WSL 20/21 | United v City | 12:30 - Sat 14 Nov

red woppit said:
Could be that press was just coming from the front three, the midfield did look a little hesitant, not sure whether to press or stay back, ended up doing neither. Thought our right side looked poor in the first half, not surprised that Sigsworth was subbed off at half time. Galton looked good at full back, apart from the poor clearance for their first goal, saying that though, it was a catalogue of errors. Midfield much better second half, but this team/squad is very much a work in progress, so once they get a bit more experience, experience I see success. I think we have one of the better/ brighter managers in the WSL. Look forward to seeing more of this team.
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Indeed. Agree with everything you said.
A brilliant start to the season and promising signs ahead.
 
I don't see much of the women's team, but that's one hell of a hit for Heath's goal. You'd have believed it was Scholesy striking that. :drool:
 
kundalini said:
The press wasn't the main issue at all. I've just rewatched most of the first half. To the extent that there was an issue with the press, it was due to one of the central defenders not being willing to follow Coombs when she dropped a little deeper to receive the ball. This meant that Coombs could feed Chloe Kelly on the right, Sam Mewlis now a threat as Hayley Ladd was miles out of position, as she had been pressing high and couldn't keep pace with Mewlis over such a long distance.

The main problems were:

- Amy Turner needlessly passing the ball back to Mary Earps. In the first instance they exchanged passes, then Earps took too long to clear, giving Ellen White time to get a touch on the clearance so it fell to a City player who intercepted it, leading to the corner, which resulted in Chloe Kelly's goal. Another needless backpass from Amy Turner, this time a terrible one, that Earps fell over when trying to clear, resulting in another corner. Add to that a poor pass from Amy got intercepted leading to a City counter.

- Ona Batlle being unable to deal with Georgia Stanway, regardless of which one of them had the ball initially. As the half developed, Batlle seemed unable to think clearly, one time making a bizarre late attempt to press Demi Stokes, leaving Stanway free on the left.

- Jess Sigsworth carelessly offside twice in about 10 mins, also asleep when Demi Stokes ran off the ball in our defensive third. One time she chose to press centrally, leaving Stokes free to surge up the pitch.

- Hayley Ladd twice unable to make simple 5 yard passes during a spell of 15 seconds. On 2nd viewing, neither Ladd nor Groenen seemed to recognise the extent to which Mewlis was a threat.

- a small number of over-hit long passes. I think two came from Leah Galton, another from Millie Turner.

- City's 2nd goal. Chloe Kelly is offside from the free-kick. Groenen pauses for a moment rather than tracking Mewlis. United's defence is very deep when the shot comes in that Amy Turner blocks, then Millie Turner is blocking Mary Earps' view, although the shot from Coombs might have been too good regardless.
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Very detailed analysis.
Stoney mentioned the press, so I'm not going to contradict her.
I only watched the live feed, not looked back at any of the match, so I can only go on what I saw initially.
First half there was only one team. United looked a bit like rabbits in headlights, but give them their due, second half looked like a team.
Take your point about playing the ball back to the keeper too much, seemed like a lack of confidence to play the ball forward.
Yes there were many individual errors, which you will always get in matches, but second half showed what they are capable of.
 
A normal boring 1-0 win would have been amazing for the Champions League places.
But to get a 2-2 draw after our terrible performance in the first half against a team like Manchester City (They have of course still the better squad) should help us massive for the future :)

A draw + good performance against Chelsea, a win against Arsenal and now the match against Manchester City are really impressive results......but if we want to be in the Champions League next season then we must really win our next three matches against Aston Villa, Reading & Bristol.
 
kundalini said:
The press wasn't the main issue at all. I've just rewatched most of the first half. To the extent that there was an issue with the press, it was due to one of the central defenders not being willing to follow Coombs when she dropped a little deeper to receive the ball. This meant that Coombs could feed Chloe Kelly on the right, Sam Mewis now a threat as Hayley Ladd was miles out of position, as she had been pressing high and couldn't keep pace with Mewis over such a long distance.

The main problems were:

- Amy Turner needlessly passing the ball back to Mary Earps. In the first instance they exchanged passes, then Earps took too long to clear, giving Ellen White time to get a touch on the clearance so it fell to a City player who intercepted it, leading to the corner, which resulted in Chloe Kelly's goal. Another needless backpass from Amy Turner, this time a terrible one, that Earps fell over when trying to clear, resulting in another corner. Add to that a poor pass from Amy got intercepted leading to a City counter.

- Ona Batlle being unable to deal with Georgia Stanway, regardless of which one of them had the ball initially. As the half developed, Batlle seemed unable to think clearly, one time making a bizarre late attempt to press Demi Stokes, leaving Stanway free on the left.

- Jess Sigsworth carelessly offside twice in about 10 mins, also asleep when Demi Stokes ran off the ball in our defensive third. One time she chose to press centrally, leaving Stokes free to surge up the pitch.

- Hayley Ladd twice unable to make simple 5 yard passes during a spell of 15 seconds. On 2nd viewing, neither Ladd nor Groenen seemed to recognise the extent to which Mewis was a threat.

- a small number of over-hit long passes. I think two came from Leah Galton, another from Millie Turner.

- City's 2nd goal. Chloe Kelly is offside from the free-kick. Groenen pauses for a moment rather than tracking Mewis. United's defence is very deep when the shot comes in that Amy Turner blocks, then Millie Turner is blocking Mary Earps' view, although the shot from Coombs might have been too good regardless.
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I think the press was an issue. More so the shape and positioning as Ella Toone plays a role akin to Bruno where she isn’t really a midfielder. So our shape ended up like a 424 and City just needed to pop it in to Mewis and neither Ladd or Jackie could get near her or cope with her physically which led to them on occasion having situations where it was 5 or 6 city players just vs our back line.
Toone was over commiting to the press and he positioning and they were just picking it off going through it with ease.

Add to that Batlle having a shocker and making some of the weirdest decisions you’ll ever see. One point the ball was going out and she was fighting it stanyway but decided to stop the ball on the line preventing it from going out but couldn’t stop her momentum so Stanway picks it up and has a free run towards the 6nyarder.

As gifted as Zelem and Gronen are I always feel like it’s a risk with either in a central 2.
 
Hold up! Hold the hell up did they just fecking steal our Ella Toone chant when Coombs scored? Makes me even more happier that we took points off them and seeing them slump to the floor on their dejected arses! KARMA B*TCH!!!!
 
Two late goals means Arsenal v Chelsea ends in a 1-1 draw. So the top 5 all got a draw this weekend, meaning we retain our place at the top of WSL having now played each of the big 3. The next few fixtures - Villa (A), Reading (A) & Bristol City (H) - are a great opportunity for us to maintain our place going into 2021, maybe even extend our advantage on some of the teams behind us. Reading will be a challenge, but we should beat the other two fairly comfortably.
 
Casey will not be taking Villa, literally Reading and Bristol lightly. Reading has been a thorn in our side when we were still in the Championship. Bristol inflicted our first embarrassing home defeat at the start of 2020 with former striker Ebony Salmon scoring the winner. The draw over City was literally hard fought an I commend our manager for taking responsibility over that atrocious first half but now we have to go again on Thursday before focusing on the League again.
 
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