At least once a game, usually twice. Once with a poor pass due to pressure and once with a poor touch, both in our own final third. Awful
Our most press resistant players
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At least once a game, usually twice. Once with a poor pass due to pressure and once with a poor touch, both in our own final third. Awful
Bruno is one of our most important platers the way he's viewed by a lot on this forum is weird.
To me this type of measure is quite incomplete if not looking at how many failed passes and dispossessions the player had. Also press resistant involves more than passing the ball when under pressure.
What I would say however is that Bruno often makes great opening passes under pressure. But I don’t think he is very press resistant.
I know… some weird fans out there.
He was dispossessed less times than Kante last season.
The facts don't back up what you say but carry on. Your eyes alone should really tell you he is one of our better players when pressed.
Michael Carrick wasn’t press resistant and always backed off deeper into our defence to avoid the press. This doesn’t mean he was not a key players or important for us. It’s just not how his game was played.
Same applies to a lot of great players out there. Saying Bruno is not press resistant is not an attack on him, his skill set and the best of his game doesn’t revolve around hanging on the ball long enough to suck in the pressure.
Same applies to a lot of great players out there. Saying Bruno is not press resistant is not an attack on him, his skill set and the best of his game doesn’t revolve around hanging on the ball long enough to suck in the pressure.
F De Jong is OUR most press resistant player
McTominay, Maguire, AWB 
One of the biggest failings of our team against the modern pressing opposition is: too many touches of the ball. Just watch any passage of play and you will note how many extra, unnecessary touches our players take. This is a gift to teams that press and I'm sure why the opposition managers encourage their team to do so even if it is against their nature.
I think Martinez defo up there. We’ll see a big positive with him this season. We had a lot of teams pressing us last season which led to errors and goals conceded for us.
I think Martinez’s composure and comfort on the ball will allow him to be beat the press and start off many counter attacks.
I think Martinez’s composure and comfort on the ball will allow him to be beat the press and start off many counter attacks.
I’ve noticed a difference in pre season though. We’ve had quite a lot of passages of play where it’s been one touch football creating triangles. It’ll take time but there’s positive signs.
Shaw, Sancho, Martial and probably Eriksen. I don't know enough about Martinez yet.
The rest are in the range between pretty meh & awful.
The rest are in the range between pretty meh & awful.
I'd say Shaw is quite clearly our best, not counting the new guys who I haven't seen enough of. His first touch, vision and passing ability makes him very press resistant, with his speed and physical power also playing a part. Sancho is probably up there as well, although more reliant on players making themselves available to pass to. Martial on a good day.
You have a point, not being press resistant doesn’t equal poor player or not being important. However being able to handle press is a key factor in ETH’s football. Also, I think the football has changed a lot in jut the last few years. Now there are many teams in the PL who are skilled at pressing high.
Kante doesnt play in front of his defence. Its where he gives the ball away, consistently, thats the problem. He's the perfect target for a pressing team allowing them to win the ball and run at goal straight away for a chance. If he loses it on our beyond the halfway line it gives the team time to get back.
He is absolutely everything you want as an opposing team that has attacking players pressing. He's what your tactic is for.
People mentioning Ronaldo and Bruno, do you even watch football? Bruno is one of the worst in the team in that regard.
Shaw, Eriksen, Martinez, Iqbal (looks to have that) and Sancho I would say.
Shaw, Eriksen, Martinez, Iqbal (looks to have that) and Sancho I would say.
You do realise the poster said "passes completed ", last time I checked a completed pass is not a failed one, neither does it mean the player got dispossessed.
No exactly and that’s why it’s a useless stat if used alon like this. The player might have 300 completed passes under pressure, but we don’t know if he also had 600 or 10 passes under pressure that failed.
yet, passing % is the stat everyone uses to beat him with?
How comes when a stat that makes him look good is questioned but when one which makes in line with others in that role, it is used to beat him with?
Yet the stats bear out that those tactics don't work that often.
Shaw, and I’d go as far as to say by a comfortable margin.
Easily the most consistent first touch at the club, too.
Easily the most consistent first touch at the club, too.
Shaw probably, on a consistent basis. Martial at his best is impossible to get the ball off.
I think Hannibal and Iqbal would be high up there once they settle into men's football.
In terms of established pros - Shaw, Sancho, Martial
In terms of established pros - Shaw, Sancho, Martial
I’m not talking about Bruno and I really don’t care if it makes him look good or not. I’m talking about it in general. It’s a useless way of measuring press resistance because it doesn’t give us the whole picture. First of all, passes under pressure is only one part of being press resistant. Secondly, it does not even tell us if the player is good at passing under pressure or not, since we don’t get to know the failure rate.
What the stats tell us is that Bruno makes a lot of successful passes under pressure.
Let's be real for a second here. Bruno's press resistance is middling at best. Press resistance like close control is an almost purely qualitative trait. You won't be seeing their direct equivalent in any numbers. Caveat being that players can still be effective without having it in bunches. Pretty much drop the spreadsheet and ask yourself is the player comfortable under pressure?
McTominay might not be the best in the squad for it, but he is very good at using his physicality and beating the press.
From my experience, it is harder to retain possession in centre mid than other positions. Maybe if we put Fred left wing he would retain it well as pressure comes from one or two directions and not all four.
They need to work exactly once to score one goal
You're fundimentally wrong on all fronts but to focus on one part. You are saying that everytime a midfielder loses the ball his team concedes.
No and if you think I said that you've discovered a new level of stupidity, so congrats to you. Read
Depends on which version of Martial you have but yes these are the three players you can count on to be consistently press resistant.
I think all three of our signings this summer will be added to the list. EtH strikes me as wanting the technical skill of his players being really high so in a couple of years, this list will look much much stronger.
Am I the only one that finds it strange people referring to forwards/wingers/attacking mids as press resistant?
It seems like it's essentially a skill that relates to defenders and defensive mids only...
It seems like it's essentially a skill that relates to defenders and defensive mids only...
I support it bears mention if the said forward has tendency to drop back and play in the middle but yeah.
I guess you could call it hold up play when referring to forwards.
I think press resistant has to be one of the most cringeworthy recent phrases to make an appearance in football debate.
I'd probably say that on paper a few of the recent acquisitions would be the best bet. Eriksen and Martinez, although the latter has to show it at a higher level. Sancho is good technically but tended to go missing last season when games got difficult, but in theory you'd back him to take the ball.
I'd probably say that on paper a few of the recent acquisitions would be the best bet. Eriksen and Martinez, although the latter has to show it at a higher level. Sancho is good technically but tended to go missing last season when games got difficult, but in theory you'd back him to take the ball.
Not really. He has physicality, but is a poor passer of the ball in general, so he misplaces many passes when under pressure
Surprised people are saying Fred. How many goals has he given away due to being dispossessed on the edge of our box? Certainly more than any other player. Troy Deeney literally said Watford targeted Fred when we played them - https://talksport.com/football/777119/troy-deeney-watford-targeted-manchester-united-fred/
There’s a spreadsheet for everything these days. Bruno is clearly not the 4th most press resistant player in the PL, and is clearly not harder to dispossess than Bernardo Silva. Is Grealish behind him too? Adama?
Anyway, I’ll go with the consensus of Shaw and Martial. In general, our players have been technically deficient for a top team for too long. I believe it’s because we have an outdated ‘identity’ when it comes to football and one that fundamentally doesn’t place much importance on keeping hold of the ball. That seems to be changing, thankfully. Like, based on philosophy alone, you would know that likely at any given time, Arsenal would have more press resistant players than us, because they have different values and have done ever since Wenger came here.
McTominey is the worst player we have under pressure by some distance. He's a coward of a midfielder, he rarely strides on with the ball, he always takes a simple pass and when our defence is under pressure, if you watch his movement he is never looking for pockets of space to help out, he's almost afraid of the ball when he knows he cant take a touch and give it easy.
I've never seen him beat a press.
I'm hopeful ETH will coach him to make some aspects of his game better, but he's a DM who currently hides from the ball and doesn't dictate games. Our worst midfielder by far
Do you have any data to back that up then? I mean, if someone can find something that contradicts the data I provided then great. But I've looked at two sets of data now from two different articles, and one has him in fourth place out of ten up until February 2022, and the other article has him in the top five (in third) for the entire season. Rhodri is at number one, and I don't think anyone would argue with that.
Why?