Brains Trust
Today brings a trip to Anfield and boy is it hard to
get excited about that. A while ago I would've been looking forward to going
there with a real chance of rubbing the Scouse noses in it again as we came
away with another good result. There was a good chance of being able to say
that we’ve still got van Dijk and you still can’t beat us…. For some reason,
I'm not particularly confident this time because, to be frank, we are pretty
shite at the moment. There has been another international break and therefore
another two weeks for Mauricio Pellegrino to come up with something different
as they ‘do the same thing’ approach is really not doing us very well. After
the abysmal performances against Brighton and Burnley, the hope was that Pellegrino
would relish in the role of being the underdog and prepare something that will
give us a chance of getting a result at Anfield. This was the hope anyway and
that's all it was-a hope. There was no logical basis to this as so far
Pellegrino has not shown us anything at all.
Of course it’s the Saints versus the ex-Saints. That line is really really boring but it’s a
definte sub-plot today. I’m of the
opinion now that we should have sold Virgil in the summer and any other fucker
who didn’t want to be here any more – not to Liverpool but we should have got
rid. It’s just one of our many
problems. I still don’t want us to sell
to Liverpool and Harold Shipman-Klopp and because our board says absolutely
nothing, we have no idea whether we will do business with Liverpool again. It doesn’t stop the Liverpool fans being the
most annoying sub-species on the planet.
YNWA, Welcome to Anfield, Twats.
So, international
break and England had a couple of internationals, both ending in creditable 0-0
draws at home to Germany and at home to Brazil. There were some young players
thrown into the side and Ruben Loftus Cheek and Joe Gomez in particular did
very well. Loftus Cheek’s man of the match performance against Germany was
particularly interesting as it laid to waste Chelsea’s argument that they do
not have enough players as they’ve loaned him out to Crystal Palace for the
season. Gareth Southgate said afterwards that Loftus Cheek is not the most
confident because he doesn't seem to realise that despite being a big strapping
lad that he's good enough to play against physically imposing players from the
opposition. This is because he's reached the age of 21 without playing anything
other than fucking age group football for Chelsea until this season. Our
refusal to acknowledge that there is a fucking massive problem with teams like
Chelsea stockpiling players and preventing them from playing a decent standard
of football is about as ridiculous as the Gun lobby fuckwits in America not
acknowledging the throwing guns into the mix means that a lot more people get massacred.
Anyway, I came out of this international break quite impressed by Southgate and
his willingness to leave out the underperforming big names like Sturridge and
Oxlade-Chamberlain and go with some of the youngsters. One can only hope that
he has the bottle to do it in the World Cup itself and players like the two
already mentioned and the utterly shit Jordan Henderson can watch on TV from
home.
If only Saints had
a manager who was prepared to shake it up a bit and drop the underperforming
players. As the team news filtered through, some things stood out as being annoying.
One was that he'd done the Yoshida/Hoedt rotation thing again which is fucking
ridiculous. The next was that to Dusan Tadic still hasn’t done enough to get
left out for a game and oh look, the spearhead of our attacking effort is Shane
‘Run and Jump’. For fuck's sake – that’s not a spearhead, it’s a fucking spoon.
How the fucking hell are we going to get a result with that line-up?
Still, Virgil is playing – I’d have put money on him picking up a little knock
on international duty.
Every pundit who ever comments about Liverpool
mentions that the left side of their defence, Lovren and Moreno are dodgy and
the other two defenders are Klavan who is shit and Alexander-Arnold who is a
kid. Behind them you have Mignolet who
is not the best either. All of their
strength is in attack with Mané, Firmino, Salah and Coutinho so what are we
going to do – be bold and go for their weaknesses or set up because we’re
petrified fo their strengths. I think I
know the answer to that one.
Pellegrino
of course played a few games for Liverpool when he was coming to the end of his
career and ended up as Rafa Benitez’ assistant when he hung up his boots. That was when Benitez was losing the plot so
that may well explain a lot.
Here
goes nothing then and straight from the kick off it’s all Liverpool with us
being posted in the 4-5-60 yards-Shane formation. Though we are defending solidly there’s an
immediate problem apparent in that if we get the ball up the other end and try
to press, we’re doing it with 4 players who are not the most imposing – Boufal,
Davis, Tadic and Redmond. Liverpool
invariably pass through that particular wall of steel and then it’s down to
Romeu trying to run four different directions at once.
A
ball gets played into our box and there’s boots flashing at it and Fraser goes
juggling without any conviction and we get away with it in shambolic
fashion. There’s a warning shot when
Mané gets a cross in from their left and Salah hooks it wide at the far
post. Then Wijnaldum comes from deep and
escapes anyone’s attention and gets a shot in which Fraser comfortably saves.
A
corner for Liverpool on 20 minutes and it’s deep to the back post and Virgil
heads clear well to Tadic. He really
should complete the clearance and hit it towards Shane but sideways and
backwards comes into play and he tries to find space and dribble across the top
of our own penalty area and loses it to Firmino. A couple of quick positive passes and Salah
gets it on the right and curls it left footed past Fraser and into the far
corner. Bollocks. Well played Tadic.
On
our bench, Pellegrino is throwing his arms in the air whilst Black and the
curly haired bloke who looks like he might be Sam McQueen’s dad look on
impassively. That’s our Brains Trust
right there. Ten minutes later it gets
even worse as Coutinho easily puts a straight ball through our defence into the
big gap that Virgil has vacated and Salah is quickest onto it and lifts it
easily over Forster who has come out too late.
2-0 and the game is completely over and you can say that with confidence
as there is nothing in our performance so far this season to suggest we’ll get
back into it and the Brains Trust on the bench don’t look like they’ve had a
good idea between them ever.
In
a rare moment of intent, we win a corner and though it’s cleared, we recycle it
to Virgil in the centre forward position and he gets cleaned out by Lovren and
a million Scouse fanboys are dreaming of him having to apologise for that in
January. The free kick is 30 yards out
and just right of centre and Bertrand’s effort looks good and Mignolet is
scrambling across as it curls just wide.
Half time, 2-0 down and the game’s over.
The
team talk from the manager has resulted in about five minutes of effort and we
get Boufal in on the left and running at the defence but his final shot is
blocked by Dejan the Bastard. That’s
about as good as it got as Liverpool took over and just bo
ssed
it. Firmino gets through on goal and
though he takes an age to get out, Fraser manages to block it.
Pellegrino
positively throws caution to the wind by taking the useless Tadic off and
putting on Austin. Rather than going
with two up top though, Long gets pulled over the the right with Redmond going
left and Boufal into the middle. Nothing
much happens and we’re still shite and it’s just a matter of time before
Liverpool score again and sure enough it comes when Mané plays a superb reverse
ball through the defence. He can do this
because he has forward runners and Firmino is onto it and he smashes it at
Fraser who stands there as the ball cannons off him and boucnes straight to
Coutinho who is free in the box despite us having about 8 players back and he
knocks it into the empty net. Absolute
wank.
Nothing
happens for the rest of the game. We’re
not capable of doing anything and Liverpool have done what they need to do and
start taking off key players to save them for their next game. It’s embarrassing. JWP is on for Boufal and he slings in a good
free kick which flicks off of Long which prevents Austin heading it and the
game ends with Firmino taking the piss as he ran through our defence before
passing it just wide. I was kind of
disappointed it missed because if you can hide things at 3-0, you can’t at 4-0 –
it sounds much much worse.
Just before the game started, my 13-year-old son asked
me what I thought would happen and I said that either Pellegrino would come to
the fore and we’ll put on a defensive masterclass or infinitely more likely, we
go out to defend the shit out of it, let in a goal and then do absolutely
nothing to try and get back into the game and fuck me, that's exactly what
happened. Anyone can get beaten 3-0 at Liverpool and that's not the problem and
itself, the problem was in the manner of the performance which was absolutely
fucking useless. We probably lost as soon as he announced the team with Steve
Davis yet again shoehorned into the defensive midfield position that just
doesn't not suit him. Once again, Tadic and Redmond were picked despite having
done absolutely nothing to justify continued selection and then there is Shane
Long. I do not fucking care how much he runs about. As a striker, let alone a
solo striker, he is fucking useless at the moment. Playing with Shane Long in
his current form as a lone striker is like trying to open a tin of beans with a
fucking spoon.
Pellegrino is
obviously now playing at Van Dijk every game and rotating Yoshida and Hoedt to
partner him. What the fuck is that all about other than giving Virgil continued
game time to keep his value up for the inevitable sale in January or at the end
of the year. It really is not doing the team any favours whatsoever. Not only
that, Mr Tactician has managed to do the rotation so Yoshida plays against
Burnley with all the big brawny strikers and Hoedt plays against Liverpool with
all the small nippy strikers. It's beyond a fucking joke, it really is. If he's
been told to do that then he's got absolutely no self-respect if he goes along
with it. If he is deciding to do this because he wants to keep all the players
happy then you should be fucking fired immediately. This is top level sport we
talking about here. A multi-million pound business with people spending vast
amounts of money to go and watch the game and he's picking a team on sentiment.
Fuck off. Whatever way you look at it,
Pellegrino is contribution to today was fucking shambolic.
All three goals
that we let in today were absolutely horrific and down to the players. So we
have a game plan of keeping things tight probably for the whole of 90 minutes
and what does Tadic do - dribble across the top of his own penalty area and
lose the fucking ball. One pass, goal. Fucking wanker. Not content with
contributing fuck all at the opponents end of the pitch is now come back to do
damage in our own half. For fuck's sake,
why the fuck is he still in the team? Needless to say, he made up for it by
contributing absolutely fuck all for the rest of the game before he got
substituted. Word has it that he gets picked because he’s
a decent defender for a winger so why was he not on the left defending against
Alexander-Arnold who was rapid. Why was
Boufal out there instead of infield. I
guess Mr Tactician knows,
For the second
goal, Virgil went walkabout he was about 15 yards out of position. The pass through from Coutinho was into the
space where he should've been and Hoedt couldn't get across as quick as Salah
did. It’s just a basic lack of
concentration and positional discipline.
No Wonder He's Out of Position
Then we had the
third goal which is another one to add to the Fraser Forster disaster
highlights real. What gets me about this is that when he blocks the initial
shot, he does it by just standing there and letting the ball hit him. There is
no attempt to use his hands whatsoever to stop the ball to the ball hits him and
bounces out into the middle of the penalty area where Coutinho, who has run off
the back of Davis, rolls it into an empty net. One, you don't shovel it straight
back out into the middle of the penalty area and two, you use your fucking hands
for Christs sake. This is something that I noticed first in the EFL cup final
where Ibrahimovic scored the header from admittedly very close to him but he
hasn't even got his hands up he's not from the big starfish shape to try make
yourself as biggest possible it's just stood there with his hands down and the
ball hit the net before he moves them and it's exactly the same with the shot
today he's just started the ball smashed into him and he hasn't even tried to
use his hands I do not get it at all.
If Liverpool had
needed to win by more today then they certainly could've done. They were
substituting players at the end to save them for a Champions League match in
midweek as it was that easy for them. We were fucking rubbish as an attacking
threat and it was another game with zero shots on target. The closest we came
was from the Bertrand free-kick which was earned by one of our defenders
getting fouled. Other than that we did absolutely fuck all.
Pellegrino gave a
shocking interview during the week when he said we have been playing well and
we need to carry on doing the same things and everything would be fine. Whilst
that is obviously complete shit or the ramblings of a complete madman, it was refreshing
to see Nathan Redmond interviewed after the game where he basically said that
it was not good enough. Cedric has also come out and said that our attitude was
shit once we went behind. Finally some
honesty. It's not just about defensive
mistakes, the whole of the performance was not fucking good enough. If the
players are recognising it but the manager isn't it really makes you wonder for
how much longer the manager is going to be listened to by the players, if he is
still being listened to at the moment.
It is not just
down to the manager though. In my opinion our squad going forward is fucking dreadful.
We have one attacker who is fit for purpose but not in the way that we use him.
We have one striker who is not fit and we have one striker who just runs around
and it's fucking rubbish. We have no pace upfront and no I'm not counting Shane
Long because he's fucking useless and we also have no option to go to a big guy
upfront who could hold the ball up and bring others into play. Where are all of
you Graziano haters now?
As for attacking
midfielders or creative players – well we have Boufal and Redmond who have the
odd moment and we have Tadic who has absolutely none but he's the one who
always gets packed. We sometimes play Steve Davis as an attacking midfielder
but he has barely got a goal or assist in him so what the fuck is going on
there? Yes we missed Lemina in midfield but the deficiencies of the forward
players are going to drag us right into relegation battle. Where is Les Reed at
the moment to explain why the fuck we didn't sign any strikers in the summer?
Was selling J-Rod really going to be the catalyst for us to suddenly score
enough goals to be comfortable in this division? Of course it fucking wasn't.
We need a fit for purpose striker and we need some proper creative midfielders
who can pass the bastard ball forwards. Until then I suggest we give Hojbjerg
and JWP a go because they can’t be any worse.
On top of that we don't have anyone to provide
credible back up for our clearly struggling goalkeeper. The work that has been
done on the squad which we are led to believe it is down to Les Reed and Ross
Wilson has been pretty substandard for the last two summers. Whilst we’re on
the subject of Les, Where was that statement from him saying the Pellegrino was
going to play fast paced attacking football and still play the youngsters. 0%
of that has come true and Pellegrino must be on very thin ice.
Coming up we have
three games in a week at home to Everton and away to Manchester City and
Bournemouth. At the moment you would predict that we would get one point at
most from those three games and that is just simply not going to be good
enough. The mood amongst the fan base is very toxic at the moment and if we
don't manage to beat Everton at home I can see it getting even worse and I
don't see how Pellegrino could survive that and this is before we go to
Manchester City and get an inevitable rogering by 4 or 5.
The bottom line is
that in a run of incredibly favourable fixtures, Pellegrino has not shown any
sign of even being competent, let alone of being a decent manager for this
football club. He does seem to be completely out of his depth, is paralysed by
fear and totally uninspiring. I hate being one of those fans that calls for a
change of manager after so few games but there is at present absolutely nothing
redeeming that I can see about Mauricio Pellegrino, nor the people who chose
him.
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