Against teams that attack with pace down the wings, the inverted full-back system leaves the whole defence hideously exposed.
Using the full backs this way is meant to overload the opposition in their defensive third of the field, thus penning them in.
The problem in this game was NUFC played a 4-5-1, which overloaded midfield, but had pacy wingers whose remit was “get down the wing as soon as we win the ball, because you’ll have acres of space!”
I was very surprised we didn’t go to our old “back 3” approach in the second half, where Walker plays the RB/RCB role, allowing only Cancelo to slide inside into midfield.
The problem there, of course, is that Bernardo was playing LW, and without the threat of Walker on the overlap, and KDB playing as a pressing MF, you lose your right flank…which was how we scored our first goal, with Bernardo using Walkers overlapping run (which took 3 players with him) as a dummy to cross the ball!
We can certainly start there, because by about the 25th minute, it was clear Walker inside was THE WEAKEST LINK on the field, and St Maximin was the most dangerous outlet they had!
One last thing…Walker has to be the worst defensive header of the ball for a fella who is big and fast that I have ever seen! His “bum into the player” schtick is beyond shit, but when he attacked Joelinton for a midfield header, with St M on the right wing free as a bird, it had to be a winning header, which it wasn’t! From there, it was Stones backpedaling against the onrushing St M! And, we all saw how that worked out when Stones made a rash challenge in the second half!
