Full Backs?

Larry Stranger said:
There really is more to this. In Liverpool's system Robertson and TAA provide the width. Mane and Salah tuck in forcing the opposition to get narrow thus the fullbacks having time and space to whip in crosses. Our fullbacks especially Walker are defenders first. Our dual 8's in one of the Silva's or DeBruyne act as #10 and link with the wingers to go as close to the byline to cut across balls for tap in's. Walker has been providing more width, but it's only because of DeBruyne's absence. Our fullbacks are more holding midfielders/defender types. We need fullbacks to fit our system. To me these stat is similar to saying Liverpool's midfielders don't score enough.
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While I unserstand that Pep likes his fullbacks to play like CMs sometimes, I believe he is tactically flexible enough to try different things. Look at Mendy for example, he provides width whenever he plays and plays like a full back.

I do not want us to gloss over those stats. I love Walker but he gets into attacking positions just as much as any fullback in the league but we know that his end product has a lot of room for improvement.

Just imagine having 2 defensively apt Mendys on both sides whiping in low crosses for fun, our attack would become unplayable.
 
ojeme said:
While I unserstand that Pep likes his fullbacks to play like CMs sometimes, I believe he is tactically flexible enough to try different things. Look at Mendy for example, he provides width whenever he plays and plays like a full back.

I do not want us to gloss over those stats. I love Walker but he gets into attacking positions just as much as any fullback in the league but we know that his end product has a lot of room for improvement.

Just imagine having 2 defensively apt Mendys on both sides whiping in low crosses for fun, our attack would become unplayable.
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That would be great. Everyone wants the perfect fullback. Someone who can put in a cross like Mendy, who has the skills on the ball like Dani Alves, has the pace and physically like Walker. Thing is there aren't many out there. Walker's main job is to prevent counter attacks. If we had someone like Tripper for example who can put in a good cross we'd get caught out all the time.
 
Larry Stranger said:
That would be great. Everyone wants the perfect fullback. Someone who can put in a cross like Mendy, who has the skills on the ball like Dani Alves, has the pace and physically like Walker. Thing is there aren't many out there. Walker's main job is to prevent counter attacks. If we had someone like Tripper for example who can put in a good cross we'd get caught out all the time.
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I agree totally and that's why I said its a shame that Mendy is crocked because I think Pep is happy to have our left back put in those dangerous crosses as we saw at the start of this season before he got injured and this is why in my opinion we need at the very least a new full back.
 
It’s so City to be wishing for a great new fullback. One day one will arrive and we’ll not know what to do. Erect a statue immediately I’d say.
 
ojeme said:
While I unserstand that Pep likes his fullbacks to play like CMs sometimes, I believe he is tactically flexible enough to try different things. Look at Mendy for example, he provides width whenever he plays and plays like a full back.

I do not want us to gloss over those stats. I love Walker but he gets into attacking positions just as much as any fullback in the league but we know that his end product has a lot of room for improvement.

Just imagine having 2 defensively apt Mendys on both sides whiping in low crosses for fun, our attack would become unplayable.
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Zinchencko, Delph and Mendy combined for 9 assists, 2 short of Pool's LB. So we are already close on the Left. It's the Right that needs work. Granted Pool's RB also takes cornerkicks so he has an added advantage.
 
Dax777 said:
Zinchencko, Delph and Mendy combined for 9 assists, 2 short of Pool's LB. So we are already close on the Left. It's the Right that needs work. Granted Pool's RB also takes cornerkicks so he has an added advantage.
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I think 6 of these assists are from Mendy who was injured most of the season.
 
ojeme said:
While I unserstand that Pep likes his fullbacks to play like CMs sometimes, I believe he is tactically flexible enough to try different things. Look at Mendy for example, he provides width whenever he plays and plays like a full back.

I do not want us to gloss over those stats. I love Walker but he gets into attacking positions just as much as any fullback in the league but we know that his end product has a lot of room for improvement.

Just imagine having 2 defensively apt Mendys on both sides whiping in low crosses for fun, our attack would become unplayable.
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Yep, you put the dipper FB’s in our team and we’d win the quadruple for the the couple of seasons :)
 
BlueMoonView said:
Bertrand is 29 would mean we would have to buy for same position within the next few years
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Unless we sign a Danilo replacement who is comfortable playing LB if needed (eg. Lala has played 50 times as a LB in the last 4 seasons) I think a cheap short term fix like Ryan Bertrand makes sense.
With a ban incoming we could be left with what we have after this summer until January 2021 or, more likely, Summer 2021 (potentially the summer Pep leaves)
 
Dax777 said:
Zinchencko, Delph and Mendy combined for 9 assists, 2 short of Pool's LB. So we are already close on the Left. It's the Right that needs work. Granted Pool's RB also takes cornerkicks so he has an added advantage.
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Now just imagine that those 9 assists came from one individual and then imagine we had 2 individuals on both flanks producing 9 assists, our attack would become super hot.

This is not to downplay the role of Zinny and Walker. I for one never thought Zinny would ever become a regular at LB for us but he has shown he can do it. But I recognize that there is room for improvement in that department in our squad.

There is hardly any defender in our squad that is good on the ball like Zinny and our defensive solidity inspite of our insane highline (think we've only shipped 22 goals in the PL all season) has a lot to do with Walker. However dominating the flanks defensively and offensively whilst putting in delicious crosses for attackers is not really their forte.
 
ojeme said:
Now just imagine that those 9 assists came from one individual and then imagine we had 2 individuals on both flanks producing 9 assists, our attack would become super hot.

This is not to downplay the role of Zinny and Walker. I for one never thought Zinny would ever become a regular at LB for us but he has shown he can do it. But I recognize that there is room for improvement in that department in our squad.

There is hardly any defender in our squad that is good on the ball like Zinny and our defensive solidity inspite of our insane highline (think we've only shipped 22 goals in the PL all season) has a lot to do with Walker. However dominating the flanks defensively and offensively whilst putting in delicious crosses for attackers is not really their forte.
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There is a difference in how Liverpool play tbf: they're very direct and they depend on full backs to whip in crosses. I don't disagree that we could be stronger with better service from full back, just that I'm not sure we'll post same numbers as Liverpool from that position because we have a different approach.
 
Mendy's assists
2 against Arsenal (A)
1 against Huddersfield (H)
1 against Newcastle (H)
1 against Burnley (H)

Zinchenko's assists
1 against Southampton (A)
2 against Chelsea (H)

Delph's assists
1 against Crystal Palace (H)

Walker's assists
1 against Huddersfield (A)

Danilo
0 assists

At Liverpool, Robertson had 11 assists and Trent Arnold 12, respectively.

Apples and pears, I know, but in La Liga, Jordi Alba has 10 assists and Sergi Roberto 7, respectively.
 
Liverpool’s full backs have been exceptional and it’s a real strength to their play.

But we play very different a lot of a time.

Liverpool play 3 fairly defensive midfielders and the full backs push up with the safety of those 3 and Salah/ Mané move inside.

With us our full backs tend to invert to help in the centre and our wingers stay wide.

It does not surprise me that there full backs get more assists. Roberts especially is an exceptional player.

However, our way of playing some of the time is a lot different.

Pep has gone for this option more with Mendy and he was leading the assist charts beginning of the season.
 
Dobsy said:
There is a difference in how Liverpool play tbf: they're very direct and they depend on full backs to whip in crosses. I don't disagree that we could be stronger with better service from full back, just that I'm not sure we'll post same numbers as Liverpool from that position because we have a different approach.
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I think Pep is not averse to full backs being direct and dominating their flanks putting in crosses else he wouldn't go after Mendy. Pool are perhaps more direct than us I admit but Pep has shown that direct football and possession based football aren't mutually exclusive.
 
Gabriel said:
Mendy's assists
2 against Arsenal (A)
1 against Huddersfield (H)
1 against Newcastle (H)
1 against Burnley (H)

Zinchenko's assists
1 against Southampton (A)
2 against Chelsea (H)

Delph's assists
1 against Crystal Palace (H)

Walker's assists
1 against Huddersfield (A)

Danilo
0 assists

At Liverpool, Robertson had 11 assists and Trent Arnold 12, respectively.

Apples and pears, I know, but in La Liga, Jordi Alba has 10 assists and Sergi Roberto 7, respectively.
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So apt
 
If liverpools full back are so impressive why did they score less than us? why is it that so many of liverpools goals came from a long whack up field and not from crosses? could it be that the full backs were trusted to go up field more than the midfield . I very much doubt that they would get anywhere near those figures playing at City where they would have to pass to our midfield
 
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