7
He had our best passing accuracy, the most "key passes", the most dribbles, and was fouled more then anyone else (well level with a few others).
That isn't really saying much though is it. He only narrowly pipped Gibbs to that accolade.
It isn't but he put the fear into the arse defenders a few times. He was much better today.
They can definitely be very effective countering, but we will run into issues if we rely on that. Not every team is going to come at us all guns blazing like Arsenal did - even today it took them going a goal down to really give us that space to run into. Smaller teams will sit back against us so we still need to know how to play through a compact team. Di Maria should be very useful for this as well though
Actually he's never been the best finisher so I'm not sure why he's the player you'd want through on goal. He'll just never be one of those player you know will finish.
Not surprised by that at all. Bizarre how so many think he was poor. He was never going to run rings around their defenders given how much we were pinned back.
at RVP.Di Maria
The real star of Real’s comeback, however, was Di Maria. The Argentine was fantastic all game, helping to connect midfield and attack (something Bale did poorly when Real had spells of possession) and charging forward on mini-breaks. He rarely provided an incisive pass at the end, but this was often because of Atletico fouls. Amazingly, no fewer than three Atletico players were booked for hacking down Di Maria before the game reached 75 minutes.
Di Maria had a burst of pace and whipped in a stream of crosses from the left, which was Real’s zone of strength. Marcelo supported him effectively and played some neat combinations, while Ramos also moved forward from centre-back to help down that side. Although Atletico were reasonably happy defending crosses, this was still Real’s best hope of getting back into the game – they didn’t seem to have enough space to break down Atletico’s defence from central zones. Marcelo to Di Maria was the game’s most frequent passing combination, despite the fact they were only on the pitch together for half of the 120 minutes.
You don't try a dink over the keeper like that unless you have the confidence to pull it off.
That was fantastic, but truth be told IMO he held onto that pass for a second too long.
It was actually breathtaking. Reminded me of a Iniesta but with more pace where he runs through the whole defense when he feels like.
Thought they'd be gifs galore of that moment. Echo your sentiments wishing we had a team who were that comfortable on the ball. It changes the way play is built and it forces a respect and fear from the opposition that buys time on the ball and disjoints uniform pressing.
