Our most press resistant players

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Jan 17, 2012
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Who would you rate as our most press resistant footballers? I think the 3 that stand out for me are Shaw, Martial & maybe Sancho.

Having an outlet like Shaw at the back is quite important for us, with our weakness in midfield. Which is why we were so exposed last season when he was injured. Martial is also quite under pressure which helps us pin teams back when he's playing well, and then Sancho has shown a good degree of it - though we haven't really seen him play much into the middle yet.

Unfortunately for us, some of our weaker players in this department sit in the middle of the pitch. We're most vulnerable with the ball closer to our half of the pitch. Anyone else standout for us? Maybe from the younger guys.
 
Martinez, Eriksen, Sancho, Martial.

That's not bad. I'd argue VDB is very capable when pressed, Malacia looks promising even in tighter areas too.
 
Totally agree with the idea of this thread, watching Juve and Barca last night, it's clear how crucial having a spine of players who can work around the modern press is. I think the bigger issue than who is genuinely good (I tend to agree with those mentioned) is who is the opposite - those players that I genuinely don't trust when closed down. If I put them in a worst to not as bad, it'd probably be:
AWB
Fred
De Gea
McT
Maguire
Lindelof
Bruno

Now, given almost all of those players will start most matches, that's a pretty serious problem. We're really reliant on coaching improving that, cause we're not going to replace all of them.
 
Agree with OP - Shaw, Martial, Sancho. Zidane Iqbal looked good at it but the sample size was tiny and preseason.

I imagine Martinez will join this list. I’ve never really noticed Eriksen either way — what do people think of him when pressed?
 
I think we have a few players in the team who are press resistant by nature (bruno, eriksen, sancho, shaw, martinez). Then there are players who I think in a system set up to be press resitant can also be press resistant (fred, rashford, lindelof, maguire).
 
I was really confused for a moment thinking that this was about who was best able to give good responses to interviews by the press or something.
 
DWelbz19 said:
Agree with OP - Shaw, Martial, Sancho. Zidane Iqbal looked good at it but the sample size was tiny and preseason.

I imagine Martinez will join this list. I’ve never really noticed Eriksen either way — what do people think of him when pressed?
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Eriksen is one of those midfielders you can't touch because he has very good spacial awareness, good at protecting the ball and wiggling out of a press and excellent decision making.

My list
Eriksen
Shaw
Sancho
Martial
Maguire (controversial but bar last season very difficult to get the ball off.
Martinez
Dalot

I don't count Lindelof or Dvb because they play like the ball is made of hot lava.

Varane, Ronaldo, Rashford are okay.
Mctominay uses his strength but keeps his head down.
Fred and Wan bissaka are ideal to set off pressing triggers for opposition.
 
flameinthesun said:
I think we have a few players in the team who are press resistant by nature (bruno, eriksen, sancho, shaw, martinez). Then there are players who I think in a system set up to be press resitant can also be press resistant (fred, rashford, lindelof, maguire).
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Bruno??? Probably one of our worst offenders when it comes to this.
 
McTominay is one of our most press resistant players. Up until last season, I would have rated him as the midfielder least susceptible to getting tackled. Though Eriksen will definitely change that ranking. And hopefully FdJ, too.

People seem to confuse press resistance with close control. They're not the same thing. What matters is being able to evade tackles. Yes, one way to do that is with a quick dribble. But it can also be done with a shove or by physically shielding the ball with your body. Pogba could do it too, but negated it by not having the football IQ to know when to release the ball.
 
Nice topic OP, I think we'll soon put Martinez at the top, I'm glad he's now ours,. I guessing ETH would instruct De Gea to just pin it to him whenever he's pressed or doesn't know what to do with the ball rather than just hoofing it up field to nobody.
 
Fred is actually one of our best as long as he has passing options available. He gets in trouble when he has to hold onto the ball deep, which should never happen.

Sancho, Lindelof, Shaw, DVB, Martial are all players that were good at it the last years.
 
Ronaldo (if he stays), Sancho, Shaw, Martial, Donny all capable under pressure with the ball at feet. I'd say this is probably the area we're behind the more recently successful clubs in the technical side of the game is only now being massively focused on - we tried it short term with LVG and then just gave up and Mou, Ole, Ragnick all went down, to varying degrees, the physicality/desire over everything route.

I do think with coaching though a number of our payers will immediately get a lot more confident under pressure, including players like AWB, Fred, McT, Rashford who I see as the weaker group, so much is about confidence and actually practising against a real press in training is very different to what they have done previously. That doesn't mean they will be good enough long term but it will raise the level of the group considerably if the weaker players become 'ok'.
 
Players in the squad who were dispossessed and miscontrolled the ball very infrequently last season, whilst also having decent dribble success and pass accuracy percentages were Lindelof, Maguire, Cavani, McTominay and Martial.

Cavani really stands out among attacking players for his ability to keep the ball (93rd percentile for pass completion, 99th for dribble completion, 90th for miscontrols, 99th for dispossessions). Basically, if Cavani has the ball, you're not getting it off him.
 
Shaw and Sancho by a mile.

Shaw is quite far ahead of the rest as his first touch is by far the best in our squad.
 
Fred is press vulnerable. Exactly the opposite

Shaw and Sancho are the ones that come to mind as being composed in those situations and Lisandro our new signing as well.
 
Ekeke said:
Fred is press vulnerable. Exactly the opposite
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Apart from the fact he is hardly ever dispossessed despite playing in the most congested and contested area of the pitch and being one of our main passing options.

Sure.
 
Silas said:
Bruno??? Probably one of our worst offenders when it comes to this.
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Not according to the data, he isn't. I was reading an article that had the top ten press-reistent midfielders in the league, and Bruno came in at number 4. The only United player in there. He was ahead of the likes of Bernardo Silva and Declan Rice.
 
BusbyMalone said:
Not according to the data, he isn't. I was reading an article that had the top ten press-reistent midfielders in the league, and Bruno came in at number 4. The only United player in there. He was ahead of the likes of Bernardo Silva and Declan Rice.
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How is it measured? Does it take into account aimless rushed passes while under pressure? I’d say that’s the more common scenario with Bruno as opposed to him actually being tackled.
 
Silas said:
How is it measured? Does it take into account aimless rushed passes while under pressure? I’d say that’s the more common scenario with Bruno as opposed to him actually being tackled.
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They measure how many successful passes a player makes while under pressure from an opponent. And he comes in fourth.
 
Silas said:
How is it measured? Does it take into account aimless rushed passes while under pressure? I’d say that’s the more common scenario with Bruno as opposed to him actually being tackled.
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To be fair to him, he is under pressure a lot. Top 10 United players for passes completed whilst under pressure from an opponent last season:
  1. Bruno - 344
  2. Fred - 210
  3. McTominay - 209
  4. Maguire - 191
  5. Pogba - 184
  6. Ronaldo - 175
  7. Sancho - 168
  8. Matic - 168
  9. Lindelof - 152
  10. Shaw - 146
 
Infra-red said:
To be fair to him, he is under pressure a lot. Top 10 United players for passes completed whilst under pressure from an opponent last season:
  1. Bruno - 344
  2. Fred - 210
  3. McTominay - 209
  4. Maguire - 191
  5. Pogba - 184
  6. Ronaldo - 175
  7. Sancho - 168
  8. Matic - 168
  9. Lindelof - 152
  10. Shaw - 146
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Really tells us fecks all without context.
 
The only players I can say is Martial and Iqbal. Their game is naturally built on drawing the man on to them.
Whilst the rest look like a cardiac arrest is at hand. I don’t even care about context here in relation to what the data says. With my eyes I know what the truth is. You need both good dribbling and close control ability, can’t see any other bar potentially +maybe Sancho.
 
Infra-red said:
To be fair to him, he is under pressure a lot. Top 10 United players for passes completed whilst under pressure from an opponent last season:
  1. Bruno - 344
  2. Fred - 210
  3. McTominay - 209
  4. Maguire - 191
  5. Pogba - 184
  6. Ronaldo - 175
  7. Sancho - 168
  8. Matic - 168
  9. Lindelof - 152
  10. Shaw - 146
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This means feck all to anyone with a Bruno agenda. Every man and their dog knows to mark Bruno, he is the catalyst in the team, this happens so teams make sure as soon as he gets it, they pressure him.
 
Infra-red said:
To be fair to him, he is under pressure a lot. Top 10 United players for passes completed whilst under pressure from an opponent last season:
  1. Bruno - 344
  2. Fred - 210
  3. McTominay - 209
  4. Maguire - 191
  5. Pogba - 184
  6. Ronaldo - 175
  7. Sancho - 168
  8. Matic - 168
  9. Lindelof - 152
  10. Shaw - 146
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Probably because he was our main attacking output… everything went through him… he was the only one to create something so teams probably tried pressing him and marking him a lot more then other players.
 
Eriksen is Shawberto Carlos level press resistant, he always has time on the ball.
 
romufc said:
This means feck all to anyone with a Bruno agenda. Every man and their dog knows to mark Bruno, he is the catalyst in the team, this happens so teams make sure as soon as he gets it, they pressure him.
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DJ_21 said:
Probably because he was our main attacking output… everything went through him… he was the only one to create something so teams probably tried pressing him and marking him a lot more then other players.
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You are of course correct. It does provide a bit of insight into what Bruno experiences on a football pitch, though. Yes, he a misses a few passes, but given that so many more of his passes are played under pressure than any other United player, the fans should perhaps go a little easier on him.
 
Infra-red said:
You are of course correct. It does provide a bit of insight into what Bruno experiences on a football pitch, though. Yes, he a misses a few passes, but given that so many more of his passes are played under pressure than any other United player, the fans should perhaps go a little easier on him.
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I dont know why everyone's turned on him though, I still think he is crucial for us.

I have seen players who can make 90% passes play it sideways.
 
Totally misread that as "which of our players is most resistant to speaking to the press".
 
Infra-red said:
To be fair to him, he is under pressure a lot. Top 10 United players for passes completed whilst under pressure from an opponent last season:
  1. Bruno - 344
  2. Fred - 210
  3. McTominay - 209
  4. Maguire - 191
  5. Pogba - 184
  6. Ronaldo - 175
  7. Sancho - 168
  8. Matic - 168
  9. Lindelof - 152
  10. Shaw - 146
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That doesn't mean he's press resistant. Pogba is always around the top percentile for that stat, he isn't press resistant either.
 
romufc said:
I dont know why everyone's turned on him though, I still think he is crucial for us.

I have seen players who can make 90% passes play it sideways.
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Love Bruno me… think he’s quality and adds a lot to our team. His numbers from midfield are insane! Yes he makes some silly mistakes but so does everyone. He does more then enough to make up for it.
 
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