SebastianBlue
President, International Julian Alvarez Fan Club
- Joined
- 25 Jul 2009
- Messages
- 57,032
Errrr….!
Don’t you mean “Godri”!!! Been calling him that since he got his feet under him and understood the role.
One or two comments on the “at fault” question:
John Stones. He was ahead of the player when the break happened and there was ONLY ONE PLAYER who could have scored, but he never closed him down. Rather, he just ran back towards his own goal, without moving towards the danger.
Rico was behind the play when it developed and was never getting goal side. Additionally, the goal scorer was one of the two strikers, not a marauding left winger or midfielder.
Ederson is in No Man’s Land the entire time…neither here nor there! His position couldn’t close down the ball, because it was too good and curling away from him, but he’s marooned himself halfway and hung himself out to dry.
As one commentator said, “the ball went into an empty net!” Had Ederson stayed home, on his 3 yard line, he would not only have had more time to react, but also covered his goal more easily.
Lastly, we were three at the back (standard), but narrow. When the ball went wide on the break,
1) Gvardiol had to leave his man and come across to push the player down the line. Before he got there, the ball was released.
2) Dias was covering both a man and 95% of the cross options that Ederson couldn’t sweep up.
3) Stones, as the break occurs, is the last man by a yard or two, but us initially sucked towards Dias, as that’s where he SEES the danger, not realizing it was behind him the whole time.
Even when the ball comes over, he still hasn’t sussed the danger is right behind him, but when he does, HE definitely feels like it was Rico’s fault the lad was free…even though it was Stones’ own player in the back three set up we were playing.
4) Once again, this shows how vulnerable we are when pressing 7 or 8 players forward, when one of them gives the ball away. Pep knows this and tasks the defenders to be good enough ball players to deal with it.
The only problem with that equation is that every defender playing that game knows that to commit is death and to jockey is time and, hopefully, a lifeline.
In this instance, it didn’t work, and a brilliant pass in behind the retreating defenders paid dividends.
Now, if WE had scored that goal with KDB and Haaland, it’d be on the highlight reel as a “KDB Masterpass” and a brilliant first time finish. I think we need to acknowledge it was a near perfect fast break that was (almost) undefendable.
It is possible for teams to exploit our 1 on 1 back line roulette, and Wolves did it.
As you say, Wolves did their homework and executed their plan very effectively for their goal. We absolutely have to give them credit for that.
On thing about our defending of those kinds of situation, it's a risk based stratergy. We are relying on teams not being able to execute a killer pass into the final third and create those goal scoring opportunites, and 95% of the time it pays off. Occasionally, teams get lucky and get it absolutely spot on.
Should we sit back and defend deeper? No, because it's playing a high line that makes us such an effective attacking team.
I feel Rico gets the same stuff Gundogan did before his false 9 ex points turned him into Mr Whippy.
Rico is one of our technically most gifted players, but doesn’t have that blood and guts approach that us English fans seem to demand when the chips are down.
He’s adapting his role this year, like the rest of the team, because of the loss of Rodri. Transitions are an issue whether we have Rico or Kyle at right back, so speed doesn’t seem to be the main issue.
Rico is really good at 1 v 1 defending, so if he can stand his winger up, he stops the attacks more often than not.
He obviously needs to improve his opposition box decision making. If he does that, we have a Lahm-esque prospect on our hands.
Each of you should know by now that reasonable, thoughtful takes that acknowledge complexity and employ a forward thinking approach to analysis have absolutely no place in the Player Performance threads.