His fitness levels arent good right now. You can see it as early as the 11th minute when we lose the ball in attack and he's running back from the right wing, he's clearly struggling and jogging as Connolly and Maupay take on our CBs.
The thing is we are continuing with our RWB style that we've had since Mata came in and Valencia was going outside him becoming the right winger. So he covers a large area and when the move breaks down and he's in an advanced area thats where other players need to cover him. The DMs pulling out to the right and Lindelof coming across to become the RB and our DMs filling in the middle - whichever one is going to happen quickest in the move, it needs to happen. There are very few RBs who are going to sprint at full speed back from the right wing to right back, most will jog.
Trossard was the danger man but he was coming inside where the DMs need to be covering or a CB needs to be aggressive and confront with a block. AWB was sticking to his RB position where Brighton players are making runs and occupying him. He cannot do both and we dont play with a wide midfielder who will help him
On 20 mins Trossard receives the ball in the inside left position, AWB has a Brighton runner that he's sticking with occupying him and Trossard is able to shoot from the edge of the box and hits the post. The shot goes through the middle between Lindelof and Maguire neither one being active and trying to block.
37 mins AWB loses the ball in a challenge with March and Bruno is reckless in the box giving away a penalty. AWB could have done better and not given the ball away there.
On 46 mins we have the Pogba penalty area incident. AWB confronts a man with a press ahead of the half way line and he plays a long hopeful ball over Lindelof and for some reason Pogba is the one tracking his run. The right call not to give a penalty but it was close and we could have been punished. When you are playing someone like Pogba or Bruno in a DM position they're going to eventually end up in positions like this and we obviously dont want them making challenges in the box...
On 59 minutes AWB is sitting off March more than he usually would, covering into the middle. Originally this seems to be because of the movement of Maupay who has run off from Lindelof, but Maupay in the end receives the ball just outside the box and now March is in room to his left. The pressure and challenge on the ball certainly affects March's effort, but he still had enough time and space to score. He hit the inside of the post. This is good movement from Brighton working the defenders and making them think about who is responsible for who.
67 minutes AWB tracks back with March on a determined run. Eventually Maupay holds off challenges from a bunch of our defenders and still gets his shot away with AWB confronting him, but if he wasnt there to add a little bit of pressure Maupay could have picked his spot for a much better effort.
On 75 minutes he presses Maupay as he receives the ball and pushes him back towards his own goal. None of his teammates follow up the press but now he is out of position so its once again the DMs and Lindelof's responsibility to sort it out and cover the RB area and if theres overlaps, Greenwood needs to be getting back there to help too. The DMs are too far up the pitch, Matic doesnt have any impact whatsoever. Fred has a bit more mobility and is able to be somewhere around Lamptey who is running through the middle off the ball. Lindelof has no spacial awareness whatsoever and wanders central instead of covering the danger area. He doesnt seem to trust that Fred is going to go with Lamptey and is either so focused on Lamptey's run in front of him that he doesnt care about or doesnt realize that Trossard is making a run in the RCB area, he gets picked out and Lindelof cant get across fast enough and Trossard hits the bar when he should be scoring.
On 79 minutes we have a repeat of the goal a while ago where Maguire is too far over and Lindelof is covering his LCB position. The attacker is goal side so AWB has come narrow to help
https://i.gyazo.com/facdbdc8c63916970c8b384938063f24.png
We've seen this one before...
March has a lot of room to control the ball as it comes to him and AWB does race to dive in with a challenge, but March gets his shot away. Just not as much time to do it as if AWB wasnt there. He puts it over the bar
84 minutes and the cross comes in back post to March. AWB has gone central again, this time Maupay is screaming for the ball in the middle and Bailly has backed off uninterested in him and watching the ball instead. Maupay is free so AWB is coming to be in his area. The ball goes over him to March at the back post. AWB is in the area to pressure him and March misses, but it was a chance to get a shot on target. He's covering Bailly's slack defending here
94 mins and Maupay is again calling with his arm up at the back post next to AWB. Bailly is marking the number #4 Brighton player CB Webster who has come to supplement the attack. Maupay is completely free to AWB is facing him and dealing with his run towards the cross.
#18 Bruno Fernandes has come back into our box on the far right as our extra man as hes now playing DM since Van De Beek came on. He's the man with #20 Solly March and he doesnt run back with him leaving March to head it home.
The best part about the complaints in this thread is that if we had the attacking wingbacks people want instead of players like AWB we'd have been lucky not to concede 10 today insead of 5. Theres people saying we should get Lamptey, who played right midfield today and where was he when Rashford was terrorising Ben White going past him twice and scoring 54 minutes in?
Even after Rashford has taken half a minute to put the ball into the net Lamptey still isnt back to help out. He never makes it into the picture! If that happened with Lindelof getting beat twice and AWB being out of position and never helping him we'd obviously point it out as terrible defending. But because it happened against us instead, we have fans completely ignoring it and suggesting these players as transfers
Its a bit embarrassing honestly that posters dont understand that yes these players are better on the ball and in attacking areas but dont help at all in defense, the CBs need to do it all without them and our CBs struggle even with the help of fullbacks who can and try to defend.
