Re: Sunderland pre match thread
Number 1 is Colin Bell said:
2nd half yesterday showed we can cope well enough without Yaya didnt it?
Would like him fit for the away games though
Yaya makes things tick when we need to control the game. Yesterday we had control in the 2nd half because Liverpool dropped off considerably, they were rocked by our goals certainly but we then gifted them the win. Yaya is very important to the way we play when we need brilliance and physical dominance but I don't think he's had his best games recently. Everytime we have brought Garcia on we have looked much more comfortable and it is because our defence just isn't comfortable with that space in front of them when we attack. Garcia is a static stay back type of player who gives the defence confidence due to the extra safety net. When Fernandinho gets forward and Yaya gets forward our defenders are left completely exposed to the break away and they clearly just aren't comfortable with it, especially against quality, pacey forwards. There are so many examples of games where we have been done on the break and totally lack a midfield in front of the back 4.
This isn't a criticism of any player or our tactics but the amount of goals we have scored have certainly cost us in terms of defending comfortably. Liverpool in the first half is a prime example, we were starved of space and Fernandinho and Yaya were clearly told to get forward where possible, how many times did they have us on the break? 1v1's against quality players like Sterling are just frightening and happened far too often. I thought we were excellent yesterday defensively but the sheer pressure Liverpool put us under when attacking definitely rocked them at times and lead to mistakes made for all their goals. You could never say that a single goal by them was a result of brilliant play on their part, it was just sheer pressure and forcing mistakes. It is just simply bound to happen when you are constantly 2v2, 3v3, 4v4 at the back.
There needs to be some will to defend as well as attack and we looked like dears in headlights because our attacking plan was failing and defensively we were getting mullered. Just ask yourself how many times we got broke against and think where is our midfield. Personally I am not comfortable with Yaya and Fernandhino playing together in the bigger games unless there is to be some more diligence defensively. Their style and way of playing just doesn't quite knit together, particularly Yaya who is not a defensive midfielder for me. Yaya just doesn't want to hang back and Fernandinho I think gets told to get forward so we are completely open. This is fine but when your under the cosh you need your players behind the ball, not desperately trying to get back to help every time an attack breaks down.
For me, whether we win the title or not we need to learn how to deal with these type of teams, we struggled again at Arsenal who put us under pressure and I think it is a major weakness of ours tactically. We have mostly got away with it because teams have to defend against us but Liverpool just kept Suarez and Sterling high up the pitch and we got done over and over again.
We sometimes just need to learn to hang back when the going is tough, soak it up and defend. Everyone knew Liverpool would come out the way they did and if we had soaked it up, let them have their 20 minutes without reward then we might of withstood it all much better when they went off the boil. In the end it could of been any score to anyone but the mistakes forced upon us due to being in precarious positions cost us the game.
Sunderland will not pose as much threat but we will not struggle to score without Yaya. We need a very assured defensive performance and the goals should come with our quality. We need to ensure this is a 'safe' win because any other result means the title is definitely gone. By that I don't mean a defensive performance but a balanced one, yesterday at times was far from that.
