The lack of leadership last night

I think BR got it wrong to start with. Last night was crying out for 3-5-2.
Soyuncu is lost without leadership.
Thomas was a bit out of depth.
Perez, well not for me.
Vardy can't do the lone striker job when there is 40 yards between him and midfield.
Wilf didn't look right last night, not his normal self.
Maddison plays better behind a 2.
Barnes was marked out game.
Tielemans got surrounded as soon as he got the ball.

Saying all that, West Ham played really well, sat deep, no space, bullied the midfield and broke quickly in numbers.
 
West Ham are a team brimming with confidence after their fantastic last season.
We look like a team with no confidence after throwing it away twice.
Sean Dyche anyone?
 
After that I find it pointless to criticise individual players, the collective was so weak, so lacking in endeavour, commitment and, for much of the time actual quality.

Our much vaunted midfield trio of Wilf, Youri and Madders was missing for the second game in a row, the defence was leaderless and way off the pace, having 6 defenders missing does not help but surely we can do better than that?

We have not turned to crap overnight but we do still have a fragile quality that seems to linger, once we start playing like that we do seem to struggle to turn things around.
 
FoxinRutland said:
I think BR got it wrong to start with. Last night was crying out for 3-5-2.
Soyuncu is lost without leadership.
Thomas was a bit out of depth.
Perez, well not for me.
Vardy can't do the lone striker job when there is 40 yards between him and midfield.
Wilf didn't look right last night, not his normal self.
Maddison plays better behind a 2.
Barnes was marked out game.
Tielemans got surrounded as soon as he got the ball.

Saying all that, West Ham played really well, sat deep, no space, bullied the midfield and broke quickly in numbers.
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Thought Wilf was one of the very few highlights from last night.

Overworked & it showed, but without a number of crucial interceptions & tackles, the final result could’ve been much worse.
 
Mistryman said:
Thought Wilf was one of the very few highlights from last night.

Overworked & it showed, but without a number of crucial interceptions & tackles, the final result could’ve been much worse.
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Morning Mn.

I thought Wilf was a long way off his best but still the best midfielder we had, which shows how poor the rest were, even at 11 vs 11 we looked outclassed. Youri looks tired, Maddison disinterested, Perez ineffective, West Ham close marked Vardy and Barnes and that was it.

It did not help that we seemed set up for a draw, trying to play out the game from the start.
 
West Ham knew full well we'd piss about at the back for 5 minutes then either give it to a keeper who can't kick or a midfielder with his back to goal, we do it all the time, all they had to do was put the midfield under a bit of pressure and we were fucked. Rodgers has to take a lot of the blame
 
West Ham were the only team to do the double over us last season and they scored six goals in the process. Before the match last night I was convinced Rodgers would try something different, but instead we played right into their hands for the third game in succession. At half time I would have bet my house on Rodgers making a tactical switch, most likely bringing on Soumare for Maddison to give us more presence in midfield, but he waited until the 64th minute to make the first substitution and didn't make any more changes until the 81st minute when the game was lost (I know he was preparing to make the subs before Antonio scored the 3rd, but the point is that it was way too late).

I'm trying to take solace from the fact that under Rodgers the team will always occasionally serve up gash performances like last night. It seems that when he gets it wrong, he gets it very, very wrong. In the past, we've always bounced back; Saturday will tell us a lot about what we can expect this season.
 
FoxinRutland said:
Vardy can't do the lone striker job
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Vardy had been struggling for quite a while in the lone striker role before Rodgers was forced to play inheacho alongside him after barnes injury. Going back to this so far this season makes us look so lightweight up top again.
If Rodgers is insistent on the one up top, it has to be daka. Someone with the energy & legs vardy had 4+ years ago
 
I've said this before but it's bang on - not enough leaders in the team. Vardy's days of leading by example and chasing everything down are gone. Big Wes launching himself in front of everything - also gone. The experience and organisation from Fuchs - gone. Evans is notable by his absence. We know Schmeichel is a legend but he's no leader, he doesn't exactly command his box does he? Here's hoping Bertrand can bring some of this and I see Youri stepping up more too. Soumare could also provide something too
 
HuggyBear said:
I've said this before but it's bang on - not enough leaders in the team. Vardy's days of leading by example and chasing everything down are gone. Big Wes launching himself in front of everything - also gone. The experience and organisation from Fuchs - gone. Evans is notable by his absence. We know Schmeichel is a legend but he's no leader, he doesn't exactly command his box does he? Here's hoping Bertrand can bring some of this and I see Youri stepping up more too. Soumare could also provide something too
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Never been a big fan of a goalie being captain.

I know a footy captain has less of an “influence” than say in cricket, but I’d maintain in terms of just galvanising others when necessary, having someone on the pitch that can be respected as well as possessing a decent playing ability, would fit the bill.

Youri in that respect, would be my choice - in as much it would cement what the club thinks of him too.
 
cannot say I'm surprised with the result, wasn't confident before kick off, inept performance, caspers distribution poor again, no defender who can play the ball out of defense, Barnes marked out of the game again, no spark or invention, plenty of possession early on but no penetration, was the same against wolves, one bit of quality and poor finishing enabled us to win that one.
west ham played the perfect game and out muscled us, seems teams have worked us out, last night was surely the game we should have played with two holding midfielders, Maddison doesn't deserve to start based on his performances so far!
 
I get the feeling that Rodgers likes to work with minions so there is never any conflict to working in a system that he insists and have no doubters.
Strong characters cause him a problem, everybody in that team seems to have dropped to a certain level that he can handle.
Look at the likes of Vardy, Maddison, Barnes, all characters that have all seemed to have regressed back and lost their spark.
He may have experienced this at Liverpool and could not handle it then.
 
Sohofox said:
Its not one game though

Apart from Cup Final and Charity Shield we have been crap for months now.
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Apart from winning two of the four domestic trophies, against the current European champions and the Premier League title holders and finishing fifth; we've been shite...
 
Rodgers needs a kick up the arse, its the same old saying "if you keep doing the same thing over and over again, don't expect different results". mis quote obviously but same point.
 
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