Former Liverpool defender Mark Wright was surprised by some of Kenny Dalglish's decisions during last night's game with Man City, and after the game, he argued that leaving Andy Carroll up front on his own was the wrong decision.
Speaking on LFC TV, Wright noted:
"It was unbelievable. When they changed to a back three you would've thought they'd bring Bellamy off the touchline and play him up front with Carroll.
"Andy Carroll was doing a hell of a lot of running, and touching a lot of balls on, but it was coming straight back at Liverpool. Bellamy would've been able to chase them behind every time he did that.
"Liverpool sat very very deep second half and invited pressure".
To be honest, I would've thought Kenny Dalglish would've learned from the 3-0 defeat that playing Carroll up front against Man City is an exercise in futility. In that game, Carroll was dominated by Kompany and Toure, and the same thing happened last night, albeit with less-quality defenders.
Jaimie Kanwar
Speaking on LFC TV, Wright noted:
"It was unbelievable. When they changed to a back three you would've thought they'd bring Bellamy off the touchline and play him up front with Carroll.
"Andy Carroll was doing a hell of a lot of running, and touching a lot of balls on, but it was coming straight back at Liverpool. Bellamy would've been able to chase them behind every time he did that.
"Liverpool sat very very deep second half and invited pressure".
To be honest, I would've thought Kenny Dalglish would've learned from the 3-0 defeat that playing Carroll up front against Man City is an exercise in futility. In that game, Carroll was dominated by Kompany and Toure, and the same thing happened last night, albeit with less-quality defenders.
Jaimie Kanwar
We were lucky City made us look better than we were in the second half.
ReplyDeleteWhat a cock up that was by KK in the second half.
Carroll was never really going to hold the ball in a assertive manner, especially with the way he is playing this season. We had no effective outlet at all. One run by headless chicken Hendo down the left and that was it.
Sometime you must play like that, It's not good for eyes but It's a Italian way :)
ReplyDeleteIt worked for Kenny so good tactics but if City would have scored then his tactics would have looked stupid. Overall great result but a terrible game to watch and hopefully Liverpool don't use similar tactics ever again because that is a small club mentality and big club like Liverpool shouldn't be doing a thing like that.
ReplyDeleteIt does seem KD is tactically naive..In the league game against City he somehow managed to pick a side that on paper seemed to have conceded 3 points before the game got under way unless his master-plan was to lose in the league and make City underestimate Liverpool in the Carling Cup.
ReplyDeleteIn the Carling Cup game, Liverpool somehow ended up with Enrique taking over at left-back from Glen Johnson who was then told to play as a either a makeshift centre half or defensive midfielder while the central midfield already had Adam, Henderson and Gerrard.
Johnson was clearly confused meaning this had not been practised at any time before the match but also did not make sense given Kelly who eventually took the central defensive position is the one who should have immediately gone there given even he sees himself as a central defender.
ending up with 6 defenders on the pitch conceded possession to City and Liverpool's game plan seemed to be just crowding out City from goal scoring positions. This is rather sad because Liverpool had dominated till the introduction of Nasri and also lost the league game despite the game being more balanced. Why KD then chose to sacrifice our goal scoring threat in Bellamy or completely leave out Maxi boggles the mind because City was there for the taking if Liverpool had decent goal-scores on.
As far as Carroll is concerned I will only point out Voronin had 5 league goals in 27 games and was deemed a failure and moved on but keep in mind he was a free signing albeit on reportedly £100k a week which is £10k more than Carroll because the signing on fee to him had been built into his wages rather than a one off lump sum.
Andy Carroll on the other hand cost £35mln, is on £90k and apparently already got paid a loyalty bonus but has only scored 4 league goals in 25 games.
Good defensive skills are as important as offensive skills. I thought it was good display of defending football by Liverpool. There is nothing wrong in defending but we should counter attack in between when we get possession.
ReplyDeleteNapoli played in similar way in Champion League home game against City. Difference was Napoli scored twice in counter attack when all City players were in their half.
But they had Edison Cavani and we have Adny Carroll up-front.
those stats abot voronin and carroll are shocking.
ReplyDeletewonder if kenny will bite the bullet and leave carroll back to newcastle for 15million?
he just doesn't fit in,trying him as a lone striker last night was poor judgement but when he did win the ball and knock it down there was nobody there.
Much as I try, I fail to see what Andy Carrol has to offer. No pace, no skill, Cant pass, cant score, can't hold the ball, very sluggish movement, struggles to win the ball in the Air. What a waste of £35million. Problem is Dalglish will fail to see this as he was the one responsible for bringing him.
ReplyDeleteIt would have been the wrong decision had we conceded and drawn or lost the game.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't.
That is all.
Agreed
ReplyDeleteI don't think you can say Dalglish made the wrong decision when we won the game. Also city created very little quality chances proving the defensive strategy worked.We played football in the first half,got what we wanted and shut up shop.Intelligent.Even if we conceded one late on we'd still have a good chance going back to Anfield with a 1-1 draw . Now we have a great chance.
ReplyDeleteThe results don't make a decision right or wrong, as there is no evidence that it was the only way to pick up a positive result. A manager can make all the right decisions and see his team still lose, just as he can do everything right from the bench and somehow pick up a win.
ReplyDeleteThose 'tactics' last night stunted the attacking intent of our best player and our attacking full back, took the target man into areas of the pitch where he is never going to pose any threat and overall contributed to a very disjointed performance.
That was the most inept attacking performance I've seen from LFC in a long long time, and irrespective of the opposition, just dumping a bunch of defenders on the pitch for 30 mins shouldn't be applauded by any top team.
kd made the right descision, the game plan was to boss the midfield, which worked as they struggled to break us down, carrol played ok, he missed a sitter but caused a lot of problems for the city defence. should have dropped downing for maxi though.
ReplyDeleteHow is completely giving up as an attacking forced and playing 7 or 8 defenders 'the right decision'? Is that what Liverpool is all about? It was cowardly if you ask me.
ReplyDeleteHmmm... Interesting game. Shutting up shop in the 2nd half was a bit risky but I don't think it shows KD is tactically out of touch. Why not defend our lead? We've got arguably the best defence (whole team) in the league, MC are a better counter-attacking team than us unfortunately and these 2 games against them could lead to a trophy! Kenny adapted to the game as it was played. Come the end of the season what would we all honestly prefer: we played pretty football every game but didn't quite make it, or we had to play ugly when it was needed and we won the Carling Cup? Which is the best preparation for the run in, winning the cup or going out in the semis?
ReplyDeleteThe way we played today was a very old fashioned style, Play away for a draw and if possible nick the win, then when at home take it to them. This was typical of Shankly when playing European teams he knew little about.
ReplyDeleteIf it works I have no problem in using such a style and also having players able to play like that could be useful if playing in Europe. Would anyone have a problem beating Barcelona in this fashionAll the same I will admit that my heart was in my mouth for the majority of the second half.
Carrol needs to learn how to hold up the ball better, I admit it was difficult circumstances for him but I recall a Chelsea match where they were clutching on to a lead and brought Drogba on and every time he was bringing the ball to the corner flag and no one could get the ball off him leading to fouls or corners. Big Andy needs to learn to use his power and size better, and I hope he will!
Agreed with what jaimie said,that's a chicken shiiit and cowardly play if this is what the opposition tactic against us i wonder what would you guys say,i've been a lfc fan for 33 year and i'm not amaze or xcited about this win but what i do like is the first 30 mins before spearing was out,we were controling,move and pass,that's what lfc all about,not only we wanna win but win it with pride and respect.
ReplyDeleteTwo expressions spring into mind over last night's result. The first is ' attack is the best form of defence' and the second is 'win ugly'. Well, the first one went right out of the window on the basis of our second half performance. The second adage we applied with some aplomb! We got the result but the last 30 mins were nerve racking in the extreme and took all the gloss of a good win. Still not sold on Carrol. On at least 4-four occasions he went for the ball and ended up on his backside and remained there, having a moan whilst play went on around him. Just doesn't seem to have any sense of urgency about him and seems totally incapable of holding the ball up. Would also like to take the opportunity to comment on the fact that Mancini is turning into the unacceptable clone of Old Red Nose, Wenger and Mourinho ! Nobody loves me, everybody hates me and it's all part of a great conspiracy. Last week he was waving imaginary cards, last night he was seeing fouls nobody else saw.
ReplyDelete