Again, that's what you are missing . It's not "luck" .
Bruno-Eriksen
- Thread starter mav_9me
- Start date
Eriksen is this team's Scholes and praise doesn't come higher. What a player he is. I didn't fully realise until now.
It's the speed that partnerships are forming that gets me. You have varane-martinez, Eriksen-Bruno. Just need to see some of the same on the wings now.
The fact that foul wasnt seen by the ref but by the VAR doesn't mean we relied on luck with refereeing. It's a strange logic honestly.
People here still get petrified of a "lack of physicality" in the middle of the park but we aren't fecking Stoke City. Like you said, technique > physical attributes all day when it comes to midfielders in a well oiled side as long as every player is putting in the appropriate defensive effort off of the ball. Eriksen to his credit has run as much as anyone in the team, which is why the midfield has worked so far.
People also need to realize that part of why it looks as though we are "losing the midfield battle" during games is because we lack a striker and keeper that can retain possession on either end of the pitch. DDG tends to boot it long, and Rashford as everyone knows isn't much of a striker and damn sure isn't a "hold up play" type. When you are ceding possession often when the ball comes into either of those two under pressure, then you won't be able to dominate the ball throughout games against top sides and you're forced to become more transition oriented (which is fine, but it's why some think we are playing Ole ball when we clearly aren't).
If you choose to define it that way, cool. I would just point out though that, by this logic, if the ball rolls slowly across to a player totally unmarked 3 yards in front of an empty goal, but they trip over their own feet instead of getting a shot off, it would only count it as a half chance. Personally I would judge how good a chance is based on the quality of the opportunity in the first place, not what the player did with it.
How is Odegaard chance only 0.3 xG and Saka's only 0.4 xG. I woul've have thought open net chances would've been over 0.5 xG at least.
Well we'll have to disagree with that one.
I prefer it to Fernandes-Pogba but we’re going to struggle against teams who park the bus. No control.
How the funk is xG Philosophy giving 1.47?
Antony was a 1 on 1, Rashford a 1 on 1, Rashford second a 2 on 1.
That’s ignoring the Bruno one on one also.
fecking bizarre.
xG models aren't perfect since there will always be variables that can't be accounted for. But in general the reality is that what we consider "good chances" get missed more often than we think. You would think something like penalties has a very high xG but they are only worth 0.75 in most models.
This is only my personal speculation but,
Antony had an xG of 0.3 from his one chance. My guess is Ramsdale made it look easier than it was by diving to the right against a left footer.
Rashford had an xG of 0.8 combined from his two chances.
Since Bruno the assister only has an xA of 0.2, it means his first chance was quite difficult with a maximum xG of 0.2
His second chance therefore would've been around 0.6 xG. I thought it would be higher because he's shooting into an open goal but it must have something to do with the fact that he only had a split second to get the shot off before the defender was onto him.
Bruno's chance was 0.3 xG. I think this one is fair.
https://fbref.com/en/matches/61ddafa5/Manchester-United-Arsenal-September-4-2022-Premier-League
I’m pretty confident that by the end of the season ETH comes to his senses to figure out that our most balanced midfield is Caseimiro- Fred - Eriksen. Bruno is an attacking player and not a midfielder.
Casemiro can be the one man DM to prevent them being outmuscled by teams trying to play like thugs. If thats not enough then just play 4 of them together. Eriksen, Fred/Scott, Casemiro in midfield and move Bruno higher up either as AM or false 9.
100% this, I would be very surprised if our coaching staff can’t see this. I guess ETH is just sticking for now to what gets the points on the board even if it’s a gamble to play the way we do.
Simple save, or header not quite good enough? Saliba I agree on, we got a lot of bodies in the way, although he could have gone for the far post. The Odegard chance was nailed on though, he completely shanked it. Saka maybe a half chance, due to the angle.
So yeah, with that and the (correctly) disallowed goal, at least three.
'come to his senses'
I'm pretty sure he knows what he's doing better than you do, mate! I'm sure you didn't mean that disparagingly but it comes across that way. We've just beaten Liverpool and Arsenal, have 4 wins on the bounce and the Bruno - Eriksen tandem in particular has been integral throughout (as well as McTominay, though you'd expect £55m man Casemiro to come in at some point). It's just odd that you are so confident you know what our best midfield set up is despite ten Hag's current one working so well.To be fair, Arsenal overun a lot of teams in midfield, they tend to try and work the ball through midfield and slip little passes into Martinelli, Saka and Jesus inside the box, I thought we played them quite well. Eriksen and McTominay for the main part covered well around our box, and Bruno pressed well.
They did create several very good chances, which I would have expected them to, but I believe they only had three on target.
It's always been the same for Arsenal, style wise their football is fantastic, but they just don't seem to be able to score those goals that their play possibly deserves, but putting the ball in the back of the net is what it's all about, eg Chelsea last night.
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Looks like ETH wants to go through a painful learning curve.
Today isn't the day to make any big statements about what does and doesn't work in the main.
I doubt even if we'd put a block of Fred, McTom and Casemiro in there we'd have got much of a better result.
I doubt even if we'd put a block of Fred, McTom and Casemiro in there we'd have got much of a better result.