It just needs using in the right games.
Games with pacy, tricky wingers need normal fullbacks.
Be interesting if we continue this inverted tactic against palace who have the pace, width and skill to cause us issuesASM had the revs & two metres on Walker who was always chasing after ASM on the wings, from a standing start in central midfield.
It was evident this was their target, because Joelinton kept going out wide giving ASM the option of a pass out to the wings, or to drive in on our Centre Backs. He did both with chasing & retreating defenders, which is why ASM caused such havok.
We should have reverted to a traditional back four, with Walker & Cancelo providing overlaps. We should have changed tactics as soon as it became clearly apparent the spaces the fullbacks left because they were inverted, were being exploited.
The evidence was clear & it wasn't Walker's fault. He was acting under Pep's orders.
Nope but sometimes it’s just better to say nothing these things can sometimes have a tendency to bite you on the arse as today proved ..Holy shit. Grealish being blamed for us struggling and he wasn't even in the squad. That's gotta be some sort of record. JFC
Pope should be England no1 so much better than Pickford - ASM caught the eye but for me Pope was the motm todayExcellent fightback and a shame we couldn't find a winner but we were under the cosh for a good 50 mins and out of it at 3-1. Yet again a couple of chances at 1-0 where Haaland was free for a pass but ignored. Need to try and improve that. He has shown already that he can make something of an imperfect pass, it doesn't need to be as good as it did when we had a false 9. That Pope save to tip Haaland's shot onto the post... amazing but gutting as his skill to make space and then the shot were phenomenal on his "weaker" foot.
One of those days where their forwards were bang on it and our defence wasn't unfortunately. We needed to dig in and keep the ball a bit better and absorb the pressure but made it very easy for them to play down our right where Walker just couldn't deal with it today.
Walker is a very limited fullback.Yeah possibly that mate, walker looked lost today and it threw the rest of our rhythm off as Newcastle just came in waves at us and Rodri couldn’t cope in midfield either? Really strange choice today to do it and it really backfired in the first half when Newcastle sussed it out.
Grealish had a "niggle".Just a thought… why wouldn’t Pep get some fresh legs in when Toon’s players were clearly knackered? It seems he doesn’t trust Grealish but I thought he could’ve given Dan Burn fits down the right flank for the last 10 or so. I felt we could’ve found the winner had Pep made a sub or two. Can’t be too unhappy with taking a point from being down 3-1 tho. Brilliant FK from Trippier. Newcastle are going to be a problem in the near future.