[The Corinthian]

Awful tonight. 70m on this guy and he did nothing over the two legs.

They were doubling / tripling up on him. At least he showed for the ball and tried to make something happen.

Should have at least got it on target for his big chance.

 

[kundalini]

Poor performance. His shot over from Dalot's cross was a reasonable attempt. Lost possession too often. Just one key pass.

 

[Thiagoal]

He must have tried a nutmeg on at least ten occasions tonight- none of them came off!

 

[Rozay]

Poor tonight. Spent all night trying to nutmeg his man unsuccessfully.

 

[The Irish Connection]

Poor but the least of our problems.

 

[acnumber9]

They were doubling / tripling up on him. At least he showed for the ball and tried to make something happen.

Should have at least got it on target for his big chance.

He got zero support from Telles. Almost impossible task for him.

 

[AltiUn]

Ran into more blind alleys than David Blunkett.

 

[MattofManchester]

Poor. Did his best Rashford impression of blindly running into players.

To be fair, ATM kinda ganged up on him repeatedly.

 

[Jeppers7]

Difficult night for him but one of our brightest sparks.

 

[El Jefe]

Big fan but he was rubbish tonight. I guess he wasn't helped by having one of the worst full backs I can remember behind him. Telles was either too lazy or slow to make any attempt to overlap and that left Sancho isolated with multiple defenders all game.

Needs to improve physically over the summer.

 

[red woppit]

We needed to get the ball to him quicker, because he certainly was doubled up on. Why he and Elanga didn't swap a couple of times, I'll never know.

 

[Deery]

Expected more from him.

 

[The United]

I am very used to explosive wingers on the flanks for United. He is not that explosive enough to play in this team. Once a defender catches him, it seems like the threat is stopped at that point with him.

 

[Skills]

I am very used to explosive wingers on the flanks for United. He is not that explosive enough to play in this team. Once a defender catches him, it seems like the threat is stopped at that point with him.

This is my worry. Especially with the type of full backs we've got - if we had an explosive LB to stretch the pitch, it might work.

 

[Lentwood]

I feel his lack of pace is going to be a bit of an issue. Very often performs a nice trick or bit of skill to make half a yard but doesnt have the explosiveness to then get away from defenders

 

[RedDevilCanuck]

Let is all down.

Please don't bring up his age. He is very experienced.

 

[3KDré]

In fairness everytime he got on the ball he had about 3 atletico players on him. It would help if the other players in the team knew how to make runs off the ball to drag defenders out of position.

 

[Fooza]

Just hope he doesn't turn out to be another player that's inconsistent in games for the next 5-8 seasons. When have a we had a winger who gave us consistent performances through out a season??

 

[flameinthesun]

Let is all down.

Please don't bring up his age. He is very experienced.

How did he let us all down? Out of all the united wide players on the pitch (sancho, elanga, rashford) he was the only one doing anything. Elanga had the shot in the first half but other than that did nothing and rashford was rashford. Sancho pretty much was double marked, triple marked for most of the game yet to my eyes was one of the few decent performances.

 

[Cro]

Expected more from him.

How so? You have to give him the ball in the right areas of the pitch and get him into situations, where he isn‘t facing two or three players from a standing point. When you shift the ball as slowly as we did after 30 minutes, no player is capable of taking on one half of a low block at this level.

Furthermore Atlético are probably one of the best drilled, cohesive defensive teams in the world and have been for the last ten years. It‘s a team game and you have to play like one to get the best out of your most talented players.

 

[Posh Red]

In fairness everytime he got on the ball he had about 3 atletico players on him. It would help if the other players in the team knew how to make runs off the ball to drag defenders out of position.

This is completely right. Watch a decent team and you’ll see the difference in terms of options available to the player on the ball. It’s night and day.

 

[IhabX7]

This is completely right. Watch a decent team and you’ll see the difference in terms of options available to the player on the ball. It’s night and day.

Been a problem for a decade. I don’t know how it’s not ironed out in training by 5 different managers.

 

[RedDevilCanuck]

How did he let us all down? Out of all the united wide players on the pitch (sancho, elanga, rashford) he was the only one doing anything. Elanga had the shot in the first half but other than that did nothing and rashford was rashford. Sancho pretty much was double marked, triple marked for most of the game yet to my eyes was one of the few decent performances.

No he was shit and had stage fright.

 

[ti vu]

He's poor individually. Tactically, Simeone contained RR. Being able to isolate him outwide and doubleteam him most of the time, Atletico limits our creativity. Our full backs are not good enough to be the sole width provider, and let Sancho roam.

This is why I think Sancho is not suitable as emergency wingback in an earlier discussion.

 

[BlueHaze]

This guy I honestly see it in him, a good manager could turn him into a brilliant player.

 

[Guapa]

Wasn't at his best tonight but far from our only problem

 

[The Purley King]

He was one of our better performers tonight.
Often double/triple marked but kept the ball well.
Savage mentioned it in commentary but could have swapped over a few times to try and mix it up.
Of all the problems in this team he is not one.

 

[Strats]

Should have tried to keep it more simple at times instead of trying to nutmeg all the time.

Needs a proper left back who does overlaps. He did a brilliant move in the first half where he dropped it in a space slightly behind him where he espected Telles to make a run, which he didn’t.

 

[Ali Dia]

They were doubling / tripling up on him. At least he showed for the ball and tried to make something happen.

Should have at least got it on target for his big chance.

He was pretty much our only dangerous outlet (that’s the main problem) and he wasn’t great. It happens. He’s a good player. It’s pretty clear. We need to get a lot more intensity around throughout the team to feed Sancho and our new striker in more advantageous circumstances. It was just a Hail Mary get the ball to Sancho over and over.

 

[Skills]

Should have tried to keep it more simple at times instead of trying to nutmeg all the time.

Needs a proper left back who does overlaps. He did a brilliant move in the first half where he dropped it in a space slightly behind him where he espected Telles to make a run, which he didn’t.

Tbf, Telles was overlapping. He's just not quick enough to have any kind of threat on the overlap

 

[Deery]

How so? You have to give him the ball in the right areas of the pitch and get him into situations, where he isn‘t facing two or three players from a standing point. When you shift the ball as slowly as we did after 30 minutes, no player is capable of taking on one half of a low block at this level.

Furthermore Atlético are probably one of the best drilled, cohesive defensive teams in the world and have been for the last ten years. It‘s a team game and you have to play like one to get the best out of your most talented players.

He did very little mate, wasn’t terrible but he is our in form player but hardly creates a thing, could have kept his shot down too or made the pass to Ronaldo.

 

[Acheron]

This guy is still super raw. I mean he did show for the ball but was losing possession and trying to constantly beat two players marking him, he needs to learn to play smart and more simple stuff but even then he wasn't the worst of the attackers.

 

[Mickeza]

This guy is still super raw. I mean he did show for the ball but was losing possession and trying to constantly beat two players marking him, he needs to learn to play smart and more simple stuff but even then he wasn't the worst of the attackers.

He couldn’t play smarter simpler stuff because unlike top teams like city who are all about simple passes and movement to constantly work overloads for Sterling/Grealish through cancelo and Foden Telles literally just decided to give him the ball and say off you go beat 3 men Jadon as he watched with a cigar.

 

[Acheron]

He couldn’t play smarter simpler stuff because unlike top teams like city who are all about simple passes and movement to constantly work overloads for Sterling/Grealish through cancelo and Foden Telles literally just decided to give him the ball and say off you go beat 3 men Jadon as he watched with a cigar.

I mean the guy was trying and despite me thinking he was wasteful I think he was a lot better than the guys coming from the bench. Maybe you're right the team was struggling a lot as a whole and offering very few options and in a better team he wouldn't be thrown out there expecting him to be the only one providing creativity within the team.

 

[Frank Grimes]

Didn't play well. Think Simeone did a good job tactically on him as it was obvious he was a major threat.

 

[tentan]

If everyone can have a go at Grealish then surely we can have a go at him

 

[WR10]

Poor lad. Simeone put 3 players on him on each play. If we had a young, mobile striker that played the pockets his markers left behind it would have been a horrible day for Simeone.

Instead, we insisted on trying useless triangles with Telles that offers nothing outside a deadball.

 

[Sea-Cow]

I feel his lack of pace is going to be a bit of an issue. Very often performs a nice trick or bit of skill to make half a yard but doesnt have the explosiveness to then get away from defenders

I have the same nagging fear. If he had a half-yard more pace to him, or a similar tiny amount more explosiveness, he could be absolutely deadly. Tonight Lloriente had him in his pocket and was coming out on top of the majority of their duels, and it looked like Jadon knew it.

Oh well. Still a big fan of his and as many others have said, he is not the problem here and he will hopefully only get better.

 

[Rockets Redglare]

If everyone can have a go at Grealish then surely we can have a go at him

What does that even mean?

 

[Pickle85]

One of the few that didn't seem scared of the ball and was willing to try things. More often than not they didn't come off but he wasn't exactly supported very well by Telles. Get a better functioning side around him and he'll look 100 times better (true about many players, tbf, but given the way Sancho plays with little give and goes etc particularly him imo).