Arsenal v Liverpool Sunday 14th August 16:00

[Bilo]

Either you're related to Moreno or you're just trolling?

Moreno was absolute dog shit first half, even if you forget about the penalty he gave away for a moment. Mingolet wasn't half as bad but still looked dodgy throughout.

Moreno's biggest problem along with having little game intelligence is that he has to do absolutely everything at 100mph. If he slowed down at times and used his head a little bit more he'd get far less criticism than he generally does.

I'm not trolling. A bunch of things is being ignored by the Moreno is shit-crowd. Here's my take on it:

When the opposition has the ball in their own back line, we set up a fairly simple pressing trap. Our right winger and forward cover their left centre back and left back, while our most advanced central midfielder cover their deepest central midfielder. Thus we force the ball out to their right centre back, and our forward, in this case Firmino, sprint towards him still covering the other centre back. The ball naturally moves out to their right back. From there, our two central midfielders (ignoring the holding) along with our left side midfielder create a line of three, completely shutting down the possibility to move inside. At the same time, Firmino covers the backpass. So it's hit it long or, set up a duel between our left back, Moreno and their right winger.

We do this pretty much at every single opportunity. This is based on Moreno being so explosive that whether the right back chooses to hit it long or play it short to the right winger, Moreno's explosiveness makes him the favorite to win the ball. And considering we don't concede 15 goals a game from this trap (we do set it up about 15 times a game, namely), Moreno does win the duel a vast majority of the time. Lots of teams start hitting it long to the centre forward from the trap due to the fact that Moreno quite rarely loses the duel, even against Walcott. So that's why the commentators sat asking why the hell Arsenal kept hitting it long to Sanchez. The truth is that they had a better chance to win the ball there than in the duel against Moreno, after they tried it a couple of times.

Watch the game again, or keep an eye on it the next game. The amount of time we shut down the opposition's right is very much down to Moreno and his defensive ability. Naturally, this trap leads to almost every attack from the opposition's build up comes down our left hand side, so Moreno is bound to make a lot more mistakes than Clyne.

Moreno isn't perfect, far from it. I conceded in my previous post that he makes too many high profile mistakes. But since people keep asking why we haven't replaced Moreno, my take on it is that there simply isn't another left back available with his attributes. We're quite reliant on our pressing traps and the one shutting down our left is our main one, we'd have to change our system to be able to go with a safety first, stay back left back. For the trap to work, our left back has to be quicker and stronger than the winger.

Also, Moreno gets a lot of stick for leaving his winger behind in transition. That, too, is his job. It's the holding midfielder's job to cover it. That's so simple that it baffles me that people still blame Moreno for "getting caught out of position". It's quite often the holding midfielder who's out of position.

 

[Kopper]

How many times does Moreno have to make the same mistake, before he's dropped (or sold)?

The ref was rash to give a penalty, I don't fault Moreno for that. But leaving Arsenal's fastest player unmarked so close to goal was stupid beyond belief.

 

[Stevencc]

Who knows best - absolutely everyone (except Bilo) including such luminaries of the football world as Mr. Gary Neville and Mr. Jamie Carragher or...Bilo?

Tough one.

 

[Bilo]

Ignore facts, attack character. That's right wing populism mate, you'd best refrain from it. Also, it's me and Klopp vs all of you. Along with a bunch of other scribes and writers who also realize Klopp isn't blind but actually puts some thought into his selection.

Interesting piece on pressing traps that I very much recommend:
https://thetacticalanalyst.wordpres...focusing-on-cover-shadows-and-pressing-traps/

 

[Stevencc]

Moreno has another nightmare + you write an essay on him not being shite = I'm ignoring facts.

It must be fun to live in your world, Bilo!

 

[Bilo]

Did you even read my essay? It's quality, full of tangible evidence that even you can look at when you watch Liverpool. And we both know you'd never miss a match.

 

[ColB]

I thought Mignolet was solid yesterday. Couldn't do much for a any of the goals.

It's more to do with the fact that he just doesn't have any sort of commanding presence. I've given him credit in the past when others haven't and he has had some really good games for us, but he's no Pepe Reina.

 

[Stevencc]

Did you even read my essay? It's quality, full of tangible evidence that even you can look at when you watch Liverpool. And we both know you'd never miss a match.

I read your essay and it was just like all the others you've written - doctrinaire in nature, almost completely plagiarised and ill-thought out.

Sorry Bilo.

You are about as good at analysing football as Moreno is at playing football.

 

[Bilo]

I read your essay and it was just like all the others you've written - doctrinaire in nature, almost completely plagiarised and ill-thought out.

Sorry Bilo.

Surely there's something else you are good at?

Of course it's plagiarized in the sense that I'm not alone in my opinion, millions of people watch the same football as I and reach the same conclusion. It is, however, not at all plagiarized in the sense that I wrote every word myself.

Aside from that, your line of arguing is fantastic and I'm starting to doubt the fact that we force the opposition to attack down our left and that Moreno has the most ground to cover of all our players. I'm also close to conceding that this has nothing to do with our left back's likelihood of making mistakes.

 

[Stevencc]

Do you fancy taking another extended break from the forum, mate?

 

[Bilo]

Do you fancy talking about football on a football forum, mate?

 

[Stevencc]

With people who understand the game, of course.

With you? I'd rather finger my own bum.

 

[Bilo]

With people who understand the game, of course.

With you? I'd rather finger my own bum.

Considering the quality of your posts you surely have more than one finger up there.

 

[Stevencc]

That's more your level!

Stick to that.

You can talk to yourself now mate, I'm fingering my bum.

 

[SALTIRE]

I disagree with this to be completely honest. In the first half Arsenal pressed us very well and their goal was an example of that. They simply couldn't keep it up though and didn't seem to have any idea what to do if they weren't ahead after the first half, that was their mistake. They ended up sort of half sitting back protecting a 1-1 draw which goes to show how reliant they were on being ahead after the first half, which all things considered they probably should have been.


It's fashionable to blame everything on Moreno and Mignolet (look at Salty's posts for example). I can't think of any two other players in our team who get less credit for what they do well. Mignolet saved a penalty and nobody mentions him, Moreno made literally one mistake and is made out to have had an awful game which isn't true.

Our pressing trap on the left worked very well and that is extremely reliant on Moreno's defending. If he can't defend, Arsenal would have gotten past us there regularly. They didn't, because Moreno can actually defend and quite well at that. The problem with Moreno is his high profile mistakes, which in combination with us knowingly forcing the opposition to attack down our left makes him look poor more often than he actually is. Combine that with the fact that he's meant to leave his winger behind in transition and you got yourself a scapegoat.

There's a reason Moreno is still around and it baffles me how people can't at least see what he does well. He fucks up too often, we all agree on that, but fuck me, people are just looking to blame him for stuff he has nothing to do with.

I defended Moreno before the start of this season saying he's good enough for the PL, however he is still fucking up and looking shaky and will be a target from opponents and is why I now believe it's time to get someone else in to defend. He isn't needed as much going forward anyway with the flexibility we now have upfront.

Mignolet did well yesterday I felt after seeing the game on MOTD 2, but long term he's not the answer if we are to challenge.

 

[Bilo]

That's more your level!

Stick to that.

You can talk to yourself now mate, I'm fingering my bum.

This was fun. See you next weekend.

 

[Stevencc]

I'm at a stag do!

Is the one after OK?

 

[G-Dragon]

 

[Pagnell]

Late reply but on holiday in the land that 3G forgot (Cornwall). Fantastic result, spoilt only slightly by allowing them back into the game after going 3 up.