7 | Joao Cancelo - 2022/23 Performances

[Goater=Legend]

Walker being out has made him play near enough every gane without rotation, even in games where Lewis, JWE and Gomez have played, hes come on late on.

 

[DD]

I'm not a stats fanatic by any means. But sometimes stats can correct misperceptions. I was surprised to see how much better Cancelo did compared to Robertson (who was arguably the best LB in the world before 21/22). Maybe Robertson wasn't at his best in 2022, but Cancelo did generally better than him and was recognised as such by the PL players.

People are free to have their opinions, though. Otherwise, football (forums) would be largely pointless. Nobody knows the whole truth. I was sceptical about Cancelo in 19/20, but have updated my opinions since then. The tragic story of his mother has warmed me to him big time.

The problem with statistics is they often provide analysis of quantity and not quality. This can work both ways. For example, they wouldn't quantify the kind of pass that Cancelo makes that other players simply can't. However, they don't quantify players giving up on tackles, rashness or being out of position.

I think the (non) reaction of the crowd to his substitution spoke volumes on Saturday about a crowd that is running out of patience with him. The full back spots are ones that we are struggling in depth with so the last thing we need to see is our only fit, experienced and natural full back making stupid and costly decisions on the field on an increasingly regular basis.

 

[nellyonthewing]

A left back a left back my kingdom for a left back. How feckin hard can it be to find one,.

 

[alexmcity]

making stupid and costly decisions on the field on an
increasingly regular basis.

That's an exaggeration. You can say that about the last 5 weeks, but not about the last 15 months.

He's lost form after Southampton (4:0), and my guess is that it's closely related to the fact that, due to injuries to Walker, Ake..., Pep has over played Cancelo since April. For instance, last season, he played 9 full games more than Bernardo, and he has played more minutes than Bernardo this season as well. Cancelo is one of our fittest players and vrtually always available, but even the fittest players will experience difficulties, if they start almost every game from April to November.

I know many fans don't like him, that's their right. We'd lose a great asset if Cancelo decided to move, though. He made the PFA teams of the year since 2020 for a reason, and he's one of our most versatile and fittest players. He's much more valuable to the team than croud favourites who miss many games through injuries.

 

[supercity88]

Very ineffective recently. He takes too many touches and it would be nice to see him offer more off the ball through movement than look to be the main creator when we have others that can do that. Laporte likes to take a lot of touches as well in order to manipulate the opposition and feed the ball through the lines. But when you have him and Cancelo doing it, it's too slow and predictable.

We're all just desperate for the Zabba style full back. Someone who bombs up and down the pitch putting a shift in. Joao can do so much more than that in an attacking sense, but when he's off his game in attack his all-round game can look abysmal because defensively he's not particularly good. After a defeat it's easy to single out one or two. I think fundamentally we should have had Bernie central on Saturday and would have won with him in that position and Mahrez/Foden wide right and Grealish wide left.

The dive to try and win the penalty was disgraceful and it's a shame he can't be dropped for a couple of games as punishment for that. I don't ever want to see our players diving. That's not what we're about.

 

[applejuice]

He's lost form after Southampton (4:0), and my guess is that it's closely related to the fact that, due to injuries to Walker, Ake..., Pep has over played Cancelo since April. For instance, last season, he played 9 full games more than Bernardo, and he has played more minutes than Bernardo this season as well. Cancelo is one of our fittest players and vrtually always available, but even the fittest players will experience difficulties, if they start almost every game from April to November.

A fit Walker is no longer there to make the recovery of the mistakes. No longer there at the right far post to stop the crossing from Cancelo side.


Even if Walker returns, I doubt it will be the same Walker.


We lost the insurance.

 

[alexmcity]

A fit Walker is no longer there to make the recovery of the mistakes. No longer there at the right far post to stop the crossing from Cancelo side.


Even if Walker returns, I doubt it will be the same Walker.


We lost the insurance.

Walker has had his share of mistakes over the years. For instance, he played Lyon's player onside for their first goal: big mistake in a crucial CL game. And he gets regularly beaten in the air in our box by shorter players like Robertson. He's been a great player for us, but he is far from being faultless.

I'd like to see data about our defence last season with and without Walker. For instance, we didn't concede a goal in the CL in any of the 3 games Walker was banned for. We won 7 from the last 8 PL games which he missed through injury. We missed him vs Real at the Etihad big time, for we had to play Fernandinho there. And we conceded 3 at Newcastle this season with Walker having a mare there. So there's that too.

 

[sirrmattmoo]

 

[IrishBlueSince92]

Was Joao pissed off with him? He should be loving him after the damage he's doing to the rags

 

[Blue Smarties]

Was Joao pissed off with him? He should be loving him after the damage he's doing to the rags

He’s also damaged the international camp though. I had them down as dark horses for the tournament - canned that with the current circus following them.