Any comment on how poor Gerrard, and especially Torres has been. We keep talking about playing a more a fluid football, yet these two still seem to want to play very direct. Can't count the occasions Torres had the ball, and instead of laying it down to a red shirt, all he kept doing was to run with the ball, and eventually lose it when surrounded by 3-4 defenders. Torres hold up play has always been poor IMO, and it's something he really needs to work on.
Yep, I've been saying this for ages. Seriously. Both need to pull their fingers out in a big way:
1) Torres needs to hold and lay off first and foremost. The turn and run is for if the opportunity is there - and it won't be if he never looks to hold up first - I will explain more in a moment.
2) Gerrard, Torres and Carra too (though actually Carra was excellent last night - I'd done him wrong with my criticisms of his ball carrying because he did it yesterday and, re-watching Stoke, he did a lot there too that I hadn't noticed) need to grow up and get off the bloody playground. You can't afford to only pass to your bezzy mates at this level and it really, really does my nut in. With Carra it's refusing to give the ball to Lucas - just won't trust the lad with it...though Mascherano doesn't use him a fraction as much as he should either - it's only really Kuyt of the senior players who does seem to unquestioningly trust him with the ball, but then that's not too surprising because Kuyt suffers just as much from G&T's selfishness as Lucas does - indeed more-so.
How many times have you seen one of G&T look up for that lethal early ball to the other, and if it isn't on, what do they do? Seems to me they very rarely pick whatever other passing option is open. Torres would rather run into 3 players than play Kuyt through, Gerrard would rather smack it from 30 yards than play Kuyt through.
3) With Torres in particular it's a massive, massive problem. With 1 up top, that 1 needs to make the ball stick - to relieve pressure when we're under the cosh, and to build moves from when we're piling on the pressure. Torres does neither because he's always looking for the first time foul.
This is also a BIG reason why he get's no protection from refs - he needs to watch a few hours of Drogba videos and fucking learn some tricks:
1) Drogba is a diving bastard. But the reason he gets the fouls while Torres doesn't is simply. Drogba looks first to control and lay off. 9 times out of 10 that's his aim. he makes sure the ball is fully under HIS control, and he makes sure HIS body is between the defender and the ball. That way, if he gets nudged from behind and goes over, the ref has little choice but to give the foul. Even if Drogba was play acting - there is no dispute who was in control of the ball, and there was no way the defender could get the ball without fouling Drogbal.
Torres, on the other hand, tries the turn. 9 times out of 10, that's his aim, the instant/control, turn. Not only is this of limited use when we're playing a massed defence, it also makes it very easy for the ref not to give fouls. Firstly, because if Torres is away then it would force the ref into bransishing reds etc - which they are rightly reluctant to do, so will need to be much surer and Torres doesn't go down like Gerrard either - he doesn't sell it well. He looks like he's diving even when he's clearly been tripped.
Next, because his first touch doesn't bring it under his spell regularly enough, that also gives the ref an area of doubt, again more margin not to give the foul. Finally, it's also made Torres rather predictable. If he concentrates on making the ball stick then suddenly defenders are going to have a whole new set of problems to work with. If Torres is making the ball stick, dropping deeper and drifting wide, then using the ball well, it stands to reason that Defenders won't be able to just 'bite his ankles' all the time - by sticking so tight he could drag them out of position time and time again. But because any defender knows what Torres will do, 90% of the time with his back to goal, all it took was for some team to find a strategy that worked OK to stop that move, and now the rest of the league has refined it.
It's also getting to the stage where I fear for Torres' future if he doesn't adapt. It is disgraceful how much punishment he gets, and I've said this for ages. He's either going to have to adapt slightly and make that punishment work for us, or he might as well leave, because he'll never get Ronaldo protection looking and playing the way he does in England for Liverpool. For Man U, mind, he'd probably win about 5 penalties a match but c'est la vie. Plus ca change mais c'est la meme merde.
-------------
Oddly though, in terms of the match, I'm actually not too worried. If we can clear up these sloppy mistakes, I thought the first spell of the 2nd half was very encouraging - that's how you move the ball against 'bus parkers', and we'll break any of them down playing like that for the majority of a 90 minute game. I missed the start but by all accounts we blew them away there too - got to learn also to maintain that tempo, or at the very least cut these fucking stupid mistakes RIGHT out if we do ease off a little - it's crept into our game to a shocking extent over the last season and a half or so.
We were also well set for another morale raising comeback until Gerrard's intervention. I'm not fussed at all about the lack of belief and heads dropping a bit in the last 20 minutes - of course that was going to happen when captain marvel gifted them the absolute crucial, and killer goal, at a killer time, and then responded to that mistake by quite clearly losing his own belief too. That's just too much to make up - and even then Kuyt should, probably would if Torres hadn't piled into his field of vision (another example of that selfish streak, especially when it comes to Kuyt) have scored for 3-2 and nearly 10 minutes left to pile it on.
A last point Re the ball sticking to our front 4 - we improved significantly when Voro came on. Not because Gerrard went deeper - because Gerrard played a lot worse than Lucas in that role, showing less ambition, no drive or running whatsoever, no good shots and no cutting passes - but because Voronin came on for Gerrard. Voro played with strength, drifted deep and wide, thus made the ball STICK to him, thus was able to conduct a few good moves. Of course, Gerrard does that when he's playing well there, far, far better than Voro - but he was poor on the night.
Voronin last night was, for me, a very clear indicator that the problem has not been with Lucas and Mash but with the front 4, and their unwillingness/inability thus far to adapt to the lack of Alonso when defenders are pressuring them. They have to - all of them - come looking and let others take their place. Stand and wait and Alonso could still find you - one of his great strengths, but that won't work anymore. We have to EARN space, and we have to earn space by sharing it - IE I drop back to find space, you get forward to take up the space I left, together we'll give their defence a real migraine. The front 4 should also all take a look at Voro's cameo last night to see exactly what I mean, and what that kind of play involves, and hopefully come away with renewed confidence because if Voronin can do it, then FFS G&T certainly bloody well can.
