7 | Joao Cancelo - 2022/23 Performances

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Keeper! said:
He hasn't , his form drops off the cliff during the later stages of the season, probably down to fatigue and the amount he is asked to play.

We need to sort a class LB once and for all and have Cancelo and Walker challenging each other for RB.
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Cancelo played a big role in our title win last season, including all games in April and May, any of which was decisive. It was in the previous season, 20/21, when he and Rodri lost form and didn't make the CL final.

With Cancelo on the left and Walker on the right we didn't concede a shot on target in Madrid. Only after Pep made changes and Walker was subbed, Cancelo had to play on the other side and was responsible to an extent for the 1st Real goal. He did very well at LB in the CL.
 
Keeper! said:
He hasn't , his form drops off the cliff during the later stages of the season, probably down to fatigue and the amount he is asked to play.

This season at times superb and at others poor with the weird , stroppy attitude that rears up every now and again.

We need to sort a class LB once and for all and have Cancelo and Walker challenging each other for RB.
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I have read some posters on here putting Cancelo in the same bracket as Alexander Arnold defensively. Whilst I don't think he is as bad as TAA he needs to work on this area imo.
 
There's an interesting asymmetry in Cancelo's defensive skills which goes some way in explaining the misperceptions about him. His strongest and his weakest defensive sides as a fullback are related to his style: his inclination to attack the ball early. When he suceeds, it looks normal and people don't count it as a particularly successful defensive action. Interceptions and tackles in the middle of the park look a lot less valuable defensively than challenges and blocks near the box or in the box, which are counted as proper defending.

So, when Cancelo intercepts attacks higher up the pitch (20% of all interceptions in our team), it's not a big deal at all. But when he attacks the ball and fails, his defending looks poor and amateurish (e.g., vs Salah last month).

He should learn when his usual style is risky and inappropriate, e.g., in our third it is sometimes just wrong to attack the ball early, for failure means a chance for the opposition.
 
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Withnail said:
I have read some posters on here putting Cancelo in the same bracket as Alexander Arnold defensively. Whilst I don't think he is as bad as TAA he needs to work on this area imo.
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I think he is way above Trent in defending but he is not a natural defender, few FB's are now.
 
simon23 said:
good going forward...never been good defensively......against the very best he is an expensive liability
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When he offers nothing offensively like yesterday, he is a liability. We are stuck though as we have no cover and that is the fault of the board/Pep. Who thought Gomez would be ready for this league? He is Angelino MK2 for me on what I have seen so far. Lewis is to too young and inexperienced to play regularly at this level. Why have we got 5 centre backs, none of whom look comfortable playing anywhere else.
 
alexmcity said:
There's an interesting asymmetry in Cancelo's defensive skills which goes some way in explaining the misperceptions about him. His strongest and his weakest defensive sides as a fullback are related to his style: his inclination to attack the ball early. When he suceeds, it looks normal and people don't count it as a particularly successful defensive action. Interceptions and tackles in the middle of the park look a lot less valuable defensively than challenges and blocks near the box or in the box, which are counted as proper defending.

So, when Cancelo intercepts attacks higher up the pitch (20% of all interceptions in our team), it's not a big deal at all. But when he attacks the ball and fails, his defending looks poor and amateurish (e.g., vs Salah last month).

He should learn when his usual style is risky and inappropriate, e.g., in our third it is sometimes just wrong to attack the ball early, for failure means a chance for the opposition.
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Doesn’t that involve coaching!!!
 
There doesn't seem to be any middle ground with Cancelo.

He's either fit and firing, all guns blazing, or in headless chicken mode, where his body language just seems all out of sorts.

Sadly, it's more of the latter in the last 3 games he's played.

He's a big confidence player, so hopefully the WC gives him lots of it, and he comes back in positive mindset.
 
I like cancelo but atm he is really starting to annoy with his total shit defending . Would much rather have fullbacks who can defend than easy on the eye fullbacks who every so often put a worldie in . If we defend well we don’t concede and we don’t lose ganes .
 
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.
 
alexmcity said:
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.
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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.
 
DD said:
making stupid and costly decisions on the field on an
increasingly regular basis.
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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.
 
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.
 
alexmcity said:
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.
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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.
 
applejuice said:
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.
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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.
 
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