mrtwiceaseason
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 9 Oct 2011
- Messages
- 7,686
Had one purple patch ,been horrendous for 2 months now ,if zinchenko s head was right should be know where near the team on present form
I agree with your comment about him just losing his wide man. It happens regularly and yet Pep ignores this obvious flaw. Cancelo and Laporte are very fragile defensively.Apart from a lost Bernado, Cancelo is the root cause of our ineffective game.
Cancelo is often rush and inpatient when facing physically strong team because he is not very strong in terms of ground duels (if you compare him to other PL full backs). And for some unknown reason, sometimes he just ignores left winger completely even if the winger is in a better position.
In this match, when he had the ball and should played with Grealish with some small pass to create a strong side, he rushed and switched the ball way too early to the right side despite the space created on the right was not enough. It costed Mahrez because he had to make more body contact with the defenders and it was something we have to avoid given Mahrez age and style. Thus Mahrez was exhausted in the last 20 mins.
In the derby, Cancelo sat more deep and Bernado had more ball control on the left side in the first half. Bernado had more patient and was more willing to cooperate with Grealish. And they successfully attracted enough MU's defenders to the left side - before made the switch. KDB&Mahrez often had plenty space to finish the chance. Mahrez was not tired at all in the 1st half and had enough energy in the 2nd half to execute his fantastic finishing skill when the opposite was tired out.
He's scored 3 goals this season, which sounds fine until you realise he averages over 2 shots every single game.
He's got 4 proper assists* from crosses from around 20 attempts. Not too bad but half of those were against Bruges in a single game.
As a ratio of how many goals and assists he gets to how many he attempts overall, he's really quite ineffective this season. There are so many fullbacks without half of his talent who are actually producing more regularly in lesser sides.
*Not counting the mediocre cross against Newcastle which only reached Dias because their defence fucked what should have been an ineffective ball.