Watch Mbappe's movements. Thsts what OTA was tracking. Stones was trying hard to keep a line but no one else was.
The question then becomes in what scenario is holding the line advantageous and when is it detrimental and probably best to man up and address the danger instead. I think these are arguments and positions folks can disagree on.
I have seen defenders on the opposite side of where the ball is located with no defensive engagegement of their own, keep a player on side. Clichy a few times Kolarov a lot and Ota on some occasions too...
But when a player is engaging an actual threat and reacts to that threat, this for me negates culpability. He is backing Stones thus can't see where Stones is trying to form the imaginary line. And he is keeping the ball and his mark both in front o him. This is generally good good defending practice. See the ball and see your responsibility.
Mbappe taking a quick left step forced him to step back to keep both Mpabbe and the ball in his line of vision. This is a sound defending practice.
The problems with these discussions is that often they are outcome dependent. I.e. the conclusion that you have acted incorrectly is arrived at because of the result that ensued.
This is erroneous. Good decisions in football so not guarantee that you'd never encounter a bad result, but rather it purports that if you practice the right things, your positive results will consistently outperform the negative ones.
If you read my original post on his performance, you'd see I pointed out he had some bad moves and lots of good ones. So overall I thought him decent.
