[Isotope]

This is clutching at straws to be honest. The fact remains he didn't do it at Palace, and he started doing it more frequently here. Any coach worth their salt would pick up on this long before even the arm-chair fans have.

How many times did you watch him at Palace?

 

[Nick7]

The goal we conceded, in which his positioning was at least suspect, will paint a very bad picture for him today. The truth is that, from a tactical point of view, he was hanged out to dry throughout the 90 minutes. Our decision was to use Shaw as an attacking/creative outlet on the other side and with Brighton playing with two men upfront, it was AWB who always had to tuck in and become the third CB in order to maintain the necessary 3v2 at the back. Furthermore, Shaw at least had Matic running like crazy to cover him, AWB got zero help from either Pogba or Greenwood in the whole game.

Yeah this is it. As bad as he was today, he was strung up by the manager. No right back would have done well in that game. Baffling.

 

[OleBoiii]

What happened to him? Comparing him to last season is night and day.

 

[Giggsforever]

He’ll get slated but Ole did him no favours. Let him get doubled up on all day.

Greenwood was helping him, the chances was not created from our right, so that was not the case. He is ball watching and drifts in when the ball is on the other side and they just have to cross it to the back post.

 

[Icemav]

His positional play is worryingly bad, most of Brighton's chances and goals came in from the right and he consistently tucked in with the CBs even when Ole changed the formation to 3 at the back with him in the wingback position.

Extraordinary that. 5 at the back and they had a man unmarked at the far post for the 15 minutes in the build up to the goal.

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

His tactical and awareness as full back is shocking. He doesn't seem to understand who to mark when playing against wing back formation. Lindelof also doesn't communicate to him enough to tell him that he's marking the wrong players.

 

[Dec9003]

Greenwood was helping him, the chances was not created from our right, so that was not the case. He is ball watching and drifts in when the ball is on the other side and they just have to cross it to the back post.

He’s clearly told to move in though, that’s what we do when defending a lead; all our defenders just move as centrally as possible. It’s a tactical issue.

 

[K_Ash]

What happened to him? Comparing him to last season is night and day.

you can tell after one full game????

 

[The United]

I am not saying he is a terrible player. But, as a defender for a top club, people are being fooled by his slide tackles. His positioning for a defender needs so much work.

And, having to do so much slide tackles shows how shit he is with positioning which is vital for a defender.

 

[acnumber9]

You think it was his positioning or poor tactics? That far post was left exposed time and time again. It was weird...like it was too obvious to be a mistake!

It was blatantly tactical. He actually had an impossible task today with those tactics. Even if it isn’t how can a manager sit and watch it and not change it. I thought we needed an extra midfielder on to allow Greenwood to stay on because he was causing them problems going the other way.

 

[Jaxa]

Having a really rough patch right now but we have all seen enough to know how brilliant he is and can be, the only worry is we have no replacement for him right now thats good enough.

 

[Ace of Spades]

Shockingly bad. When you are useless in attack, you have to be better in defence. Has been incredibly piss poor for the last few games.

Also, he had help, he was just shit. Technically lacking, useless in attack, positionally suspect, and weak in the air. This was his performance for the last few games.

 

[Problem-free Philosophy]

Abysmal today. If you're going to rest on defensive ability when falling to pieces near the opposing box then make sure you're actually good defensively.

Said it before he's at risk of becoming the De Gea of fullbacks. Amazing at tackling/duels and bang average at everything else.

Somebody should be absolutely bollocking him after the second (third, forth, fifth!!) time of losing his man at the back post too.

 

[Red Devil 26]

Really poor footballer at both ends of the pitch. Can't remember the last time he had an average game, let alone a good one.

 

[El Jefe]

I'm a big fan but his form has fallen off the cliff since the PL restart in June. He was immense in his first 6 months but worryingly, all parts of his game have gone to shit recently. He's not even been defensively solid recently which is a serious problem.

He needs time out of the starting lineup to get back to his best but seeing as our alternatives are TFM, Dalot or Williams, I'm not sure that will be of any benefit to us.

 

[ReallyUSA]

What happened to him? Comparing him to last season is night and day.

He's lost it. Time to sell.

 

[OleBoiii]

you can tell after one full game????

Fine, if we're going top be pedantic: Comparing him to pre-covid19 is night and day.

 

[Jean claude van hire]

I was a fan of AWB from the start but the more I see of him, the less I think he looks a United player. His awareness is terrible and his ability on the ball is not good enough for a top four team. He is young and hopefully he proves me wrong but I sincerely doubt it.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

I'm a big fan but his form has fallen off the cliff since the PL restart in June. He was immense in his first 6 months but worryingly, all parts of his game have gone to shit recently. He's not even been defensively solid recently which is a serious problem.

He needs time out of the starting lineup to get back to his best but seeing as our alternatives are TFM, Dalot or Williams, I'm not sure that will be of any benefit to us.

He’s completely lost his way. Maybe lost confidence after being singled out by opponents as a weak link.

 

[Giggsforever]

What happened to him? Comparing him to last season is night and day.

I cant rally remember the match, but he was targeted last season also. Maybe West Ham. They had done their homework. BHA was also targeting him, it was from the first kick and again and again. It's clear that teams have seen this weakness after analasys.

 

[UncleBob]

Bruno wasn’t even supposed to be marking him. He actually made an instinctual play but didnt follow through.

Bruno was supposed to be marking him, he was moved out to the right after Greenwood and Martial was taken off.
There's nothing wrong with AWB's positioning for Brighton's second goal, him, Bailly and Maguire are marking 3 Brighton players in front of goal, he can't abandon Bailly and Maguire 2 vs 3 to sod off to a less dangerous position where Bruno should already be.

 

[BlahRules]

He did not offer anything in the attacking third but was getting caught out defensively. Shaw was attacking constantly but still was able to defend. Playing AWB was like playing with 10 men.

 

[red4ever 79]

This was the performance that should force @Niall and @Damien to open zero point scoring system in the match ratings. One of the worst fb positions I can remember. It was like desperate

 

[pratyush_utd]

 

[FreakyJim]

What a shit footballer and a monumental waste of money.

 

[Wayne's World]

That was the most worrying performance from him. His positioning every time Brighton got near the box was horrific.

 

[Isotope]

Saved by DDG from keeping everyone on-side, for that one-on-one chance.

 

[MadDogg]

That was the kicker for me- I thought Ole had made a great sub so that he wouldn't now feel the need to come across and leave the man at the back, and yet he still did it, giving up a couple more chances and eventually the goal. Whilst it did look shocking, surely he just needs to be told to trust the centre backs and keep with his man? It seems like a very obvious thing that can be sorted out without too many issues.

Same. Up until that moment I wasn't sure whether it was a deliberate tactical thing or whether it was AWB continuing to make a mistake. But once we bought Bailly on there was absolutely no need for AWB to come inside like. That raises the question whether all the early ones were mistakes as well, or whether it was the original plan and then AWB just wasn't able to mentally switch to different tactics once Bailly came on.

 

[Blood Mage]

I'm genuinely not sure what he even does anymore. What happened to the player who made Raheem Sterling his bitch last year? An imposter has come back from lockdown in his place, it's the only explanation.

If we bring in a new LB I think Williams has a shot at taking his spot.

 

[jem]

I'll admit to being tactically clueless but it did seem incredible how every Brighton cross to March or Trossard seemed to be met with acres of space for the Brighton player to get a shot off. Was Ole not on the touchline screaming at AWB or whoever was responsible?

 

[Grib]

Same. Up until that moment I wasn't sure whether it was a deliberate tactical thing or whether it was AWB continuing to make a mistake. But once we bought Bailly on there was absolutely no need for AWB to come inside like. That raises the question whether all the early ones were mistakes as well, or whether it was the original plan and then AWB just wasn't able to mentally switch to different tactics once Bailly came on.

Shaw does this all time too, it's really whoever plays lb/rb, its infuriating and the amount of goals never mind chances we leak to this is getting beyond a joke

 

[mattunited1978]

He's shite at absolutely everything bar 1 on 1 defending

 

[Red_toad]

His tactical and awareness as full back is shocking. He doesn't seem to understand who to mark when playing against wing back formation. Lindelof also doesn't communicate to him enough to tell him that he's marking the wrong players.

Looked like he was marking Lindelof a lot of the time. I wonder if he’s been instructed to do so, or he just really likes him?

 

[bosnian_red]

He's a great 1v1 defender and excellent at shutting down a winger.

What he isn't good at (at all) is anything on the ball, or off the ball defending or keeping track of space/positioning for those far post crosses.

 

[Adam-Utd]

He needs to stop pushing so high up the pitch when defending. He constantly follows the winger or forward all the way back to their defensive line leaving a huge gap on the right side. So often the ball kept getting in behind him.

 

[GledTheRed]

Disgusting performance, should be dropped.

 

[lRed]

Can we stop conceding goals at the back post, one day ?
Same thing Shaw last week, AWB against Sevilla and today, that's boring.

Manager and his staff need to fix it, no time.

 

[MadDogg]

Shaw does this all time too, it's really whoever plays lb/rb, its infuriating and the amount of goals never mind chances we leak to this is getting beyond a joke

Shaw does often tuck in as well but not as centrally as AWB does. AWB just about gets on the central defenders toes, whereas Shaw at least normally keeps a bit wider.

 

[TheRedDevil'sAdvocate]

Something definitely seems wrong with our shape without the ball. That front three in combination with another very attacking player like Fernandes is causing us problems in defence. That is on the manager. However, AWB's individual performance was not good enough either, and that's on him. It's a shit show all round.

Yeah, nobody can argue that he played well today. The equalizer is on him because he was caught ball-watching. But, the way the game went, few players, who have both the skill and the experience, can cope well in such situations. He was put in a position where he had to make tough tactical decisions throughout the 90 minutes. In all circumstances, he chose to follow "the defender's rulebook" and do what they teach in the training grounds which is to maintain the numbers at the back. It wasn't his fault that we had no clue how to defend against a basic 352/two forwards system. And he's neither experienced nor top-class for us to demand these things from him. The main thing he gets lauded for, his tackling ability, is actually an indication that he often has to stretch his body to make up for bad positioning/decision-making.

I also agree with you on the front three + Bruno comment. You would like to think that by now we would at least be able to control the tempo and force our rhythm through our passing game against teams that are expected to finish at the bottom half of the table. But here we are... It seems that whenever we don't have the stamina to play with the foot on the gas pedal, meaning being good in both transitions, we just retreat into our shell and we hope for the best.

 

[LoneStar]

Was terrible today, but wasn’t helped at all by tactics. Pogba and Greenwood didn’t do much to help as well. And surely his decision to move central everytime was an instruction from the coach. Did that every time.

We really need to sort out our defensive tactics. Currently looks like there is none.