Are we over rated?

We weren't overrated when Sergio was fit or even when he came back for those few games. If Sergio had stayed fit everyone would have been battered into submission by now. Don't remember any threads like this back then?
We all knew the limitations of the squad players but they were lifting their games to an extra level due to our football being top notch.
They haven't suddenly become shit again, the Sergio factor has fucked things up.
 
I just think we've become too easy to play against. Wigan, Norwich, Sunderland (even though we won), even Chelsea in the league game, let us have the ball, pack the midfield and say see of you can get through that lot...and we can't. Then fast breaks or wait for a defensive mishap and voila shocks on the card. Only when tiredness and/or discipline slacken off and the game opens up do we start looking threatening. We don't at the moment seem to know how to combat this.
 
bellsouth said:
I just think we've become too easy to play against. Wigan, Norwich, Sunderland (even though we won), even Chelsea in the league game, let us have the ball, pack the midfield and say see of you can get through that lot...and we can't. Then fast breaks or wait for a defensive mishap and voila shocks on the card. Only when tiredness and/or discipline slacken off and the game opens up do we start looking threatening. We don't at the moment seem to know how to combat this.
Click to expand...

You're exactly right. However, we are not alone in struggling against this suffocating tactic. West Ham did it to Chelsea, Celtic did it to Barca etc etc. The problem we have is that since Christmas, pretty much everyone has been doing it to us. It frustrates the life out of me to watch teams engage Liverpool in open contests and then cram 9 men behind the ball against us. The concern is that we are just SOOOO inept in the face of a parked bus that we can go an hour against a Championship team and not have a single shot at goal
 
Exeter Blue I am here said:
bellsouth said:
I just think we've become too easy to play against. Wigan, Norwich, Sunderland (even though we won), even Chelsea in the league game, let us have the ball, pack the midfield and say see of you can get through that lot...and we can't. Then fast breaks or wait for a defensive mishap and voila shocks on the card. Only when tiredness and/or discipline slacken off and the game opens up do we start looking threatening. We don't at the moment seem to know how to combat this.
Click to expand...

You're exactly right. However, we are not alone in struggling against this suffocating tactic. West Ham did it to Chelsea, Celtic did it to Barca etc etc. The problem we have is that since Christmas, pretty much everyone has been doing it to us. It frustrates the life out of me to watch teams engage Liverpool in open contests and then cram 9 men behind the ball against us. The concern is that we are just SOOOO inept in the face of a parked bus that we can go an hour against a Championship team and not have a single shot at goal
Click to expand...

Part of that relates to starting tempo, I think. When we were on our great run earlier, we were blitzing teams in the first 10-15 minutes, playing with real pace, drive and intensity right from the off. In fact, playing with the kind of attacking intensity that we played with for the last 25 minutes yesterday. Strikers making runs in behind, stretching the defence, creating space in front of the back four for Silva and Nasri. Since Christmas we've fallen back into the way we played for vast periods last season, starting all matches at snail's pace, content to aimlessly shunt the ball around from side-to-side with no real purpose, allowing the opposition defence and midfield to get organised and settle into exactly the way they want to play. Should we still have any aspirations to win the league, it needs to change quickly.
 
I don't even think Wigan parked the bus as such yesterday, they left 2 up at times.

But we still seem to have the same issues we had under Mancini.

But we could have had Hazard in the 2012 window and Isco in 2013. No disrespect but we got sinclair and Jovetic instead.
 
This is daft

After we went 2-0 down we started playing, and opening them up repeatedly

We had a dud in central defence and were playing without motivation. Tactics are just not relevant here
 
sh249 said:
Exeter Blue I am here said:
bellsouth said:
I just think we've become too easy to play against. Wigan, Norwich, Sunderland (even though we won), even Chelsea in the league game, let us have the ball, pack the midfield and say see of you can get through that lot...and we can't. Then fast breaks or wait for a defensive mishap and voila shocks on the card. Only when tiredness and/or discipline slacken off and the game opens up do we start looking threatening. We don't at the moment seem to know how to combat this.
Click to expand...

You're exactly right. However, we are not alone in struggling against this suffocating tactic. West Ham did it to Chelsea, Celtic did it to Barca etc etc. The problem we have is that since Christmas, pretty much everyone has been doing it to us. It frustrates the life out of me to watch teams engage Liverpool in open contests and then cram 9 men behind the ball against us. The concern is that we are just SOOOO inept in the face of a parked bus that we can go an hour against a Championship team and not have a single shot at goal
Click to expand...

Part of that relates to starting tempo, I think. When we were on our great run earlier, we were blitzing teams in the first 10-15 minutes, playing with real pace, drive and intensity right from the off. In fact, playing with the kind of attacking intensity that we played with for the last 25 minutes yesterday. Strikers making runs in behind, stretching the defence, creating space in front of the back four for Silva and Nasri. Since Christmas we've fallen back into the way we played for vast periods last season, starting all matches at snail's pace, content to aimlessly shunt the ball around from side-to-side with no real purpose, allowing the opposition defence and midfield to get organised and settle into exactly the way they want to play. Should we still have any aspirations to win the league, it needs to change quickly.
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree with you more and playing that way is the reason Liverpool have become genuine title contenders. Possession alone does not win matches. Even Barca shoot occasionally !!! Yesterday we did not have a shot on target for nearly an hour despite overwhelming possession.
We are a much better team than recent performances have shown and the season is still not over so we have the opportunity to get it right again.
CTID
 
Our first team isn't overrated. When we have all our best players on the pitch, we are one of the best teams in England, if not the best team. But the problem is that we simply don't have any decent players to back us up. The gap between our first team and fringe players is huge, which makes us ridiculously over reliant on players, and that shouldn't be the case. There's so much pressure on the likes of Silva, Aguero, Toure, Zaba, Fernandinho and Kompany to stay fit because even they know that we turn to shit if one of them is out.

If you look at the season, our ability to score has always masked our apparent inability to defend. For all the goals we've scored, we also concede alot. Chelsea might not have scored as many goals, but they are very very solid as a team and that's why they are where they are. I don't know whether this is due to the system we play or whether its down to inadequate defenders. Maybe it's a bit of both. But the squad we have has got us where we are and we have to stick with it til the seasons finish.
 
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