Both our central defenders were poor today I’m just glad he got a nudge for the winner otherwise he was clattering into Alisson and probably causing him to miss.
Talking of mental gymnastics…
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Far from Nats best game today seemed a little ‘leggy’ but still gave his all.
I’m also not sold on Nat and would be happy for us (and him) if we got a decent fee for him and he found a lower PL team where he could play every week and probably excel. That said if we keep him that’s fine and I’ll support him as much as I can.
What I really want to praise Nat for is his toughness. He really takes it physically to the opposition and uses his body as a weapon and also gets a lot back (a bit like Mane) but always comes off looking like his opponent has suffered. Virg has that too - if only we could bottle it and give it to Joe and Joel they’d also be world beaters…
If Alisson hadn’t come up, Nat would have been in exactly the same space as our goalie took up and probably got way too much on it and headed it over!!
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Me to his performance against WBA in that respect was enormous. Going into an away game with just one physical player imo is daft unless it’s someone as hard as Nat. In the 1st 10 minutes he had a black eye and a split lip it looked like he was going to get a pounding yet he was there at the end missing the ball Ali put away. He looked dazed at times but then so did some WBA players after trying to bully him.
I got the feeling ‘they’ targetted him in the sense that if he went off then our defense wouldn’t have anything left against their thuggery.
Yes, he’s a pile of shit but he’s our pile of shit and as hard as a brick shithouse.
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Bet you wouldn’t say that to his face. 
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I bet I wouldn’t say anything to any of our squad if I met them face to face. I’m only this eloquent chirpy lad at my keyboard. Unfortunately in real life I struggle with simple daily greetings such as ‘you’re a pile of shit’. 
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At fault for the West Brom goal, Williams had to step out for the header and Phillips has to step across to cover him Incase he loses the challenge. Williams doesn’t get to the header and Phillips doesn’t step across = easy goal.
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I don’t remember it being as easy as that. Need a clip but I don’t remember Nat ever being able to be in a position to prevent the clusterfuck way over on the left.
Nat could not do much there without leaving another enormous gap there. It was just too much space to make up in too short a time. Williams did exactly what I have been criticising Nat for which is rushing up to challenge for a ball that he was unlikely to win leaving a gaping chasm to exploit. That one isn’t on Nat this time. He did get lucky when he misjudged the header leaving almost exactly the same scenario that we had on the first goal, though.
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Yep, I havent seen a clip but some stills, Rhys had to hold the line as there was no other cover. The error was Rhys’ an error I can understand from a young inexperienced player but to do that you need to know your DM is in a position to cover you and we had noone even close. Closest player able to cover was Robbo (who evidently is the wrong side of the action.
They were both shit tbh, both made several mistakes that we were lucky it wasn’t Kanu playing against us.
And herein lies the problem and why we will limp to the finish line, those “close” games v’s the low block where we’d score once and be solid at the back… Not got that so we need to score at least twice… Which we really struggle with.
Phillips has to cover the space behind Rhys, that’s where the danger is. He was marking a winger who had tucked inside of Trent - that player was Trent’s responsibility.
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Here we go again. We should be cutting both Phillips and Williams a bit of slack. We’ve gone from the best CB partnership in Europe to these two lads and we’re shocked that we’re seeing mistakes? I don’t see the point in criticising them. Just two games to go. As far as I can tell both of them are doing their very best and if it’s not good enough well never mind. It’s not like we’ve got any alternative. If we do manage to make CL next season they’ll have both played a big part in that.
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Rhys shouldn’t close down, he has to keep his position to cover the player who is his responsibility Robson-Kanu. Yes Nat does get caught out but it’s Rhys who catches him out and he is left with no time to cover.
The question is what would have unfolded and who would have been blamed if Rhys had kept his position rather that closing down?
What does it matter? They won’t read this, the only feedback they need is from their manager. Yet we can constructively discuss no?
Don’t get why you can’t be realistic on an online forum about someones performance without getting a pile on about things we have zero impact/control over.
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Quite patronising to both players to say they shouldn’t have errors pointed out no? They’re playing in the Premier League.
It’s a pretty simple fix - it’s hard to do in practice - but the error can, on paper, be corrected through coaching and communication. When one centre back steps out the danger becomes the space behind him and it’s the other centre backs job to move across and cover that space. As I said, in practice it’s hard to do but that is the correct movement and these two are playing in the Premier League, they’re supposed to be able to do hard things.
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Correct, Rhys shouldn’t have gone to the ball (and apologies I incorrectly said it was a header he went for but it wasn’t). I hate it when CBs do the exact thing Rhys did, it shows a real lack of composure and quality to me.
However, with regards Phillips if you watch his positioning he is actually in an OK position to start with and cover but as the ball goes into the feet of the AM he actually turns his head to look for the positioning of the winger - who should be marked by Trent but he is sleeping - when Robson-Kanu has already switched to the much more dangerous position behind Williams. That flick of the head stops his feet and he has then no chance of helping out.
Williams is at fault for pushing out to a player too late, Phillips is at fault for not recognizing where the most danger on the pitch was and Trent is at fault for not taking the winger out of the play which caused hesitation in Phillips’ mind.
These are not terminal errors from any one player but they are the sort of mental mistakes that we can’t afford in the final two games.
Notice - ball is with the midfielder in a dangerous position between midfield and defence. Rhys steps out, in my opinion wrongly. Look at Nat’s eyes, he is looking at the wrong player. The danger is Robson-Kanu who is moving into the space behind Rhys but he is looking back over his shoulder for Diangana. Trent should be closer.
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For me it was worse to see him play WBA onside twice when we had that line against their free kicks. He wins some stuff in the air, blocks, gets his body on the line, can get himself out of trouble sometimes on the ball… but this level is not for him and it’s nothing new. Thanks for the sweat and blood, but we’ll wish him good luck and he’ll make a career somewhere, like Klopp said.
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