It was apparent early on that Otamendi was struggling badly. Mendy should have reined in his runs forward, and provided cover. His primary role is as a defender, not a winger/wide midfielder. The red card helped, but eventually Ota was switched over to the right side. It should have been spotted earlier though. We were fortunate that Salah had no end product when he was in dangerous positions.I don't agree actually. I think Pep has enough nous to know that if you tell your fullbacks to play so agressively, they can't cover at the back at the same time. The rest of the team has to be set up in such a way that if you lose the ball while he and/or Walker are up front, they can still close down the counter attack. They should be able to do that with three at the back. I don't think enough of our defenders have the pace, positioning or temperament to do that, but that doesn't mean Pep's going to start asking Mendy and Walker to do two fundamentally contradictory things. If they can get back, great. Sometimes they won't and they have to be set up in such a way as to snuff out a counterattack without them.
EDIT: you're quite right though, his attacking play was fantastic.
It was apparent early on that Otamendi was struggling badly. Mendy should have reined in his runs forward, and provided cover. His primary role is as a defender, not a winger/wide midfielder. The red card helped, but eventually Ota was switched over to the right side. It should have been spotted earlier though. We were fortunate that Salah had no end product when he was in dangerous positions.
All very valid points. If it is down to Pep's instructions, I'm surprised he didn't see the problem we had in that opening period of the game. And if he did, that he didn't change things sooner than he did. Still; his managerial career hasn't been too shabby, so I guess it's a case of; "in Pep we trust".Isn't it up to Pep to rein back his forward runs?
Mendy played in a very advanced role, doing very little defending, at Bournemouth. Pep will surely have discussed his first game with him in some detail. If Pep was concerned about his positioning and failure to track back he would have told him. But on Saturday he played just as far forward. If Mendy wasn't playing to his manager's instructions, wouldnt he have been taken off at half time on Saturday? He had provided very little support for Otamendi and hadn't featured much in attack. Instead, in the second half he pushed forward even more, to greater effect. Pep is continually speaking to defenders during the game about their positioning, particularly those close to him. I didnt see any signs of him encouraging Mendy to drop deeper to support Otamendi,
The only logocal conclusion that can be drawn from Mendy's first two games is that Pep is happy for him to focus primarily on attacking.
He's fantastic, but not great at actually defending.
BUT, imo, he could easily become great at defending. He has all the tools, just a bit out of whack technically.
What I did like, was he didn't dive in & risk giving away pens, he kept his nerve.
All very valid points. If it is down to Pep's instructions, I'm surprised he didn't see the problem we had in that opening period of the game. And if he did, that he didn't change things sooner than he did. Still; his managerial career hasn't been too shabby, so I guess it's a case of; "in Pep we trust".