11101
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Maybe he was tired. He was strolling about letting crosses come in freely.
Maybe he was tired. He was strolling about letting crosses come in freely.
I've been noticing this too but I do wonder how much of that is instruction because I seem to remember him being a lot more direct one vs one, and these days he do seem to 'wait out' attackers a lot more frequently. I don't like when they do that because it invites pressure and creates danger, and really it just puts us on the back foot. I love when he just plays his natural game which is more risk but more reward in retaining the ball quickly. He could be more dominant and aggressive, imo.positioning wise he was a mess, literally could see it the whole time. Also for someone who is so athletic the way he just stands back 5 yards trying to "block" the cross is ridiculous.
I’m gonna give him some leeway and assume it was EtH’s instruction to stay in field, but even his 1v1 defending today was suspect, crosses came freely in from that side.
The left side issue became much more pronounced in the 2nd half, as Rashford stopped running and Malacia lost nearly all his duels. For the first 60 minutes, all of their brightest chance came from the right, simply because AWB vacated the space down thar right hand side and once he got back they were already in or at the edge of our box.From both sides. Had a few moments where he did some good defending in the middle helping the CBs but certainly tested more on the wing than most weeks in physical battles with Richarlison and then Perisic getting the ball across. Perisic had 9 crosses this match and 1 finding a teammate. Not sure how many were set pieces
You must.I must’ve been watching a different game!
Tonight showed why Ten Hag wants a new RB. Wan Bissaka is a fantastic orthodox RB but that's not what Ten Hag wants, he wants someone who can play the inverted wing-back role and help out in the midfield.
You must.
AWB is all over the place this game. The sequence before Rashford goal, AWB got baited to throw in a tackle which was evaded with pass and go. Perisic was clean through on goal with option to square the ball. In the first half, there was plenty of those give and go moment with Kane, PEH, Richarlison... got to create opening on that side.
Second half was worse. AWB was lazily tracking back, and Son had a free shot from Kane cross. Dier header in front of goal were result of AWB being slow to close Perisic down allowing him to cross the ball comfortably. Their first goal is similar, Perisic put in the cross unchallenged.
Even when attacking the rebound for Bruno shot that hit the bar, he looked lost. Bruno dribbled through and had a shot for like 2 seconds, and AWB just stood there with his back facing Spurs goal. He didn't prepare himself so he ended up mess up a decent chance
We want both of them capable of it so the team can be balanced left to right. Sometimes holding width, sometimes inverting, sometimes dropping to be part of the back 3 in build up.But isn’t that what Shaw does on the left? We only need one of them doing it and, if we’ve got Dalot playing LB, surely he should be the player dropping into midfield?
Some will people will never learn. He’ll have one great game and suddenly he’ll be this ever improving RB who is good enough to start and does his MAIN job so well.
Been the same with McTominay, Fred, Maguire,.. Just like you said some people will never learn.Some will people will never learn. He’ll have one great game and suddenly he’ll be this ever improving RB who is good enough to start and does his MAIN job so well.
He’s improved to get back to what he showed under Ole and deserves credit for that. But even that essentially gets him to squad player / backup RB level. We need an upgrade.He's had months of good - great games. Why would you pick one poor game to make a point out of?
Watching him casually jog towards Perisic when he was about to recieve the ball really annoyed me tonight. Gave him far to much space and time to come into our penalty area. I can only imagine he completely misread the situation but watching him this season is like watching a player accelerate in quicksand. It's like he just cant take off from a standing/jogging position.
Was quite funny seeing him in centre midfield and near the Spurs box a few times. I just presumed someone was covering for him (at least I hoped someone was)His positioning was really strange, was a mix between striker and AM at times
I don't follow you. Are we talking about the same sequence?He didn't have a good game but this wasn't really on him. It was on Lindelof who simply allowed Perisic to get in behind him. In that sequence AWB's mistake was simply mistiming his tackle to intercept the ball, but even at that, his man was contained so no damage was done. It would have ended up exactly the same way as if he did not even attempt to tackle at all.
I don't follow you. Are we talking about the same sequence?
This is around 42nd minute. Just seconds after AWB got yellow for a late challenge on Richarlison. He got pulled toward Perisic on a half turn quickly played the ball to Richarlison who marked by Lindelof.Perisic stepped on the gas, Richarlison laid the ball off into Perisic path. Perisic again played a quick give and go with Kane. AWB desperately tackled, but completely evaded. Kane played the ball into space. Perisic was clean through running toward at goal. Casemiro, Lindelof were stuck with their men and out of the equation. AWB completely lost Perisic.
Perisic failed to score/ assist, so it's Okay that no damaged done? Disagreed there. Spurs stuck the knife in the second half, and create bundle of chances from our right side because as bad as their first half, our right side defending set the bad tone for the second half.
Perisic had a bad touch, even then he had more space than Rashford in our second goal immediately the next minute. Perisic made a mess of his chance, shooting straight at DDG with his left. It's still a big big chance, given he even had Son unmarked in support if he wanted to square the ball.
It was man for man marking. Antony closed down Lenglet. Lindelof was right at Richarlison back. Casemiro got Kane. Everyone had a job here. The last cover is Shaw and that a huge space to defend. Even after DDG made the save, AWB didn't try to close down Perisic who ran to recover the ball by the corner flag. It's Casemiro effort that blocked Perisic cross, then Antony dispossessed Hojbjerg which got the ball to Bruno who pumped it to Rashford. Imagine Casemiro didn't take responsibility, so that Perisic was allowed to cross that ball and we could have the second goal. We could have lost this game playing that second half with only one goal lead!!!Well, a lot of that came down to positioning. Wan Bissaka was positioned higher up the pitch, which was clearly instruction. It didn't work; not sure whether someone was supposed to cover the RWB position when it was vacated but, either way, it didn't happen. I just think Ten Hag tried something today that didn't work.
On top of that, he was knackered, so maybe not the best game to try something new like that.