Our attackers aren’t pressing intensely enough, meaning all focus is on our midfield.

IrishRedDevil

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I’m not saying our midfield is perfect, it needs more chemistry and balance - Mount is new to the team so that makes sense, but Rashford and Garnacho aren’t pressing enough and they are leaving the midfield more exposed / open than it should be.

Antony has been really poor in the first 2 games, but at least he is more intense in the press and winning the ball back.

Playing with 2 attacking midfielders will only work if the forward players put a shift in.

Video evidence:

 
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You are absolutely right. I have being saying exactly the same for months in other threads. The forwards are making the midfield look slow with their lack of pressing and deep running. There are no fast forward passing options and therefore the midfielders always seems to be under pressure.
 
Interesting stats on Fotmob we rank 1st in possession won in final 3rd so we’re doing something right in the press. Finishing is the issue. We rank 3rd for big chances created and only scored 1 goal.
 
abailey123 said:
Interesting stats on Fotmob we rank 1st in possession won in final 3rd so we’re doing something right in the press. Finishing is the issue. We rank 3rd for big chances created and only scored 1 goal.
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Our fans are so focused on midfield at the moment, not realizing that it's our attack that's killing us.

We played a good first half against Tottenham, a good team, with many chances. We didn't decided to sit back and hit them away from home, but we went for it. Games come in ebb and flows, so when they got on top, they scored. We had the ball in the final third more than Spurs, but where they could exploit spaces granted, Garnacho and Antony were consistently missong opportunities for successful attacks. There's a good chance that this is a 2-3 game for City due to how good Spurs was when attacking, but for us, after they scored, it was quite obvious we wouldn't score. That was the problem on Satuday
 
Marcus isn't a CF and for the first goal, Garnacho was sucked inside and didn't close down then player or ball or challenge the cross.

We defend from the front and attack from the back. If either isn't coming off, it's all disjointed.

The sooner Marcus gets to play from the left and Garnacho comes from the bench, the better off during these early doors.
 
IrishRedDevil said:
I’m not saying our midfield is perfect, it needs more chemistry and balance - Mount is new to the team so that makes sense, but Rashford and Garnacho aren’t pressing enough and they are leaving the midfield more exposed / open than it should be.

Antony has been really poor in the first 2 games, but at least he is more intense in the press and winning the ball back.

Playing with 2 attacking midfielders will only work if the forward players put a shift in.

Video evidence:

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spot on. The front 3 were shocking out of possesion
 
Rashford and Garnacho failed us, Antony at least press well. Playing front out of position is hurting us.
 
I'd never have thought of Rashford as a lazy player during his first few years in the first team, but he really is now, isn't he?

People have been trying to blame it on him carrying an injury forever, but at some point you kind of have to say what you see.
 
Our attackers pretty much lost us the game from their 1st half inadequacy.

We should have played better in the 2nd half though, but we were looking comfortable in the 1st half. We needed to score when we were on top.
 
V.O. said:
I'd never have thought of Rashford as a lazy player during his first few years in the first team, but he really is now, isn't he?

People have been trying to blame it on him carrying an injury forever, but at some point you kind of have to say what you see.
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It's awful if he won't improve, new contract and all. Keane really ripped him to pieces after the match, now it's clear why. Now is not the time to half heart things.
 
Very hard to press when you have a striker who either doesnt want to or doesnt have the engine to. Pep dropped Aguero of all strikers because he wasn't able to do it effectively. Marcus at the moment is standing in for Rasmus and Martial so I won't be too hard on him there, but even on the left wing his pressing is poor. Its even more so when you compare him to a player like Vinicius who runs his socks off. Can't have an effective pressing attack when you are carrying a player.
 
It's a valid point. Garnacho has never been good at the defensive work and neither really has Rashford either.
 
I said it in the match thread but I actually blamed Bruno for pushing out and leaving a hole behind him. Maybe he was actually pressing a player rashford should have been pressing and it the fault just filtered on down
 
I think this is a misdiagnosis. Against Wolves at least, we were deliberately allowing them to progress the ball towards the halfway line down the flanks, to then press them there in the pockets of space there. This meant the opportunity to win the ball back in positions where they wouldn’t be in such a deep block.
 
edcunited1878 said:
Marcus isn't a CF and for the first goal, Garnacho was sucked inside and didn't close down then player or ball or challenge the cross.

We defend from the front and attack from the back. If either isn't coming off, it's all disjointed.

The sooner Marcus gets to play from the left and Garnacho comes from the bench, the better off during these early doors.
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Ah right, thats why he didnt want to press then…
 
Its not just the attack but yeah Rashford is probably one of the worst culprits. Theres a couple others that could probably do with a 14km run
 
Great post OP. The video is strangely reassuring in that we know where the problem could lie with our forward line being erratic in leading the press. I've always found Rashford unreliable in a pressing system. Him on the left side isn't necessarily going to change that. It is a mentality thing and a bit of laziness.
 
Hojlund is quite highly rated in terms of defensive actions among forwards from what I have heard/read, so hopefully that will help in this regard at least from the central striker position. Martial is actually better than Rashford too in terms of intelligence and positioning for the press, he just lacks the speed, stamina, and tenacity of top strikers in that regard.

Garnacho is someone who can certainly improve on this and I don't think effort is his issue as much as a lack of experience. Rashford has gotten worse as time has gone on and seems to save himself for his sprints rarely doing any serious tracking back at all and when he does it is very haphazard. Not really sure that is going to change or improve at this stage.
 
I don’t know how you fix that considering the Rashford problem. The bloke isn’t interested in pressing / defensive or physical actions off the ball and when he does it he doesn’t do it well. Hojlund and Antony should do it well but the others not so much. Sancho and Garnacho aren’t great but they put in a shift, Rashford doesn’t even do that.
 
Being generous it could be possible that Rashford is told not to press as much because he needs to retain energy as the team's best counter attack player. He looked tired towards the end of the game despite not pressing as much as others
 
Ibi Dreams said:
Being generous it could be possible that Rashford is told not to press as much because he needs to retain energy as the team's best counter attack player. He looked tired towards the end of the game despite not pressing as much as others
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True, SAF famously told Rooney to stop closing down defenders so he could preserve energy for his sprints off the shoulder of the last man.
 
Teams that clearly have better attack than us (in no particular order):
1. City
2. Arsenal
3. Newcastle
4. Chelsea
5. Liverpool

and we are not even talking about us being out of form. These teams have better quality attacking line than us, period.

We would need Rashford to go back to his November 2022 form, Anthony to become 10x the finisher he is, Hojlund to score 15+ goals this season, and Garnacho + Sancho to have great goal-scoring seasons, for us to compete with those five teams. Way too many "ifs" and a lot of optimism required, if you ask me.
 
NewGlory said:
Teams that clearly have better attack than us (in no particular order):
1. City
2. Arsenal
3. Newcastle
4. Chelsea
5. Liverpool

and we are not even talking about us being out of form. These teams have better quality attacking line than us, period.
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Brighton
 
Devil You Know said:
True, SAF famously told Rooney to stop closing down defenders so he could preserve energy for his sprints off the shoulder of the last man.
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Unless you have a quote for that I think its more to curb what he was praised for doing as a youngster, where he would track all the way back to in between defence and midfield trying to win the ball and get involved deep in midfield. Expending all that energy instead of expecting your teammates to be able to deal with it and then find you in an attacking move, so you have the energy to be explosive in the final third. Other managers commented on this years before he stopped
 
edcunited1878 said:
Marcus isn't a CF and for the first goal, Garnacho was sucked inside and didn't close down then player or ball or challenge the cross.

We defend from the front and attack from the back. If either isn't coming off, it's all disjointed.

The sooner Marcus gets to play from the left and Garnacho comes from the bench, the better off during these early doors.
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He's on 300k a week, I don't care where you play, you give it 100 and follow the instructions of your manager.
 
Which is why Hojlund will improve us when he plays because he's a hard working forward that will press and Marcus and Antony will need to pull their fingers out if our front 3 is going to provide us the platform from which to attack.

Why could Salah, Mane and Firminho do it so effortlessly week in/week out.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
I don’t know how you fix that considering the Rashford problem. The bloke isn’t interested in pressing / defensive or physical actions off the ball and when he does it he doesn’t do it well. Hojlund and Antony should do it well but the others not so much. Sancho and Garnacho aren’t great but they put in a shift, Rashford doesn’t even do that.
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It’ll be fixed if he stops getting picked. The sooner we get Hojlund or Martial playing then the sooner Rashford and Garnacho have to duke it out for minutes.
 
Despite the video above our best chances have come from turnovers caused by our pressing this season. Against both Wolves and Spurs we have forced mistakes. We just don’t punish them then at the moment.

I think a lot of that is because Rashford isn’t making the right runs to then open up the chance even more. You kind of end up with Antony and Garnacho running inside to where Rashford already is. You need either of them to take the ball wide or Rashford to run wide dragging the defender with him. They are getting in each others way.

One of they parts of Liverpools success was Firmino’s selflessness. He did a tonne of dirty work for Salah and Mane. We don’t have any team players in the attacking third with the current three and it might be a good reason to pick Sancho over Garnacho because at least he’s a pass first guy compared to the other three looking to shoot all the time.
 
sparx99 said:
It’ll be fixed if he stops getting picked. The sooner we get Hojlund or Martial playing then the sooner Rashford and Garnacho have to duke it out for minutes.
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Best, and only, thing Martial can do is to get sold to Saudis (if the rumors have any truth for it) so maybe we can loan a proper striker in January, if it's too late for the Summer, at this point. If Martial stays, he will play all of 120 minutes for us all season, and even that - maybe. Injured all the time - we simply have no way to use him for anything meaningful

sparx99 said:
One of they parts of Liverpools success was Firmino’s selflessness. He did a tonne of dirty work for Salah and Mane. We don’t have any team players in the attacking third with the current three and it might be a good reason to pick Sancho over Garnacho because at least he’s a pass first guy compared to the other three looking to shoot all the time.
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I disagree that the main problem of Garnacho, Anthony, and Rashy is that they always try to shoot. I think the main problem is - when they shoot, they cannot score even the shots most other top forwards would. It's unacceptable. Forwards should shoot and their main purpose is to score. It's insane how bad our forwards currently are at finding the back of the net.
 
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Pscholes18 said:
He's on 300k a week, I don't care where you play, you give it 100 and follow the instructions of your manager.
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I don't disagree. It's the same things we all noticed when he was playing injured a couple seasons ago...his effort lacks too much and when you play through the middle, it shows.

It definitely showed throughout against Spurs.
 
Disorganized pressing that also lacks intensity is only one of the many issues, and there are also other issues, as in: -

- The players can't seem to be able to knit plays/patterns together, mainly due to sloppiness on the ball and lack of movements

- Atrocious finishing when a chance is created

- Lack of actual striker who can lead the line, Rashford may do a job as a ST, but he is not good there, especially for the way EtH wants his strikers to be

- Terrible performances from the wingers, both Antony & Garnacho seem to only want to come inside and look for a shooting opportunity, too predictable and easy to defend against, even if this is an instruction, players do have autonomy especially in final attacking third, and a winger needs to add variety to his play, as in going on the outside, early crosses, going to the byline, cut backs, cut-in and shoot, etc...


EtH must find a solution to this, maybe Mount can play as a 9/false 9, to use him as a pressing forward and move Rashford to the left, not sure if that will work but we know that Mount does press well and works his sucks off, and Rashford can do his thing from the left, I am also thinking that Sancho should be the starting RW and see how that goes, and with Mount being moved up, this allows Bruno to play in his preferred AM position ahead to holding CMs (Cas & Eriksen).
 
NewGlory said:
Teams that clearly have better attack than us (in no particular order):
1. City
2. Arsenal
3. Newcastle
4. Chelsea
5. Liverpool

and we are not even talking about us being out of form. These teams have better quality attacking line than us, period.

We would need Rashford to go back to his November 2022 form, Anthony to become 10x the finisher he is, Hojlund to score 15+ goals this season, and Garnacho + Sancho to have great goal-scoring seasons, for us to compete with those five teams. Way too many "ifs" and a lot of optimism required, if you ask me.
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How do Chelsea have a better attack than us?

I'd love to see this argument. Their attack last season was even worse than ours and they didn't even have someone who bagged 30 goals.
 
Pressing is not our issue. We try to progress too fast with the ball. It's almost as if we're trying something out for a fast "transition" but we're not anywhere near to be good at it and we're being whacked. Let's hope this gamble pays off eventually.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
I don’t know how you fix that considering the Rashford problem. The bloke isn’t interested in pressing / defensive or physical actions off the ball and when he does it he doesn’t do it well. Hojlund and Antony should do it well but the others not so much. Sancho and Garnacho aren’t great but they put in a shift, Rashford doesn’t even do that.
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Rashford had plenty of time to learn the art of conserve and pounce from a geriatric Ronaldo too let's not forget.
 
What midfield? Even with a pressing monster like the horse players just rand through our midfield last season. This season Antony presses like crazy, but half the mob on here want him gone.
I‘d say we need Ten Hag to work a miracle on Mount and coach into a FDJ type of midfielder. Until we have someone to dictate play and the guys up top actually stop giving the ball away constantly, we’re going to be having issues.
 
Eddy_JukeZ said:
How do Chelsea have a better attack than us?

I'd love to see this argument. Their attack last season was even worse than ours and they didn't even have someone who bagged 30 goals.
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As we’re yet to see the boy Rasmus actually play in this team, how on earth would anyone know who’s got a better attack than us?
But yeah seriously Chelsea :lol:
 
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