Re: The ONLY LUFC Football Thread : Sat Nov 07, 2020 7:51 pm  

Agree with most of that Biff.
But i think Llorente will replace Koch who has played well at times but has also made some basic errors.
Shipping far too many goals which has got to be a concern even at this stage.

Re: The ONLY LUFC Football Thread : Sat Nov 07, 2020 8:00 pm  

Biff Tannen wrote:

we are missing our spine, as i think Llorente will be taking Cooper's spot soon so with him, Phillips and Rodrigo you have 3 international players missing and a team like ours still with plenty of championship players in the squad can't go for long papering over those cracks.

that said we are getting no luck lately. VAR was a joke for the Bamford goal, a ridiculous deflection for their 3rd and a worldie free kick. we do need to tighten up though and getting those players back should rejuvenate us. the international break comes at a good time for once.

Agree Biff. Can’t believe Bielsa dropped Pablo though, I don’t agree with that decision at all. Our central mid and attacking mid are not good enough at this level when Phillips and Rodrigo are out. Our depth is not good enough. I’d drop Harrison next game and play Costa left and Raphinha right. Desperately need a quality left back too. Defending for the palace 4th was laughable.

Could have been a different game had VARce not played its part though they went 2 up minutes later..

Re: The ONLY LUFC Football Thread : Sat Nov 07, 2020 9:42 pm  

I have a feeling we won't see Pablo again for a while, Jansson was the last player to throw a strop like Pablo did against Leicester, and we know what happened to him.

Hopefully, we'll have Rodrigo and Llorente at least back for the Arsenal game. I'd start Raphinha instead of Costa.

Re: The ONLY LUFC Football Thread : Sat Nov 07, 2020 9:48 pm  

Need a left back and def mid in Jan. no panic though we’re clearly good enough for mid table imo but Bielsa has a lot of work to do. Too many goals conceded

Re: The ONLY LUFC Football Thread : Sat Nov 07, 2020 10:30 pm  

chapylad wrote:

Agree with most of that Biff.
But i think Llorente will replace Koch who has played well at times but has also made some basic errors.
Shipping far too many goals which has got to be a concern even at this stage.

i think Koch was looking superb up until monday night. he has had a bad week to be fair but he is definitely the future imo and is far better than that, i would try and get the Koch/Llorente partnership going asap as for me i don't see Cooper as a starting centre back personally at this level; good squad man to have in reserve for now if needed but the likes of him, Alioski, Roberts are the kind of players we need to start phasing out if we do want to start progressing in this league.

Re: The ONLY LUFC Football Thread : Sat Nov 07, 2020 10:35 pm  

Trebor1 wrote:

Agree Biff. Can’t believe Bielsa dropped Pablo though, I don’t agree with that decision at all. Our central mid and attacking mid are not good enough at this level when Phillips and Rodrigo are out. Our depth is not good enough. I’d drop Harrison next game and play Costa left and Raphinha right. Desperately need a quality left back too. Defending for the palace 4th was laughable.

Could have been a different game had VARce not played its part though they went 2 up minutes later..

absolutely. Phillps is a big miss. we struggled at times without him in the championship so playing established PL teams without him with largely the same team at the minute the evidence is there to see. Rodrigo was looking classier by the game and such a shame he has missed the last two. get all these guys back and hopefully we can keep a fit squad for a few weeks, still think we will match anyone with a first choice 11.

Re: The ONLY LUFC Football Thread : Sun Nov 08, 2020 6:43 am  

Losing Phillips has been big. The shape of the team hasn't been right the last 3 games. Even the villa game needed a change early in the game.

Getting him back will bring more cover for the defence. It's odd that we don't have a true left back either.

Does anyone know when forshaw is due back?

Re: The ONLY LUFC Football Thread : Sun Nov 08, 2020 8:40 am  

Not sure on Foreshaw but he can only be a few weeks away surely. He’ll need to play 5 u23 games to prove his fitness no sure if he’s playing any at the moment

Re: The ONLY LUFC Football Thread : Sun Nov 08, 2020 8:46 am  

Biff Tannen wrote:

i think Koch was looking superb up until monday night. he has had a bad week to be fair but he is definitely the future imo and is far better than that, i would try and get the Koch/Llorente partnership going asap as for me i don't see Cooper as a starting centre back personally at this level; good squad man to have in reserve for now if needed but the likes of him, Alioski, Roberts are the kind of players we need to start phasing out if we do want to start progressing in this league.

This is the trouble with young players like Koch and Messlier etc they are going to have a lot of ups and downs. If we stay in the prem this year they will be hugely better for it. We lack premier league guile though for me which will of course come but we’ll see a few results this season like the last 2.

Agree re Alioski and Roberts. I think we’ll see that next season should we stay up. It’s clear we lack quality at this level in a few areas. Left back and midfield top priority in my humble opinion

Re: The ONLY LUFC Football Thread : Sun Nov 08, 2020 1:16 pm  

we just need to cut out the silly errors and smarten up. we have conceded 8 goals in 2 games which on the face of it seems like we are being cut open at will but that is not the case, i don't actually recall a single clear cut chance for Palace aside from maybe the last goal which could have easily been avoided.

we still have 10 points which is a good cushion on the bottom few. the aim has to be get to 20 minimum by christmas so 3 more wins which is more than within our capabilities with players back. think the cut off line for relegation will be very low 30's maybe lower.