6) Liverpool have a more pressing concern than gegenpressing
Three games into Jürgen Klopp’s tenure at Liverpool, all drawn and all slightly disappointing, the surprising thing is that no one is talking tactics or gegenpressing any more. Against Rubin Kazan in their previous home match, at least Liverpool attempted the high-energy game that their new manager supposedly favours. Against Southampton there was considerably less frantic running about. Not only were Liverpool wasting energy in their first couple of games under Klopp, they were not making the most of their time on the ball. The gegenpressing theory, after all, is based on what to do when your opponents have the ball – how to win it back quickly, how to rearrange in defence if that cannot be achieved and so on. As a theory it is fine but a greater problem for Liverpool at the moment is what to do when they themselves are in possession. Against Rubin Kazan, Liverpool saw far more of the ball than their opponents but struggled to do anything with it. While the game against Southampton was more evenly balanced, Liverpool were still short of attacking ideas. It does not help that Philippe Coutinho has been below par for most of the season and it is far from ideal that Christian Benteke and Daniel Sturridge have been injured. It would be unfair to judge Klopp until he has his strongest team at his disposal but Liverpool are crying out for creativity and attacking invention. What to do when their opponents have possession is currently the least of their worries.
7) McClaren doing well and Newcastle will be OK
Mike Ashley took a seat in the Stadium of Light directors’ box on Sunday. If that was not sufficiently shocking, Newcastle’s owner wore a collar and tie with only one shirt button undone – is he really coming over all establishment? Ashley presumably wanted to see his current manager Steve McClaren’s choreography of Newcastle prove precisely why he sacked Sam Allardyce back in January 2008. But luck was not with McClaren’s side on Wearside. Despite dominating much of the game, Newcastle lost 3-0 and remain in the relegation zone. Ashley though should keep the faith, his new coach has improved this team and, sooner or later, it will be reflected in the League table.
8) Monk deserves to see pressure ease
Amid all the talk of the crisis at Aston Villa and Tim Sherwood’s sacking, it was almost overlooked that Garry Monk had picked up a win that was not insignificant in itself. Swansea had gone six matches in all competitions without a victory and Monk saw the odds on him being the next Premier League manager to be sacked slashed in the lead-up to the Villa game. This, it is worth remembering, is the same manager who led Swansea to their highest ever Premier League finish last season and whose side currently sit 12th in the table. Swansea are not playing with the same conviction that they showed at times last season and Bafétimbi Gomis has badly lost his way but the idea that Monk should be under pressure is absurd. As for Sherwood, there’s enough of that elsewhere on the website but any Premier League manager that has taken one point from a possible 27, no matter what is going on behind the scenes, is going to find themselves out of a job.
9) Deeney deserving of Watford fans’ high praise
Take a trip to Vicarage Road and within minutes you will soon figure out who the outstanding hero is. Troy Deeney is adored in this part of Hertfordshire – the leading man in the Hornets’ promotion chase last season and a role model for not just his club but football in general. It was a lovely moment then to see him convert his 25th attempt of the season and finally score a Premier League goal at Stoke on Saturday and set Quique Sánchez Flores’s team on their way to a third win of the season. Deeney’s relationship with his strike partner Odion Ighalo also reeks of the old school – the former holding up play and linking it all together, the latter tasked with finding the net. Indeed Ighalo has been involved in all of Watford’s last seven goals, scoring five and assisting both for Deeney and Almen Abdi at the Britannia. It works and once they continue in this current form there should be no doubt of Watford’s ability to remain in the top flight.
10) Neil needs to be a little less naive
“The bottom line is, the game for us boils down to two boxes. Our box, we didn’t defend well enough and in the other box they defended it well. We must have put about 40 crosses into their box and they put about seven into mine and scored a header and should have scored another.” Alex Neil admitted that Norwich’s third straight defeat came about because they came up against a team that were supremely well drilled at the back. It should hardly come as a surprise that a Tony Pulis side is able to defend this way. His teams regularly boss the penalty area. And that’s why Norwich should have shifted their tactics when they realised that they were up against a towering defence that could deal with crosses into the box all day. Neil is a young manager who has laudable ideals. But against the Premier League’s wily old managers who know how to nick a point or three, he may have to be prepared to alter his attacking approach and instruct his team to be a little more patient as they probe. Norwich’s survival may depend on it.
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