Greenlizard0 Weekend Football Thread ** spoilers ** [28th December 2014 - 1st January 2015]

Regy53 said:
Spurs doing a lot better thanni thought they would 18 mins in



Edit

Ffs
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lol, pressed the quote button and your edit magically appeared out of nowhere, great timing.

Bit unlucky that Hazard didn't score as it was a great piece of work but it helped make the space for everyone else, the entire defence was focused on Hazard.
 
BaZ87 said:
The single reason Lucas is being picked is for his defensive work yet every game he's failing to do it. Maybe if he offered us something else then you could excuse it but he doesn't. He gives possession away more than any other midfielder we've got despite playing far fewer ambitious passes too. What's he in the team for?
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Most tackles, most interceptions and only a pass success rate 0.7% lower than Gerrards.

What's Gerrard in the team for? Set pieces and that's it. Offers absolutely **** all to the team and hurts the way we play. Sooner he leaves/retires the better.
 
Pigeon_Killer said:
Most tackles, most interceptions and only a pass success rate 0.7% lower than Gerrards.

What's Gerrard in the team for? Set pieces and that's it. Offers absolutely **** all to the team and hurts the way we play. Sooner he leaves/retires the better.
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Gerrard even 3-4 years ago offered something to the offence throughout games but last year beyond set pieces was useless.

I think the stat was something like of something silly like 13 goals and 13 assists, only 1 goal and like 2 assists came in open play. My take on set pieces is largely that anyone taking them will have inflated stats largely because almost anyone taking all the penalties will score 80% of them with ease if not 95% of them and if you take all corners and freekicks you'll get a bunch of assists. How many assists will in large part be down to how good your team is at scoring from them, he does take a good freekick, better than most, but a top 7 team should be able to have someone that could do close to as well.

At this point how poor he is in open play isn't outweighed by how good he is at set pieces offensively. Hasn't been for quite some time. The quality of set pieces is a huge bonus to someone who is effective through the other 85minutes of a game but when you hurt the team for 85mins to be semi useful at set pieces you aren't worth having any more.

Sterling upfront is also a bad idea, getting 2 against Bournemouth and 1 against Burnley doesn't change that.

EDIT:- great finish Kane.
 
BaZ87 said:
While Gerrard most certainly is past his best, he's still going to be getting into our side when Lucas is the only alternative. It's a calculated decision to play Gerrard - you know he's not going to be rock solid defensively but you hope the attacking contribution will make up for it.
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Well he isnt in the team at the expense/in place of Lucas for a start, so your entire arguement is flawed. His is in the team at the expense of Henderson, hes the one that is shunted out of position to accomodate Gerrard. We tried Gerrard where Lucas plays for the 1st 12 odd games, and they were some of the worst performances by a 'DM' in many a long time.

But lets play along, what attacking play would this be that he is contributing to? The odd 50 yard cross field ball that comes off once in a while? Becuase he offers nothing else in an attacking sense. He's tactically poor, cant press, has no positional sense, no goal threat and he doesnt have the speed of thought or legs to play the quick passing game that was on show against Swansea. His inclusion throws off the entire teams cohesion.

Addititonally, how can he have a rest midweek, but yet still look the player most tired today?

BaZ87 said:
With Lucas you've got nothing - he doesn't contribute offensively and he can't do the defensive work that he's supposed to be being picked for.

In each of the games Lucas has been picked for up to and including the Stoke/Leicester games the other month, Lucas has been responsible for a goal or a clear chance on goal against us because he's simply can't do his job any more.
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Lucas offers proably the same amount, if not more going forward than Gerrard does these days. He has played some lovely forward balls in the recent games - 4th game in 11 days for Lucas that btw, theres me thinkng that he couldnt even play one game a week judging from your previous comments on him, just like your comments on Henderson being unable to play in central Midfield.
 
Rose is being pushed high up, cant blame him for that. Leaves us week as he tracks back. I have seen him play a few times at the lane and quite rate him

Also kane is really proving well. Crazy really from around 100 million spent, the only regular is erikson. Others who have taken these players spots are hg
 
Pigeon_Killer said:
Most tackles, most interceptions and only a pass success rate 0.7% lower than Gerrards.

What's Gerrard in the team for? Set pieces and that's it. Offers absolutely **** all to the team and hurts the way we play. Sooner he leaves/retires the better.
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Gerrard has a higher pass completion despite playing considerably more long balls, key passes and crosses. Look at any half decent DM/holding mid and they'll have a 90%+ pass completion rate because they're generally playing simple passes. Lucas passing has been no where near up to standard.

And making more tackles and interceptions than Gerrard doesn't mean he's doing his job properly. One is being picked to do the defensive work and one isn't. Mignolet made more saves than Coutinho this season ;) I'm not pointing to Gerrard's goals or assists as to reasons why he's better than Lucas because that's not what Lucas is being picked for.

Lucas is being picked as a defensive midfielder but he's not capable of doing it to the standard required. He's culpable for goals and chances against us every single game and offers the team nothing else to compensate it.

Gerrard was equally as poor as Lucas vs Burnley yet in that game he still contributed with 2 key passes that could/should have resulted in goals - Lallana's chance in the first half where he got the ball stuck under his feet and had to shoot from the edge of the box and Lambert's disallowed goal where he was lazy and caught offside.
 
Moses said:
So that illustrates the point, no? Similar numbers on passes per game, and accuracy... but Gerrard has over four times the number of key passes per game. So off those slightly more detailed stats you could suggest it's possible he makes riskier passes/ones that achieve more. It shows it's important to consider the stats in the round, rather than just pass number and pass accuracy, no?
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Key passes includes corners and free kicks which Lucas never takes :p
 
Moses said:
So that illustrates the point, no? Similar numbers on passes per game, and accuracy... but Gerrard has over four times the number of key passes per game. So off those slightly more detailed stats you could suggest it's possible he makes riskier passes/ones that achieve more. It shows it's important to consider the stats in the round, rather than just pass number and pass accuracy, no?
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Key passes is a useless stat, just like the chances created stat people were throwing around to justify the Stuart Downing transfer a few years back.
 
Pigeon_Killer said:
Key passes includes corners and free kicks which Lucas never takes :p
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Isn't there a reason why Gerrard takes them but Lucas doesn't?

Heck, even the 2 pens today, would you really fancy any other player we had on the pitch to score them? I look around our side and Gerrard apart, there was nobody on the pitch you'd trust with set-plays.
 
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