14 Jan 2013

Macca blasts: LFC star had a 'poor game' vs. Man Utd. Time to drop him?

Liverpool midfielder Joe Allen put in one of his most ineffective performances of the season against Manchester United at Old Trafford yesterday, and former Reds midfielder Jason McAteer has criticised the the Welshman for his poor performance during the game.

Discussing the game on LFC TV, McAteer argued that Allen should've gone off at half time instead of Lucas, and delivered a withering assessment of the 23-year old's contribution. He said:

"Joe Allen had a poor game; it just wasn't a great game from him, and he was lucky to start the over Henderson"

Former Reds boss Roy Evans' echoed McAteer's thoughts, adding:

"Joe Allen had a poor game. At this moment, his confidence seems to be at a low, and he's struggled. He doesn't look comfortable, and he gave away a lot of balls in bad areas, and there were some poor back-passes. He just didn't play well, and he's struggled for a while now."

I have to agree with Macca and Roy here; Allen was arguably Liverpool's worst performer on the day, and I say that as someone who is a big fan of the player. Along with Gerrard, Suarez and Sterling, Allen is at the top of the appearances chart this season, but as the months wear on, it's increasingly difficult to see what he actually brings to this Liverpool team.

* Creativity? No goals/assists in 28 games, and he creates less than one chance per game. Granted, Allen's primary role is not to score/create goals, but every once in while, he surely has to contribute *something* in an attacking sense?

* Defensive solidity? With Allen in the team, Liverpool have lost 7 league games and conceded 28 goals in 22 games. He wins only 50% of ground duels, 40% of aerial duels, and only 65% of tackles (although recoveries and interceptions are good). Defensively, the club is doing worse now than at the same time last year, so his presence clearly hasn't helped the team improve in this regard.

* Improved results overall? At this point last year, Liverpool had won more/lost fewer league games, and had 4 more league points. It's a team game, but Allen's individual impact has not helped the team improve here, either.

So, I ask the question: what exactly does Allen bring to this Liverpool team, and is it worth £15m? The only thing Allen seems to bring to the party is passing accuracy, which at 90% overall (and 85% in the opposition half), is, by far, the best in the Liverpool squad.

Passing accuracy alone is surely not enough, though, especially when it doesn't have any manifest creative or defensive benefit? To be fair, Allen's lack of impact is not entirely his fault.

- In the first few months of the season, Allen covered for Lucas in the defensive midfield role, which basically entails doing the team's donkey work.

- According to Rodgers: "Joe's role is to keep the ball and that, in Britain, is a special talent". Watching Allen play, it seems that this instruction is literal, as the majority of the midfielder's play seems to consist of hunting the ball/keeping the ball, and then handing it off to someone else as quickly as possible. How can a player with such a narrow role in the team really contribute?

- With Lucas back in the team, Allen's role is less clearly defined. Playing higher up the field demands more than just keeping the ball, and in this regard, the Welshman seems unsure of his actual function in the team.

Speaking to the Liverpool Daily Post, recently, Liverpool legend John Aldridge urged Brendan Rodgers to work with Allen on improving his game. He observed:

"Since Lucas Leiva has come back, Joe Allen has found it hard to get to grips with that role playing further forward where there is less space. Allen can't get on the ball and make things happen, and the manager needs to work with him to help get him into positions where he can influence the game".

Allen and Lucas should never start a game together. Their 'partnership' leads to a lack of dynamism/strength in the middle of the field, and compromises the team's attacking fluidity. The proof is in the pudding; they've started 7 games together this season:

* West Brom: 3-0 defeat
* Man City: 2-2 draw
* Southampton: 1-0 win
* Aston Villa: 3-1 defeat
* West Ham: 3-2 win
* Man United: 2-1 defeat
* Mansfield: 2-1 win

* Goals: 10 (1.4 per game)
* Goals conceded: 13 (1.8 per game)
* Clean sheets: 1

Compare that with only Lucas in the team:

* Gomel: 1-0 win
* Gomel: 3-0 win
* Fulham: 4-0 win
* Stoke: 3-1 defeat
* Sunderland: 3-0 win

* Goals: 11 (2.2 per game)
* Goals conceded: 3 (0.6 per game)
* Clean sheets: 4

Clearly, the team is defensively and offensively better when Lucas and Allen don't play together. Granted, it's a small sample size, but that's all we have at this stage.

As much as I'm a fan of Allen, there are clearly serious questions to be asked about why Rodgers actually signed him in the first place. If the plan was/is for them to share the defensive midfield role, then fair enough, but based on Rodgers insistence on playing them both in the same team, that doesn't seem to be the case.

If Liverpool persist with Allen in a more advanced role, the team will not maximise its attacking potential. Liverpool need GOALS and ASSISTS from the player who takes a more advanced central midfield role, and that isn't going to suddenly happen with Allen, is it? Shelvey is a good option, but another (new) player in there challenging him and Gerrard would most definitely be a positive thing. Benat, for example.

Until Allen is able to play a more advanced role more effectively, he and Lucas should share the defensive midfielder role, and never start in the same team together.

Jaimie Kanwar


159 comments:

  1. Rodgers came in with a defensive mindset . Crazy when you think about how many goals United have conceded this season. Gerard is at his best when Liverpool are attacking . Suarez is brilliant but cannot always do it on his own . Suarez has carried Liverpool to where they are this season.
    Liverpool could be so much higher if Brendan was a bit more astute

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  2. I'm glad to see you willing to recognise the failings of a player that you've been hailing since his arrival!


    Gerrard looks a lot better with Allen out of the team, and tbh I don't understand how all of these guys (Shelvey, Allen, Henderson) keep rotating for the advanced role in which they are all clearly significantly inferior to Gerrard - they can all perform the CM 'recycling the ball' role to a similar standard to Gerrard, but when it comes to carrying a goal threat AND creating opportunities for others, none of them come close to matching his contributions.

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  3. i was shocked when lucas was whisked instead of Allen.our midfield looked terrible. who says we don't need sneijder ?

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  4. When he played in a more advanced role (agaisnt Sunderland?) he looked so much better, and was unlucky not to score.

    But as it stands he isnt doing enough IMO, and I think he needs to sit out the next game. Henderson is playing better than him, and has a lot more energy, he has also provided some assists and goals.
    It seems to be that Allen is Rodgers favorite and he doesn't want to drop him.

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  5. I still say that signing Allen was a mistake, especially considering the buyout clause in his contract - which meant he'd still be available for the same price whenever we wanted him - and the composition of the squad at the time, which had a surplus of central midfielders and a deficit of matchwinners.


    There are a bunch of guys available for bargain prices right now that will significantly improve our midfield however - screw waiting for the summer, we should be looking to pick up somebody like Sissoko/Diame/M'vila/Capoue right now, to get some dynamism into our midfield.


    And another forward that is ready to contribute to the first team immediately too...

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  6. I for one still say we don't really need Sneijder...

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  7. I thought it was Allen who should have come off too. But I guess Lucas was taken off seeing as he was on a yellow. The general idea is that we need a grafter running around either Lucas or Allen to buy them space. In The case of Lucas, he is a little more capable of finding his own space.

    Nonetheless, I will pin our terrible first half performance on the poor decision to pair Lucas and Allen behind Gerrard. There was no balance.

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  8. will he came on when we were 3/0 up sunderland had given up sorry m8

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  9. It;'s another Dalglish scenario in some ways: he can't drop Allen for a significant amount of time as it will look like he wasted £15m

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  10. i totally agree . . if he had a different mindset then we would have won that game . . i think lots of teams make that mistake when playing at old trafford, leave the defensive mindset!!! YNWA for life!!!

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  11. I agree with Gerard that we should have experience
    players all this young talent will need time ti ripe
    and dobt forget when they are ripe they are ready to be plucked by other clubs. Please buy experience players and stop
    relying ob Allen Henderson and even wisdom.

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  12. jaimie to me allen was a luxuary buy a player that lfc did not need and like i thought someone who is no better than what the club already had,if it him or lucas ,lucas plays evertime

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  13. Annoyed at Rodgers at the moment. Seems to a one tactic manager who is still learning the trade. Am rapidly losing faith.

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  14. The tactics were changed on Sunday though...

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  15. Everyone's talking about Joe Allen having a lack of confidence. Can anyone explain why? What has happened to dent his confidence? He certainly has the backing of the manager, with Sahin gone, less competition. Is it not more a lack of ability to meet expectations at this level. At Swansea, little was expected of him and the team. Is this not why Downing, Henderson and Carroll struggled. We'll see how the Sturridge thing works out, but he probably believes more than the others that he deserves to be at a club like Liverpool, so hopefully he won't suffer from the same confidence issues.

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  16. your right m8 any good players we do develop fsg will cash in on

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  17. I totally agree they do not play well together i think Allen still has a place in the team but not as a regular starter.

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  18. Doesnt matter, he could have come on and just sat back with the mind set of "We have won this already", but he didnt he was attacking, and did look better.

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  19. I think Allen is a average player. Like stated above, he does doe not have an attacking mentality and is not positive enough. Watching him yesterday was very frustrating. Most of his passed are side ways. We need someone who can bomb into midfield and split defenses open with pinpoint passes.

    IMO Rodgers made a mistake in playing Allen when Henderson has been playing well recently. Allen was being overshadowed by the excellent Man U midfield yesterday.



    Lucas and Allen find it hard to play together. I much rather us playing Suso with the liberty of going forward than Allen who all he does is pass sideways.


    I do think that he can/will improve but clearly BR needs to know what he wants out him. No point having a player in a team whose only talent is passing 5 yard balls. Players like Xavi, Iniesta and Pirlo are master passers but they offer alot more than just passes. The create and support the attacking play with pinpoint passes forward.


    Apart from that the second half was impressive. I do not think Lucas is 100% yet, but Allen was the one who should have been subbed.


    Once again a few of our players went to sleep. Was not impressed with Sterling to be honest but I was expecting that.

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  20. completly agree they have been letting goals in left right and center we should have gone for the jugular and attacked them instead of f"cking about trying to keep possesion in our own half

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  21. Those are certainly very compelling stats, although to be fair I'd also like to see the figures for games when Joe played without Lucas.
    I don't think Joe has enough pace and creativity for a more forward role- although to be fair I didn't watch him much for Swansea, so maybe this is just a poor patch.
    Essentially it looks like Rodgers has spent 15m on a second Lucas, but one who isn't quite as good as the original.

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  22. Gerard is right in saying experience players are needed not just young talent. Even we succeed in grooming the young talents they will leave us for other clubs so stop buying young ones. Owners are just giving excuses and making fans fools.They want to save money. Looks like we will have to wait 4 to 5 years before we can even get into second position.

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  23. Who exactly have they 'cashed in on' so far? Where are you getting this from?
    You're just making assumptions based on nothing.

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  24. It's the creativity than is the problem with I feel.

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  25. buck's transfer dealings are looking suspect at the moment. wes , villa and sissoko are all available for the right price. time to make a statement.

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  26. For me, Gerrard should be our primary attacking midfielder, with Suso as his understudy. I just don't see the technical levels, creativity & confidence combined in any of Shelvey/Henderson/Allen to successfully carry out the role.


    Those three should just be competing for the box-to-box/ball recycling role in the centre of midfield, with somebody else brought in to compete with Lucas for the ball winning role.

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  27. You may have a point here. I think Rogers get to carried way in praising his players. How in the world can he call him the Welsh Xavi?

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  28. Indeed. Do we actually need him? Clearly not. I just think BR did not have any faith in Henderson and he wanted someone to pull the strings in midfield but Allen does not have the creativity spark needed. No point in having 90% accuracy in passing if nothing comes out of it.


    Gerrard, Lucas, Henderson for the next game.

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  29. languettormapilon1:02 pm, January 14, 2013

    i remember not long ago you wrote an article on gerrards pass' accuracy and u were saying how poor it was and instead of looking his overall contribution, the way he contritubes to liverpool play, how creative he was, and more importantly his willingness to create goalscoring chances, you were saying he should be dropped etc etc.. and now you saying the complete contrary passing accuracy is not everything.

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  30. I agree mate. He needs to play Henderson for the next few games and make Allen fight like Hendo did to play. At the moment he can just walk into the pitch. The welsh Xavi...Pshhhhh.

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  31. we really need him... have u watched how our midfielders keep passing the ball sideways and towards defence ..if stevy retires ...just picture the team.

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  32. That's interesting Jamie, I feel the same way too. Allen was worth from £6-8M max...not £15M. But I guess in this say and age clubs pay for potential also.

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  33. I don't know I mean, having Sneijder in the team would certainly show intent and a more direct approach to play. But his wages would be a problem.

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  34. Indeed. Suarez looked lonely up in the by himself. I feel Gerrard should be playing just behind Suarez.

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  35. Stevie isn't retiring though. He can still fulfil the attacking midfielder role if we stop messing about trying out everybody else up there, while he sits around holding Lucas' hands in front of our defence.


    Getting more players that can beat a man with pace & power and finish are far more important than getting more passers into the team imo.

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  36. Aquilani had showed capability to pull the strings in midfield, and nobody offered up a decent fee to take him off of our hands, so we should've just kept him for another year imo.


    There was no rush to get Allen, especially with his buy out clause, and residence at a relatively low profile club (certain clubs have track records of selling players for over inflated prices. Swansea aren't one of them).

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  37. he was looking good against a side that was well beat no thanks to him,fulham 4/0 no allen theres a trend here that even a blind man must see mansfield last week he started and looked poor yet again when he was supposed to be the main man in midfield

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  38. none m8 because suarez apart the cuboards bare

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  39. i understand and agree with everything you say about allen but surely lucas has to be tarnished with the same brush.he gives too many free kicks away(usually in dangerous positions)just look at yesterdays performance and against mansfield.gives us nothing going forward and struggles to find a red shirt with a pass if anybody is more than a yard away.why everybody has this delusional view that he is world beater really beats me.he gets the benefit of the doubt that he was taken off because he had a yellow card.maybe that played a part but what about the fact that he was absolutely dreadful as he has been since he came back and dont start more excuses for him not being back to his best.

    i will say he has improved 500 % since we bought him but he is still not good enough when you compare him to the most recent defensive midfielders we have had(alonso and mascherano)we gave lucas a couple of years to stake a claim to a place i personally do not think he is worth but allen has been here a few months and people want rid.


    brendan is obviously going to play with at least one defensive midfielder and at this moment in time we do not have enough quality for that position and the only way to rectify that is to go out and buy.


    as for the comparison above you certainly picked a great comparison with gommel fulham and sunderland

    we are a fickle bunch but if we are honest we are about five players short of being a top quality side.

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  40. its got to be but i will not hold my breath its norwich at home even with allen in we should win that so uncle buck will play him then probabley rest him for man city lol

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  41. the welsh Xavi ha more like the welsh crab. All joking aside BR seems to think hes the bees nees but as of yet i've not seen it.

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  42. the welsh xavi and tikka takka the two sayings that make me want to f"cking puke

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  43. I think were paying for BR having no great authority with fsg, its like he,s having to justify the 15mil he shelled out on allen & cant be seen to drop him, i dont think he,s a bad player but ive seen practically zero in terms of game changing creativity & totally agree that him & lucas playing together is a big no, no, were far too sterile when this happens.

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  44. More and more, I am beginning to doubt his coaching credentials. He talks a good game, he talks up his abilities. Whilst I understand that every manager needs to acquire players that fit their footballing vision, the better managers are able to work with the players they've got and improve them both mentally and physically.


    A player like Carroll may be a stretch too far, but how does anyone explain offloading Sahin after only a handful of games? He comes with pedigree, much like Lucas did. A good manager must get the best out of him. If he's not suited to the pace and physicality of the EPL, if he lacked the correct mentality, who decided to buy him? Isn't it the work of the scouting team to discover these frailties before we part with cash? Assaidi's heading the same way. Both were BR's buys. Will BR have the heart to move Allen on if his slump continues? He certainly won't be going anywhere for double the purchase price, as BR suggested.

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  45. double the money f"cking hell i would rip there arm off if someone gave us 10 million at this moment in time

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  46. Im not saying he is playing well, just that he looked better in that position. I still think he needs to be dropped.
    It just seemed like he had a bit more confidence in that advanced position.

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  47. thats why they hired him someone they cantell what to do and he says yes boss

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  48. If one looks at the facts , FSG have put a lot of cash up for transfers . Now they are not as wealthy as the Man City guys or Chelsea's Abramovich but they have invested a large amount .

    Look how much Kenny D spent , Rodgers has already spent a fair sum but mainly bought poorly . Did they grab the Torres transfer bonanza , no they did not . Kenny blew it on Carroll . Carrol I still believe can perform but he is certainly not worth the 35 Mil Liverpool paid .

    We need to give FSG more credit as far as making funds available for transfer . Where the problem lies is with the Managers FSG has hired

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  49. sorry m8 yes he did play better but its easy when the opposition have given up

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  50. they have invested some cash but as new owners you would expect that ,the problem is they have not got any idea about football and the more i read about there baseball club the more worrying it becomes

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  51. Agree, Jay. I just can't understand why Gerrard is not played there. He's proved in the past that he can thrive in that role (i.e. with Torres). It can only be that Gerrard himself doesn't want to play there.

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  52. No need to apologise.
    Suarez hat-trick this weekend anyone? Seeing as he loves them against Norwich!

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  53. JK,there"s two ways to get into a team earn your way or have pull.Now the elephant in the room is why is he at LFC? i think he showed he could play the BR system in championship,no doubt good looking footy (done right)If he felt he could'nt leave him behind maybe assistant would've would have worked out better.

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  54. Buck got it all wrong in the first half. He should have employed an attacking game. The boys were lost and giving away balls in dangerous positions. Shelvey should have started instead of Allen. He likes to move forward into scoring positions from outside the box.
    But I must admit the whole team were clueless in the first half. It was a clueless team effort.

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  55. Yep, iam afraid that was probably a big factor in him being hired

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  56. would be nice don,t think it will be as easy as last time

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  57. and probably a big factor on what hes still doing here

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  58. My surname originates from manchester. My ancestors have roots in manchester. A town in manchester shares the name of my surname, yet I follow liverpool. After yesterday, I just wished I was a man utd fan, with all their constant success. My significant family roots in manchester just make it such a good and convenient excuse to follow them! That just highlights how shit we were yesterday (bar the majority of the second half). Allen was terrible, sometimes it's like he's not strong enough to run through air. Sturridge was just that glimmering, hopeful light at the end of the tunnel

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  59. I have said for a few weeks, Lucas and Allen shouldn`t be in the same team, both are fine players, just don`t work well at same time

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  60. only because they have not dealt with the joke that is lfc lately

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  61. so who in your opinion should be in the team out of them

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  62. That has always been my worry to Jason. I have no issues with amount they have spent, or there ideas, but I just think they lack knowledge on who to employee and who to take advise from

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  63. British passport means transfer fee is twice the players worth (at least, as I can't see Carroll being worth 17.5m now or in the near future).

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  64. You'e misrepresented what I wrote to such a staggering degree that it's not even worth responding.

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  65. Have you had any faith in Henderson after last season? I know only very few people who've had.

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  66. developing the youth side is fine but if one of the youngsters develops into a world class player they will soon want to move on unless the side is at least in with a chance of tropheys and champions league football,do we really want to become another arsenal nice football no tropheys.and as far as there better players think more importantly no ambition

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  67. Shelvey didn't look as if he could play football in his recent matches, to be honest. I like his energy and think he has potential, but he has been woefully out of form recently. I wouldn't have risked playing him in such a game.

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  68. Henderson is possibly a better option that Allen for the effectiveness of the system, but he's not the long term solution IMO.

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  69. Very nice article JK

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  70. I think you have hit this nail square on it's fucking head this time. In a bid to save face and not admit that he spent 15million on a flop Rodgers is destined to play Allen every game week in week out no matter how he performs. Just like Daglish did with Carroll. I have watched the Welsh man and other than a few patches of inspired football here and there I see nothing that would have inspired Rodgers to sign him from Swansea. Nothing at least based on his current performances. I believe that Rodgers really wanted Gyifi Sigurdsson bad. When he couldn't get him he decided to bring Allen on board. Allen was nothing more than a second choice option.

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  71. Joe Alien is bad, yes...but so are his midfield partners Steven Aging Gerrard and Lucas useless Leiva.
    I wonder where are the lucas admirers now? The guy has been anonymous since his return from injury. We waited 2-3 seasons before he finally showed some decent level of performance for us before he got injured. Now the question is how many more seasons do we have to accord him until he get back his form??
    He was piss poor against united with his charlie adams like tackling and gave away several free kicks in dangerous positions.
    Now that our attacking problems have been resolved with the promising combination of borini, suarez and sturridge together i think we should sign some good midfield players now...starting with sneijder maybe?

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  72. I agree on that, I have posted a few times saying if you dont also look for the here and now, the future stars will up and leave. Loyalty to club hardly ever exists now, so why would the young stars stay? We both know they wont. For me it should be a mix, get good young players playing, maybe from the subs bench, in cups and also in some games, and also get a good first 11

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  73. Jaimie at im glad you finally agree with my earlier observations not to play Lucas and Allen together but ,i believe the i would Lucas+Allen+ Gerrard = NO Allen+Gerrard = NO

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  74. Well it would always depend on who we are playing, but if both 100% fit, I would pick Lucas over Allen, purely as Lucas is a better DM, and even tho Allen plays ahead of that position, I think the DM is more important. For this reason I would pick Lucas.


    The only other option I would not mind seeing is Allen tried in the AM role. Only for a game to see how he does.


    I think Allen can be a great player, but for him and Lucas to work in the same team, we need one heck of a awesome AM. currently I feel that cause both Lucas and Allen sit deeper, and then the AM also seems to be sitting deeper, we lack creativity from the middle. That is when I think both Lucas and Allen may work, if the AM is a real attacking flair player.

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  75. I like Joe Allen a lot . I just don't think he has a lot in his offensive arsenal. He can hit the open man with a good pass but other than that offers not much else. I think he is a man who has been guilty of causing a lot of turn overs for us. I am not here to single him out because he is clearly not the only one guilty of this atrocity on the team. Since we are talking about Joe Allen he is fair game today.

    I fell Allen doesn't have proper ball handling skills since he is prone to give the ball away when he is in advanced positions. Causing our build up play to end and leaving us exposed in the back sometimes. If he had better dribbling skills he would be a much better player.

    Also would love to see Joe Allen taking more shots in front of goal. I do not remember seeing him doing this a lot. It sucks to play for a team like Liverpool sometimes because you get compared to a lot of legends who may have played in your position in the past.. Alonso being the only success story in recent history to play in the middle of the park for us I will compare Allen to him and i find that Allen doesn't take enough shots at goal compared to Alonso in my opinion. Turns out that he is still yet to open his Liverpool account for us.

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  76. languettormapilon4:37 pm, January 14, 2013

    oh really? am just representing it the same way the represented gerrard performance in that article. i agree with what you saying about joe allen though.. but i will never accept the way you speak about gerrard in your articles. i dont remember you writing a single good article on him.. you dont like the man no need to argue, you know it. dont say no, coz you know you'll be lying to yourself.

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  77. wonder why you are not posting my response to your comment below Jaime? Hope it wasn't because i called Joe Allen a flop? If you have taken offense in anyway i apologize. I am passionate and i speak my mind. I just don't think we got the best value for our money.

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  78. Totally agree although I think the reason why he's not being played there lies primarily with BR's obsession with allen. If allen was to play, ideally he would play deep but he gets bossed off the ball far too easily and when that happens it leaves our defense exposed if lucas isnt aware. I think BR is playing him as an atacking mid cause of the 15mil and secondly because that's probably the only position he trusts him in. Basically he'd rather have a lack of creativity up front than lose the ball deep in our half hense gerrards deeper role. What needs to happen is Allen benched till be either puts on some weight or he learns how to stop losing the ball so easily!

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  79. fair point but imo allen does not have the vision to play am role and the odd shot he has had has ended up nearer the corner flag

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  80. Jason you've been on allen's back for a while now and yesterday was a perfect example why. Worst player on the pitch by a country-mile and I'm still confused how he lasted so long without being subbed. I'm convinced we'd have probably got an equalizer if he'd been taken off earlier. For 15mil you'd think he'd be ready for the biggest game on the premiership calendar but what an embarrasement he was! Joe needs to have a looong look in the mirror and figure out what he needs to do to shape up cause if he puts in another performance like that his agent might as well start looking for a new home for him. Passing accuracy doesn't justify those wages, especially when all his passes are 5meters my sister could make. Can't believe im associated with that kind of a performance...smh

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  81. sorry m8 it gives me no pleasure to be proven right but i,am sure he will get plenty of chances to improve,

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  82. You may well be right, but for me, I just want to see what he can do. Maybe it isn`t him, but how he is being told to play, I dunno. I remember the first or second game Lucas came back, and Allen was allowed to push, and looked really good, since then he hasn`t been pushing up, I dunno if thats down to him, or his orders. If could just push up a bit more, I think he might work better with Lucas, and maybe improve his game a bit too

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  83. it's not possible for sneijder to come to liverpool unless he takes a huge cut in wages, the club won't make him the highest earner, gerrard has been at the club most of his life and has earned his high wage why should someone come in and earn more than him just because he played for madrid? i think the summer will be the time to bring in a number 10 someone like erikson would be a better and cheaper option but we will probs end up with inan of galatasary.

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  84. if that is what you think thats fine thats your opinion if rodgers thinks that no better game than norwich to try it out

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  85. So Joe Allen 'doesn't have proper ball handling skills since he is prone to give the ball away' agreed. We paid 15mil for this guy, if you want somebody in midfield just to keep the ball and not give it away just use Enrique, but we need goals and linkup play from midfield and If he can't do that now I don't think he ever will.

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  86. Purely offtopic! Do we have any Norwegians here? Who is Vegard Forren? and are we fortunate to have him?! i for one have not heard anything of this player. supposedly he is coming for medical tomorrow.

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  87. sooooo wrong lucas is the weakest player in the side drop him for henderson

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  88. So what happened to all of you who were slagging Henderson off for his fee last season? Now he is the best thing walking. It is quite evident that our fans have no idea of what it means to give a player time and now Allen is going through the same thing, being kicked in the face for being overpriced. Egg in the face.


    I will be laughing at each and every one of you when the calls are for Allen like they are now for Henderson.


    Each and everyone of you, give me your banking details. i will deposit money in to go purchase your happy meals at the nearest Mcdonalds.


    I will be waiting.

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  89. Jason Carr, seriously mate, you on some anti depressants? You're always negative come rain or shine, win or lose, spend big or not. Loosen up mate, get some fresh air!

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  90. Haha absolutely spot on pal. This lack of support will eventually bite us in the backside as we'll get a rep for it. So ironic that we consider our fans to be the most knowledgable when you read most off the comments on club sites. I only hope these are an outspoken minority.

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  91. Interesting idea. I would also be interested to see Suarez as the AM (or number 10). The idea is Rodgers system is to have a DM to guard the back 4 and break up attacks, a transition midfielder who keeps the ball ticking over as well as get it from the back forward quickly and an AM to support the forwards and arrive late in the box. The problem is we don't have suitable players for the AM. DM is clearly Lucas, the transition player either Allen or Gerrard but no one who can play AM to a sufficient standard. It's not allens natural position, hendo hasn't enough guile, gerrard is too slow these days and lacks the energy to penetrate and shelvey is too raw. Suarez could easily play there and link with sturridge, borini and sterling. He has the workrate to press the opposition and the movement/intelligence to link up with the forwards. He'd have a free role which he seems to prefer too

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  92. what are you talking about ...we where cruising at 3 nil....if hed have started we would have been losing 3 nil...face the facts hes not good enough

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  93. the only midfielder who does that is allen

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  94. its called tika taka jason....you fanny about with it in your own half and give the ball to there attackers....its genius

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  95. every team needs a sponge man

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  96. unless he grows wings and plays in stilts what you see is what you get....

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  97. To quote rogers '' hell be worth double "' what a mug ...yesterday proved what ive said from day one Allen is no better than charlie Adam or spearing ..he was completey lost yesterday.....90 per cent pass accuracy at passing 5 yards ...that the same as my 7 year old daughter

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  98. Jeez is this really a Liverpool blog???

    Get off Allens back and the rest of them for that matter.

    There
    is a massive difference between debating or giving your opinion and
    down right moaning about every little thing the club does.

    Listen to the words of the clubs anthem and hang your heads in shame!!!

    Remember through the wind and the rain if not sod off and watch and bitch about City!!!!

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  99. Jeez is this really a Liverpool blog???

    Get off Allens back and the rest of them for that matter.

    There
    is a massive difference between debating or giving your opinion and
    down right moaning about every little thing the club does.

    Listen to the words of the clubs anthem and hang your heads in shame!!!

    Remember through the wind and the rain!!!!

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  100. Lucas is a great player but needs a few weeks in the under 21 side to get his match fitness back. The reason he was taken off and not Allen is he was so far off the pace of the game and on a yellow. I genuinely believe he would have seen red if kept on

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  101. From Bleacher report - Liverpool legend Steve McMahon: "Joe Allen is nothing but a 5-yard passer." - Ouch. And I can see this, in every game he has played, no assists is not £15m worth of talent! After the Villa game he was dropped and we won the next 3 out of 4 games with 12 goals scored, none conceded! Then BR tinkers again and gets it soo wrong for 50 mins yesterday!



    Gerrard has to be the forward midfielder, Allen on the bench as Lucas cover but even his break up play is awful, cant tackle and is clumsy (charlie adams style) Hes young and one for the future but how many of these do we keep buying, hendo, allen, shelvey et al.. we need a creative experienced player who has seen it done it! Suggestions??


    BR has put al his eggs in one basket and after the defeat yesterday he should have seen that sentiment and continual mistakes will not be tolererated by the fans for much longer! Passing and moving forward, attack , attack is what I want to see... our conversion to chances will improve with strikers on the pitch but they need to be fed constantly, the supply has been poor from the wing and centre bar Gerrard! (Stay fit Stevie!!)


    Good topic Jamie!

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  102. he was a total moneyball signing, couldnt hendo have been groomed into this role. he has a better tank, actually has scored and if encouraged he would make a forward pass! Allen pass % is as high as Xavi and Inesta - wow amazing, lets pay £15m for his sidewards / backwards passes :(

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  103. agree!! drop him for his own sake or have him take a risk if he is such a great passer of the ball, 10-15 yard passes in the final third when the attack is on. I actually like the kid, he seems to try but his schole like tackling is starting to pee me off.. can we sign your 7 year old for £12m please :)

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  104. Hendo must start over Allen,

    Lucas

    Gerrard Hendo


    Johnson Sturridge Suarez

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  105. hes been bad more than hes been good for me, first 2-3 games were good to a degree, but hes not improved at all hes got worse.
    I don't get gerrards position its neither defending nor attacking, totally ineffective yesterday. hes been better lately, but back to a lack luster performance yesterday.
    apart from lucas our midfield was a joke, shelvey is a better player than allen, he proved that last game against utd (apart from the harsh sending off)

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  106. This is borderline insane... listening to you lads moan and groan about everything... loosing faith, doubting coaching credentials... blablabla sound like bunch of girls.


    BR has only been here for few months. What the hell do you expect to see?!? With that squad he inherited, all the attacking players leaving etc? This isn't a computer game where you can buy cheap cheat players.


    You lads wouldn't be happy with anyone... no manager in the history of football would satisfy your demands.


    Why didn't you notice how Liverpool played after Sturridge came on? Pinned ManUtd back... long time since I've seen such a quick crisp passing in the opponents final third. It look unreal and got me well excited about the future. Allen has been off lately yes, but how impressive is henderson becoming? The lad is everywhere ... maybe not the most prolific midfielder but he works his socks off and retains possession very well.


    "WHy didn't he play Sturridge from the start and why didn't Allen pull off sooner"... blablablabla you learn from you mistakes, I'm pretty sure Sturridge will start next game and I wouldn't be surprised if Hendo gets more games.


    The standards you are holding one person to are insane and if you'd hold yourself to these kind of standards you'd be depressed about not being qualified for anything.

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  107. neither of them are up to it. if there our future Liverpool are not going forward. they are no better than the likes of spearing,guthrie, or Pacheco for example.thats my opinion il support and cheer them on regardless.
    hope im proved wrong.

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  108. wonder what the percentage of his completed passes are just the simple sideways and backward passes, any idea of this Jamie, can you get a breakdown.

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  109. That's a great review, Jaimie. I especially like the Defensive Solidarity statistics that you used. For once I'm not critical of the statistics you have used for analysing a single player.

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  110. Both BR and J. Allen are at the wrong club simple to see.

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  111. We need a midfielder to play alongside Lucas, Gerald to play an advanced role which will help Suallez to score more goals.

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  112. Come on dude you can't compare Allen and Lucas partnership Vs. Lucas. Look at who those wins have come against with just Lucas; Gomel, Fulham and Sunderland at home. Lucas looked all over the place against Stoke, granted a lot of players weren't performing but he was especially poor.

    Allen will be quality, we've bought him for years and years not just for one season.

    1. He's only had 1 full season in the Premiership, he has a lot to learn.

    2. He's never been involved with a team who has to travel the continent to play European matches.

    3. By Christmas he'd played 25 games, thats a lot for your first season at this level, with the added pressure of playing for a huge club.



    We all seen his first two months here, he was quality. Look at Henderson this time last year, getting absolutely destroyed by the fans, media etc. Now look at him, not a world beater but he's improved vastly.

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  113. Lucas is soooo poor Allen is double the player, Lucas cannot tackle gives away needless fouls in dangerous positions, booked every game, wAt games do u watch really,give Allen a chance 4 crying out loud

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  114. Took Lucas off, dominated midfield and the game#2ndhalf wonderful performance

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  115. I don't think stats like that exist, but I'll check it out.

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  116. I stated at the time Rodgers signed Allen that it was a massive waste of £15 million, as we already had Lucas & Henderson. But somebody came back with statistics showing Allen to be the most consistent player in the Swansea team and a vital cog in the Rodgers revolution. As I first thought he is lightweight and brings nothing to the team, yet another poor buy from Rodgers on a player we would be lucky to get £7 million if sold today.

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  117. Look at his CV. Look at Swansea last year - yes, nice passes, good possession but where are the titles, the trophies? It's all very well saying he is great and he has a dossier on how to play football, but actually winning things is important. How do we know his methods will work? There is nothing to tell us they will. Nothing. He is a rookie manager and our midfield resembles a sieve at times. All the teams above us know his tactics and know how to play against us as we are so slow in possession on the back. There was a time when Reina used to get the ball out quickly - now, it's all triangles and take your time.

    If the opposition press us, or hit us with the long ball - we cave in. And how many games has he had to address that?

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  118. What would strengthen your arguments is if you benchmarked Joe Allen's statistics against comparables. In baseball they normalize all players to determine how much they contribute to wins either defensively, or offensively. They benchmark against a typical "replacement player" (those dime a dozen guys that populate the mid-tier teams in the league.) I'm curious to see how his duel/tackle statistics compare, and how his interception, recovery and clearance rates compare.

    You never know, maybe his other defensive talents actually compensate for his statistics in tackling and dueling.

    As for his distribution on the opponent half,an important metric might be how many of those individuals who he has passed the ball to, then created an opportunity in the subsequent plays. In hockey, they tally assists to the secondary passer (the guy who passes to the guy who passes to the guy who eventually scores.) This would provide far more accuracy than just branding his passing as ineffective and "easy".

    While basing his performance on team wins and losses based on his involvement may provide some measure of his quality, by removing the analysis so many levels away from Joe Allen's direct contributions, a lot of noise gets introduced into this metric. GF/GA is a better measurement and it's good that you're using it.

    Nonetheless, from a qualitative perspective, I agree Allen has been underwhelming. Personally, I am attributing his currently poor performance from transitioning from a deeper position to higher up on the pitch. Leon Britton performed the deeper role back at Swansea and Allen was higher up on the pitch and effective in partnership with Sigurdsson last year. I have confidence he can return to form, but there is likely to be some transition/friction after getting used to playing deeper for half a season.

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  119. a player such as allen is pivotal to the flow of our play, a player who excelled during the first half of the season, albeit without any goals shouldnt become a martyr simply because we lost to united, the team lost, to a superior outfit, allen didnt lose the game for us. i think its become a habit amongst our fans to over criticise players as if we have quality alternatives, when realistically we dont. a dip in form does not constitute such heavy criticism as this, in my opinion, when allen plays well, the team plays well.

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  120. Rodgers has talked, at decent length, about how he prefers to play a 1 and a 2 in the centre of midfield. Rafa played a 2 and a 1 which meant that Gerrard could get forward more and play right behind the striker.


    Also, Gerrard has said he prefers to play further forward, so I doubt him not wanting to play there is the case. That seems more based on the fact that you think Gerrard sees himself as bigger than the club and Rodgers is too pally with the players (neither of which are entirely untrue).

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  121. Crabs have better defence than Allen.


    Both are good lads though.

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  122. I'm not advocating slagging Allen off, but like I said the other day, the deal is definitely debatable. The same is true with Henderson- we bought him at the height of his value and we, both times, didn't desperately need the player enough to compensate overpaying for him.


    I don't think Allen should be slagged off purely because of how much he cost though.


    It is the deal that is bad, not him. He started the season well enough and you would think that if anyone knows how to get the best out of him, it would be BR. Probably needs a rest now though.

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  123. yeah he had a bad game but then again so did the whole midfield , they were terrible , lucas, gerrard ,sterling , downing were always second to the ball , you could here rogers screaming keep the ball , it gets passed and intercepted straight away , gerrard was walking at times , lucas looked he just got home from a big night on the town and sterling just didint get going at all , as much as we came back in the second half the game should of been way out of our reach by half time , we were lucky we didint get hammered , i cant reacalla liverpool side ever been so second rate against a man united team like that , there was no fight , at all first half , our defenders were on over time because there was no cover in front of them , really poor first half i must say ,but atleast theres still positives to come from teh second half ynwa

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  124. They do, I've seen them do stuff on this on EPL Index.

    Before we signed him they did a comparison between him and Britton that looked at just this.

    I think you have to pay to get these stats (in raw form) though.

    I just googled EPL Index and funnily enough, the Google autocomplete suggested 'EPL Index Joe Allen'.

    Here is the article I was talking about for reference:

    http://www.eplindex.com/18616/joe-allen-leon-britton-lfc-get-right-man-stats-comparison.html

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  125. Assaidi, Allen and Borini cost £30m, not good business at all. Allen is avin a mare but BR bought him so plays him, which is wrong. We need Momo Diame who has a £3.5m clause in his West Ham contract, go and get him before Arsenal do.......

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  126. B.Rodgers please try new this formula....please2
    -----------------------------Reina------------------------------
    Carragher-------------Skrtel--Agger-----------------Johnson
    -----------------------------Coates--------------------------------
    Sterling--------------------Gerrard---------------------Enricque
    ----------------Suarez--------------------Sturridge----------------

    I'm sure this is will be succes.Lucas and Allen have small size body and not very good to make tackle down the tough player.Do not waste our young talent.Let try give him oppurutnity to prove that he can fix it the problem.
    Sub : Brad Jones,Wisdom,Allen,Pacheco and Suso.I'm sure it is will be succes if you try this players.Now the weaknes is from midfield,sepecialy CDM.This problem happen already 2 season but never got improvement yet.Please realize that lucas cannot fit for CDM.Since departured of Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano,nobody can replace both this player very effective.It is time to get Benat Extrebarria or Yann M'villa who also get skill combative midfielder.
    Don't to stingy to sign the players good value for money.All out to get their sign please......YNWA.

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  127. Overrated British player..i don't know how football fans out there hailed him as "xavi"..for me, Rodgers made a mistake when buying him at 15mil pounds
    Waste of money..

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  128. he is just a side-wards and backwards passer. Not good enough and waste of money!! Hendo is way better than him ..

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  129. I have never been so frustrated with our midfield this season...
    We were playing man united, yet Lucas and Allen cannot string 2 passes together...
    For God's sake, Allen could not even pull off his trademark back pass at one time...

    This midfield of gerrard-lucas-allen does not work, i would have gone with gerrard, lucas, hendo for the man utd game. Hendo contributes more, he is now more adventurous, his forward runs are good...

    1st big mistake last weekend was the starting line-up (the midfield).

    2nd big mistake: When it was 2 - 1, we actually had a chance to put man utd on the backfoot, why not subs downing and put hendo on?! Our midfield would have been stronger and we could have stretched the mancs... BR can be clueless at times...

    I felt sorry for luis... The crowd were having a go at him, he was trying his best, but the others let him down... Big time! Anyway, sturridge gives us some hope... But i feel we really need a new midfielder in the diamé mould...

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  130. we still overpaid for both of them. we will not recoup even a fraction of that if we sold them.

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  131. i,am surprised no manager has ever thought of doing it before,,theve all missed a trick

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  132. no i meant he will get plenty of chances because rodgers loves him lol

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  133. rain or rain,m8 its people like you who go round with rose tinted glasses on thats keeping fsg in profit whilst there are mugs fsg will continue to rke in the money,they are not only trying to reduce the wage bill they are also systematically downgrading player after player

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  134. I'm pretty sure we were having this exact conversation about Xabi Alonso the season before we tried to sell him to Juve. Too soft, loses the ball too easily, can't tackle, gives under pressure. In the end we played Alonso with Mascherano behind him and Stevie G roaming free up front and it all worked brilliantly. That combination took plenty of time to work and when it went wrong it was Alonso who looked poor.


    Sounds more to me like fans and pundits alike are still hurting from the loss and just looking for someone to blame. Allen has been through a few games of poor form and needs to rebound. If he's tired or not fitting tactically then I'm sure Rodgers will make the adjustment and if that means dropping him then it will happen.

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  135. i seem to recall a Rafa rating a Lucas based on his successful passing rate very early in his career. Mud was slang then but he has turned into a valuable player. Jaimie, you seem to be doing a la-Downing assessment here with the conclusion of no goal/ no assist but i agree Allen has lost quite a bit of the fanfare and sparkle.
    Instead of questioning the players, i question the leadership, too often we have seen poor first half where changes needed to be made early in the 2nd half, players going thru see-saw forms. For all its worth, the new 'philosphy' has yielded just 3 pts better than Woy did over the same period. Back then we were still fiercely defensive of our status as a strong team and dispensed with him quickly. Now we have sunk low to have accepted mediocre preformance in the context of progress and time needed for the changes to come good. Progress if no longer measured by league performance is to me all a sham, Barca, Arsernal the two great examples of team which went thru changes to install a new type of football never took such huge steps back to get to their destination now. If fans believe BR is to do a Fergie or even our Shankly, i pray we wake up from this dream. Yesterday i saw some Man U fans contributing to Jaimie's thread on BR saying we are not 24 pts in quality behind Man U, giving us some brownie pts for an improvement in second half. How far we have fallen to have our great rival's supporters giving us brownie pts. I'm ashame really.

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  136. Agger can play the DM role but BR won't have that vision!!!

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  137. G8, Agger and Hendo can boss the midfield!!

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  138. Carragher is too slow to play as a fullback!!! This formation will see Liverpool soundly beaten with Carragher getting a red card!!!

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  139. After the match with Man Utd we can draw a conclusion : BR is just a mid table manager who will never bring Liverpool going far!!!

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  140. Jason Carr must love this article...

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  141. You people are slagging joe alien but lucas was worse...even charlie adams tackling was better!

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  142. Sorry Mikey, but I agree with Insatiable here. The 'where are the titles' comment is a red herring when you take on a young, promising manager. Whether that turns out to be a good decision or not, time will tell, but many an experienced manager has had problems with changing a team in his first year, it's far too early to advocate chaanging AGAIN so soon, we're not Chelsea. And he's only had 20 or so games, you think that's enough to reconstruct a team? No way.
    Jamie has hit the exact spot with his analysis. But that alone does not make Allen a bad player, he's only 22, plenty of time to learn, but he needs a master to learn from. That's why we need a Sneijder, an Alonso, or similar because Stevie can't play that way , and we need that kind of player in the team right now. Aloso was never a heavyweight tackler, but he controlled midfield. Allen needs to learn how.

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  143. Are you for real? Plenty of Lucas fans still here...
    He hadn't played for nearly a year, give him a chance he's not Superman.
    Look at how bad Vidic is compared to before his injury. Chalk and cheese

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  144. Oh I see, it's only realsitic if it's negative.....
    positivity doesn't have to be rose tinted.
    guess you're a 'glass, half full? don't even like the glass' mate type of guy

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  145. Nothing to do with Sturridge then?

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  146. Are you for real? Plenty of Lucas fans still here...
    He hadn't played for nearly a year, give him a chance he's not Superman.
    Look at how bad Vidic is compared to before his injury. Chalk and cheese

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  147. was sturridge in midfield then?????wake up

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  148. As usual...anything to get some hits!!1

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  149. nicely done..... Allen is like a boy in a man's club, his pass percentage is soo high cause he either passes back or sideways, he has no assists to his name.... ridiculous for a midfield player. He looked great at a club like Swansea, but is being made to look out of his depth at a great club like LFC. Reminds me very much of Charlie Adam all over again. BR has been really bad in the transfer market, wasting what little money we have. Hes playing Kennys team and Rafa before him. Rafa players (Reina, Skertel, Aggar, Johnson, Gerrard, Lucas, Shelvey) KD (enrique, downing, Suarez, Henderson). Only Allen who BR brought in is his. Yet the team is doing better last year as you said than this year.... Time for BR to head for the hills, poor in the market, poor results, bad tactics, he needs to be a assistant manager to someone like Rafa to learn the trade before coming to LFC to take the reins. Only credit i will give him is he has bought young players in from the academy.

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  150. Hello! First post here! Two things. Allen needs dropping! He was woeful against Utd. He's been poor for a good while. Someone on here mentioned that it's a similar case to last year when Dalglish couldn't drop Carroll, to save his embarrassment. Well I think he did drop Carroll for a good while, and he cost £35m. I think LFC fans would respect Rogers more if he dropped Allen for now and admitted that maybe he got it wrong in paying £15m for him.
    I'm not saying all is lost for Allen, but he needs to look at his game.
    Yep, I'd give Hendo a chance!

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  151. Using your logic here, may I ask if that makes him worth £15 million as well as a regular starter?
    It seems to me you have summed up why he was not a priority signing as well as nowhere near worth the ransom paid to Swansea.
    Gylffi performances for Spurs clearly underline how Rodgers targets and actual buys have a miss rating of more than 50%.
    So far only Sturridge has made an impact after 2 games the rest of the incomings have not improved the club at all

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  152. That McMahon quote reminds me of when we played Plessis against Sunderland (only to take him off half time for Xabi, who changed the game) and McManaman called him a 'side foot Charlie'.

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  153. agreeing that allen/lucas is a quite grey pairing. two players who are best at transporting the ball to the nearest player, the simple but effective passes, is a bit luxurious. just want to make the point that perhaps BRs gameplan was to counterattack, which explains the selection of Downing and Sterling as wide players.. i.e. the plan was never to play through central areas. just thinking out loud here. another point i want to make is this: i realise its almost a taboo to critize gerrard, but am i the only one who notices that he doesnt hardly press when we dont have the ball. It seems to me hes more covering a zone and is content with that. thats not the Rodgers style is it? arent we supposed to press aggressively to win the ball back as quickly as possible?

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  154. Allen has been poor for a few games now, and I like him as a player, but he should have hit the pine at 45 mins. its not the lack of goals/assists that gets me, its the giving away unnecessary free kicks in very advanced positions game after game that really infuriates.
    Hendo looks far better, and poses more threat going forward.
    This may cause an upset, but I think Lucas was rubbish and for the past few games has been very average, but we don't really have an alternative.

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  155. yeah, basically Lucas is better at this role.  allen needs to gain a little bit of strength and work on getting his head up and finding forward passes- he looks back way too often.  Lucas is better on both those points.

    In the team I think Allen is a good addition, we need a backup for Lucas after all, but I prefer Henderson as a partner for Lucas in midfield- he's a more creative player and always looks to get forward.  In a midfield 3, with an eye to Gerrard having steadily fewer minutes on the pitch, I think Suso can fill the third berth more effectively than Allen.  

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  156. forgotten aba hendo so soon ...sideways and backwards.

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  157. are u saying Sneidjer is just a passer ? have u noticed there is seriously no order in our midfield.he is 28 , i don't know whether stevie had a chat with u, but if he decides that "i have done what i can do"...who will the "children" in our midfield look up to ....have u noticed that it is the leadership and sanity that lampard puts in the midfield that is making chelsea supporters cry for his stay..have u also noticed that some players add depth and their presence alone attracts other top players to the team? i will buy sneidjer any day if the price is right

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  158. buy snjeider for 8 mill!!! if downing and henderson cost 20 mill i'm sure we can afford 8 mill put gerrard in allens position and put snjeider in attacking player maker job done!!!!!! but no we buy crap!!!!!1

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