I don’t think he is great defensivly. In a one on one recovering he is probably the best defender there is, however great defensively he is not. I do expect to see massive improvements from him in the future in terms of positioning and just how he reads the game overall mind.
29
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 54
- Clean sheets
- 21
- Goals
- 2
- Assists
- 5
- Yellow cards
- 5
- Status
If you don't get the ball into the box, you don't score. We often have players inside the box. It is about getting the ball in.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. In very specific circumstances he's really good. But he's lacking in a lot of areas. We could easily upgrade on him, to be honest. I would try Williams there for a bit, personally.
I think this has been a concern for a long time now. He seems to struggle particularly when up against wing backs.
Why wasn't the same logic applied to Antonio Valencia? Why was he constantly slated, ridiculed, deprived of a testimonial as well when he was here? He kept the ball better than any right back in the league.
His crossing is bad and he doesn't create chances but I think his actual ability on the ball is fine / somewhat under-rated.
Overall he's still a good player, he just has his limitations. I was always wary about Utd paying £50m for him considering he never looked like he had the tools to be a quality attacking FB at Palace, but now he's there I think they just have to work around him.
Getting a proper RW who can provide width would help, he wouldn't be expected then to get so far forward.
Overall he's still a good player, he just has his limitations. I was always wary about Utd paying £50m for him considering he never looked like he had the tools to be a quality attacking FB at Palace, but now he's there I think they just have to work around him.
Getting a proper RW who can provide width would help, he wouldn't be expected then to get so far forward.
I think there's a few explanations as to why he can be too narrow at times;
1) He learned his trade at Palace who would defend deep and compact. It's often better to show a dangerous attacker down the outside and away from the goal.
2) We get overloaded sometimes on his side because Greenwood / Rashford don't track the opposition full back, but often wait in space hoping for a turnover and a counterattack
3) Our CBs do often need support centrally with crosses from dangerous attacks
He definitely is too narrow at times and needs to be more conscious of threats behind him. Equally, we need our wide attacking players to sometimes be more on it defensively and track runners / support the full-backs more.
1) He learned his trade at Palace who would defend deep and compact. It's often better to show a dangerous attacker down the outside and away from the goal.
2) We get overloaded sometimes on his side because Greenwood / Rashford don't track the opposition full back, but often wait in space hoping for a turnover and a counterattack
3) Our CBs do often need support centrally with crosses from dangerous attacks
He definitely is too narrow at times and needs to be more conscious of threats behind him. Equally, we need our wide attacking players to sometimes be more on it defensively and track runners / support the full-backs more.
He's great to use when we are the underdogs and are congested in the back, he'll dry any forward out. But he's a liability when we face low block teams, he's often catched out of position and his offesive contritubion is close to none. I think he can improve his positioning but his attack play won't improve much, its hard for players to suddently develop ability. Its one of those things that you either got or you dont.
As we did with Shaw we must look for some competition for the RB spot, someone who can seriously fight with AWB for the starting place. Right now Tuanzabe, Williams and TFM represent no to threat to him so he has no preassure to improve.
As we did with Shaw we must look for some competition for the RB spot, someone who can seriously fight with AWB for the starting place. Right now Tuanzabe, Williams and TFM represent no to threat to him so he has no preassure to improve.
That's not true. AWB being a liability means that he is easy to press and force him into making a less optimal decision with the ball that often stunts our possession play and its extremely frustrating to watch. And when he does get into a good wide open position, he doesn't have the end product to deliver a good ball because of how predictable he is.
I don't think this is true. On the eye test they look way more comfortable in possession then he does but even if it is it dosen't excuse how poor he is.
Definitely your strongest point. The heat map confirms what we all see and its pretty damning how attracted to left our players. That being said, they are still several moments when you see Rashford and Bruno rotate to the right and he still looks horrible. Mind you we've had worse right wingers before and yet guys like Valencia look far better than he does as you've admitted.
I think there is a difference between expecting him to rack up assists and just expecting him to be a decent footballer. He does actually receive the ball in quite advanced positions but then shits the bed when gets pressed
Solskjaer: "Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says that United’s full backs must score goals and contribute assists in the system he wants to play"
I think he's realised his mistake hence now looking for a new RB who fits the profile he wants.
I think he's realised his mistake hence now looking for a new RB who fits the profile he wants.
good analysis of the player. He is indeed limited upfront, but that does not bother me as what I care about most about him is his defensive ability; he’s good at that. He isn’t the best going forward, his runs are mostly stopped to look around and pass sideways, his crossing isn’t good. But again, defensively, his man marking is very good. He is an overall good defender.
a problem he’s suffered from is the ever changing RW player. Who is our RW? He’s had to play with greenwood, mata, james and sometimes rashford. It’s different when there is a fixed player to build a rapport with.
he is still young and learning. I don’t think he will ever become the best full back going forward, but I know he has the potential to defensively be one of the best full backs in the league
Good squad player.
Will be needed in certain games, but could do with an alternative option
Will be needed in certain games, but could do with an alternative option
I really don't know why he can't cross the ball? I mean any player who is playing professional football should be able to put in a cross? He has plenty of opportunities to do so but would delay it and then try to push it past the opposition player and then try to cross it. And fail of course. They should get him to cross the first time he gets it no matter what. Eventually the strikers will know how to get to the end of it.
Personally I think Utd should look to drop him in to a back three more when in possession, his pace in a high-line and ability to make recovering tackles would be vital, and he's better on the ball than most CB's.
You can push Telles up higher in this formation and focus more down the left/middle where you're stronger anyway, but even so with a proper RW and a RCM who can drift over (like KDB does at City for example) you should still have width / attacking threat down the right.
its unlikely he’ll ever be good enough going forward. He’s okay for your squad but, for that, you overpaid. If he’s happy staying to do that then okay but if he ends up wanting to move on would you ever get anything like 50 million? Aarons and him would be a decent two to have, though. Aarons has the ability to develop...
AWB has made the most blocks in the league with 50 and 8th most tackles with 45
Also 8th most points per match he played with 2.23 per game. Matic is our highest in 7th with 2.25 per game but from 8 matches.
Albrighton and Richarlison are the only players who have also played at least 10 premier league matches and are ahead of AWB's points per game, with AWB playing the most of all the players in the list before and including him with 13 matches
So he has blocked the most balls in the league and he has still had people complain in this thread that he lets crosses come in too easily
Also 8th most points per match he played with 2.23 per game. Matic is our highest in 7th with 2.25 per game but from 8 matches.
Albrighton and Richarlison are the only players who have also played at least 10 premier league matches and are ahead of AWB's points per game, with AWB playing the most of all the players in the list before and including him with 13 matches
So he has blocked the most balls in the league and he has still had people complain in this thread that he lets crosses come in too easily
Ole taking referring to yourself in third person to the extreme there
AWB is terrible on the ball, don't buy that he's better than most centre backs.
His first season before lock down was very good, since then he’s looked a completely different player.
I assume he’s either extremely tired or lacking confidence massively as he’s just not doing the same things he was great at before.
defensively nobody got passed him but now he’s letting guys go passed him with bad positioning and mistimed tackles.
it’s fair to say we need to get him proper competition / rotation as he can’t play 60 games a season.
the links to Aaron’s makes sense.
I assume he’s either extremely tired or lacking confidence massively as he’s just not doing the same things he was great at before.
defensively nobody got passed him but now he’s letting guys go passed him with bad positioning and mistimed tackles.
it’s fair to say we need to get him proper competition / rotation as he can’t play 60 games a season.
the links to Aaron’s makes sense.
Well as I said previous, personally think he's a bit under-rated in terms of his actual close control and passing (I've already acknowledged his end product is poor).
Don't think he's great but 'terrible' is classic fan hyperbole. The statistics simply don't back that up and I don't think the eye test either.
He isn't going to play long through balls over the top and maybe not that many progressive line-breaking passes, but he'll be able to carry the ball better than most CBs which can hopefully help Utd break the high press.
If anything composure, vision and his decision making when on the ball is his main weakness. He will never be a ball playing CB for top club.
On top of it, he often mark the wrong player, caught ball watching without aware where his man was when opposition team cross the ball from our left to right (Brighton and Sevilla for example) and his heading ability is not that good. He has too many weaknesses to be centre back.
He’s much more suited to counter attacking, when opposition sit deep he’s pretty clueless going forward. Only one successful cross in 13 games (although only attempted 15), he just isn’t progressing as needs to.
Signing a more attacking RB as competition is a no brainier.
Signing a more attacking RB as competition is a no brainier.
He doesn't actually get slipped into good crossing positions that often though - whether that's down to poor movement from him or poor right wing play I don't really know. Bit of both maybe.
There’s no problem with AWB. The only reason to buy an additional right back would be to keep Brandon Williams out of the team, which wouldn’t be a bad thing.
I guess we well have to disagree as I think on the ball he's one of the worst full backs in the league. We've seen before how when playing out from the back opposition teams will target him when pressing.
There are loads of really good technical players that were poor crossers IMO. People like Scholes who could strike it beautifully with his laces or outside of his boot but was pretty poor at wrapping his foot around the ball. Same reason he could never take a free kick that was anything other than a blaster. Some players are just poor at striking the ball that way in general, and useful crossing requires a great sense of timing and reading a crowded box.
AWB's trouble is he finds it difficult striking the ball in any way, not just wrapping his foot around it. I would much rather he passes it back to someone who knows what to do than hit and hope. It makes us very predictable on that side but it also means we don't continually throw the ball away in good areas. Kyle Walker is a better technical player but he was also a consistently rubbish crosser, so he mostly adapted his game to just get himself in good positions where a short pass can be quite dangerous too. If that's out of the question, just whack it. I think that's the best to hope for from AWB.
Not sure why anyone would say this really. This guy is always committed at the back. Even without reading the statistics, it is obvious he blocks so many crosses/passes. Very few players do what he does defensively
With him being a young player (and relatively inexperienced in the position) you'd expect him to have flaws to his game, but the problem is that despite getting older and more experienced he's not improved a single one of his weaknesses as a footballer. If anything, he's regressed in terms of his attacking play and he's even more lackadaisical when it comes to tracking runs in behind him. He's still good at slide tackling, but if we're going to progress as a team, put ourselves in the position where opposition fears us and keep encountering teams sitting back against us we can't just rely on the left side of the pitch to provide creativity, speed in the build-up and penetration.
I think that's mainly a coaching issue, but I think that with many players (pre-dating Ole as well) that once they come here they just stay the same player with no real development in terms of their weaknesses as players, which are pretty plain to see from the TV and should be even more obvious on the training pitch. AWB's defensive weakness, which has been obvious for a long time cost us a much better chance of a spot in the CL playoffs. So for me, if AWB doesn't suddenly kick on due to some developmental spurt or the coaches really start working on his weaknesses, we're just going to have to accept that he's going to be a £50m player who can tackle really well in 1-v-1 situations, who's positionally poor against opponents running in behind him and at the back post, and who dallies on the ball trying to get it under control and then just passes it sideways or backwards to allow the opposing defence to settle. If that's the case and the coaches don't think he'll be able to improve suddenly after a year and a half of not doing so, then we should definitely upgrade on that position.
Some people in here are blaming his lack of ability on us not having a proper right winger, but I mean, it's not the right winger's fault that AWB looks like he's about to fall over every time he dribbles with the ball, despite having acres of space. It's not the right winger's fault that he can't progress an attack quickly either due to poor ball control and then just sitting on the ball until he plays the ball inside to Bruno, and it's not the right winger's fault that he's not improving his individual abilities as a footballer.
I think that's mainly a coaching issue, but I think that with many players (pre-dating Ole as well) that once they come here they just stay the same player with no real development in terms of their weaknesses as players, which are pretty plain to see from the TV and should be even more obvious on the training pitch. AWB's defensive weakness, which has been obvious for a long time cost us a much better chance of a spot in the CL playoffs. So for me, if AWB doesn't suddenly kick on due to some developmental spurt or the coaches really start working on his weaknesses, we're just going to have to accept that he's going to be a £50m player who can tackle really well in 1-v-1 situations, who's positionally poor against opponents running in behind him and at the back post, and who dallies on the ball trying to get it under control and then just passes it sideways or backwards to allow the opposing defence to settle. If that's the case and the coaches don't think he'll be able to improve suddenly after a year and a half of not doing so, then we should definitely upgrade on that position.
Some people in here are blaming his lack of ability on us not having a proper right winger, but I mean, it's not the right winger's fault that AWB looks like he's about to fall over every time he dribbles with the ball, despite having acres of space. It's not the right winger's fault that he can't progress an attack quickly either due to poor ball control and then just sitting on the ball until he plays the ball inside to Bruno, and it's not the right winger's fault that he's not improving his individual abilities as a footballer.
Yep, exactly the same with Shaw too. A good technical player but his crossing is pretty rubbish.
I'll just add that the fact that he's only attempted 15 crosses in almost half a league season says something about his ability to overlap, beat a man and get the ball in. He's too happy to receive the ball out wide, sit on it for a few seconds (often just due to needing those seconds to get the ball under control and regain his footing), realise he can't get anywhere because at that point the winger's on him and the left back is covering the space behind, turn back and pass it to the centre half of the central midfielders. It's very rare to see AWB run on to a pass ahead of him and just keep going with it in the same direction without stopping and turning back three seconds later to play a safe pass inside.
It looks good in the statistics as he'll have a high pass percentage and few dispossessions, but it seriously hampers our ability to attack a team when they're unsettled, and once they're settled we immediately go to the left wing for some creativity which the opponents can then overload defensively. If we had any threat down the right hand side the opponents couldn't just leave that space unmarked and focus on defending the left side.
Need a new and better RB. AWB's crossings..... never comes.... if the do, he misses 99 of 100 times.
When Martial came on against Wolves, Rashford started to play on the right side, doing AWB's job. This was the reason United won the game. A much needed tactical change by OGS. Brilliant coaching.
When Martial came on against Wolves, Rashford started to play on the right side, doing AWB's job. This was the reason United won the game. A much needed tactical change by OGS. Brilliant coaching.
Non crossing fullbacks, not sure about now but that was Arsenal's tactics under Wenger when they were successful. The fullbacks would get forward and then when most teams would cross it they'd pass the ball back and try to work the ball into the box rather than crossing. Evra was poor at crossing too for the amount of times he got into good positions to put a ball in and failed with it.
To the above poster Rashford played right wing so he was not doing AWB's job. He was doing Greenwoods
To the above poster Rashford played right wing so he was not doing AWB's job. He was doing Greenwoods
3 years younger than our up and coming Luke Shaw. Ridiculously young but highly consistent. This kid will continue to develop exponentially. His dribbling has come a long way since he joined us, we all can agree on that. He still looks like a basketball player trying to play football, but that's okay for now.
He really needs to sort out his atrocious positional awareness when the ball is in the air being crossed to his far post. It's like he has a mini-stroke each time he has to defend that. Completely ends up in lala land ball watching. Luckily, this can easily be trained with repetition.
He really needs to sort out his atrocious positional awareness when the ball is in the air being crossed to his far post. It's like he has a mini-stroke each time he has to defend that. Completely ends up in lala land ball watching. Luckily, this can easily be trained with repetition.
Very good description of the status regarding AWB. Tried to make the same description myselfwith limited success (angry replies
).We can off course not blame to much on the lack of RW, but at the same time I think a new RW can have great influence on AWB’s development. AWB can learn from him, and a more stable partnership will probably make AWB more comfortable and confident. To achieve better interaction on our right side offensively, we need a consistent and pure cultivated RW.
AWB is doing a descent job now, but I hope he develops to be one of top-3 RB’s in the league. He is probably among top-3 defensively today, but offensively he is not even among top 15.
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He was a winger. How did he play as a winger all those youth years, if he couldn't cross?
For me Wan Bissaka can Cross but he is still more unsure about getting to the right positions before making that cross.
When we played counterattack football he used to have alot more free space and this would leave not only him, but Greenwood and Martial the ability to utelise the free space which was much easier than having to make decisions against players who were always sitting their waiting for you to make your decisions.
That's personally why I'm not having a go at Wan Bissaka.
The counter attack has significantly stopped, alot of our better players are doing shit all this season against the low block teams and not getting hate because they can or should develop individually or with the team.
Wan Bissaka like wise needs much more coaching about the defensive positioning he needs to take as a fullback that allows him to make the attacking positions he needs to get to before whipping a nice good cross in - which I dont think technically will be one of his issues.
Right now he gets in to a crossing position once every 2 games and that's maybe being generous- him messing up the cross once is not the issue if he ended up getting in to those crossing positions more.
When we played counterattack football he used to have alot more free space and this would leave not only him, but Greenwood and Martial the ability to utelise the free space which was much easier than having to make decisions against players who were always sitting their waiting for you to make your decisions.
That's personally why I'm not having a go at Wan Bissaka.
The counter attack has significantly stopped, alot of our better players are doing shit all this season against the low block teams and not getting hate because they can or should develop individually or with the team.
Wan Bissaka like wise needs much more coaching about the defensive positioning he needs to take as a fullback that allows him to make the attacking positions he needs to get to before whipping a nice good cross in - which I dont think technically will be one of his issues.
Right now he gets in to a crossing position once every 2 games and that's maybe being generous- him messing up the cross once is not the issue if he ended up getting in to those crossing positions more.
I suppose you could also ask how could he play as a winger all those years with a poor first touch? It’s more important than crossing in that position and every attacking position. Crossing just isn’t that important. He is very fast and agile. At youth level that goes a long way.
Its not like Martial is good at it
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