything. They'll just switch off and lose their men and concede goals that way instead.

As I said towards the end of our poor run in Feb. We need players with the right mentality in the summer. Vocal players who can't stand losing and who can't stand players around them phoning it in, cos there's plenty of ability in the side. It just needs to be on display every week, not when it suits.

1.) 24 Apr 2017
24 Apr 2017 18:48:11
If Paul Joyce is right klavan looking at 1st team players.

2.) 24 Apr 2017
24 Apr 2017 19:13:30
What?

3.) 24 Apr 2017
24 Apr 2017 21:31:13
Migs used to shout and scream all the team and he looked stupid. Just want players to take charge, don't need to be a yeller.