Two draws would be nice.
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Let me know when youâre next busy and have a seat up for grabs?
Picked this up in a couple other matches and saw it again last night (although when I voiced it in the match thread I actually got it slightly wrong).
Stole these pictures from Twitter but it encapsulates the problems and how it leads to the goal.
Decent positions here. Have pressed their attempt to go down our left and theyâre shifting it across the back to our right side. Everyone pretty much where they need to be and matched up. Elliotts man is Bergwijn, Trentâs is Berghuis.
As the pass goes down the line, Trent fails to track his man. If you were kind youâd argue heâs cutting off the inside passing lane and a midfielder should track that runner as heâs running behind Trent. But Elliott has already completely lost Bergwijn and the pass completely takes him out the game.
Youâve then got Matip coming out to close down Berghuis leaving a nice big space for Bergwijn to run into and Elliott, who started five yards from him is now 20 yards off him and is jogging back with very little urgency. Compare it to how fast he runs back for their chance on the break at the very start of the second half.
That then leaves Van Dijk against two in the middle. One simple pass has taken Trent and Elliott out the game and pulled Matip way out of position.
As you say, if Van Dijk is playing the right side of the two then Trent probably gets a shout about the runner. If Henderson is playing where Elliott is then he probably tracks that runner or gives Trent a shout.
As a pair, they donât seem to be getting the best out of each other and having your most attacking minded midfielder and your most attacking full back on the same side as each other with Mo in front of them does seem to be a bit of an open door for the opposition to exploit. Add in the fact most teams have targeted that side because itâs the one where Virgil isnât and itâs easy to see why itâs our weak spot.
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I agree, I think itâs down to leadership, neither of them are dominating and being vocal so exactly as you say our starting positions are good but we never communicate and work as a group to move and cover as the play gets dynamic.
My God what a footballer. Only regrets are that we didnât sign him earlier in his career, and his injuries. Just a beautiful player to watch and seems a wonderful character also (to voice my inner Brendan)
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Agreed. Love Robbo, but a spell on the sidelines, and a physical and mental break, might be just what he needs
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I was quite impressed by Ajax actually, I thought they played well.
They lack a bit of quality up front but they move the ball around very well. Their goal was a superb move and they were very organised defensively after they scored.
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If Trent tracks the 1st run in behind, Matip has Berwijn, job easy done
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If Elliott tracks the runner from midfield then job easy done. If Elliott tracks Bergwijn then they donât score.
I donât think they can can have runners breaking from midfield and ours jogging back and point the finger solely at Trent for not tracking a run between him and the centre back. This isnât me trying to point the finger, itâs meant to highlight the lack of cohesiveness in that little right sided unit.
You could probably look at everyone playing on that side and say each could do better.
Mo doesnât really close that passing lane, no one tracks Berghuis, Matip gets megged by the pass back inside, no one has tracked Bergwijn and Virgil is caught on his heals as Kudus brings it back onto his left. Loads of chances to affect the play, none of them taken.
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There are usually some defensive failings on every goal, and the Ajax goal last night is no different, but it still has to be said that it was a fucking ridiculous finish that he probably couldnât do again if he tried it 100 times - and it was their first shot on target in the game.
Sometimes you just have to applaud a hell of a finish.
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Cheers, I knew that we had a large quantity of players who wonât be involved, so hopefully they will be fit and well rested to give us an almighty push in the second half of the season.
With games cancelled now I do see the schedule getting ridiculous, but hopefully we have plenty of non World Cup players to give us momentum over our rivals.
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As much as we dominated possession and chances, it felt like one of our midfielders beaten meant pressure on our backline that theyâd struggle to get away with. We were VERY lucky that Blind header didnât find the net.
When both Trent and Tsimi were in position they generally did well and won back possession.
And yet their goal came when Trent was ostensibly in a correct defensive RB starting position. It still only took one straight pass and all of a sudden we had mismatches all over the shop at the backâŚMatip pulled out wide to go with the runner, Virgil left with 2 players in the middle that none of the covering midfield or Kostas could get back/over in time to help with.
In some ways you have to look at it and say this how you score goals, you unbalance a side by getting them to break their shape and take advantage before they can reset. But this happened because of one straight vertical pass down the channel.
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âSo lads, what do you make of Todd recently expressing his desire of a north v south All star in the Prem.â
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It has been a theme for about 3 yearsâŚas the calls grow for Hendo to be replaced, his absence results in âbetter playersâ being on the pitch, but less cohesive performances, especially defensively. It was the palace that game really illustrated it this season. He didnt come on until after Nunez was sent off and Hendo was part of the changes made in response and immediately there was bite in our game, and more importantly, we were hunting in packs. The result was even a man down we were playing like we had the extra player and preventing them getting out of their own third.
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Itâs also not an isolated issue. Watch the napoli goal from last week right after the restart. One player ran straight down the middle of the pitch past about 4 players without anyone responding to it at all. By the time Trent responded by trying to get over he was already 10 yards the wrong side. As a midfielder you dont always have to be responsible for going with the run, but you have to do SOMETHING.
I think the other more critical interpretation is that when you end up with 2 forwards in the box looking for a cut back and only 1 defender in position to try to affect the play they are going to score more often than not. The fact he finished it emphatically made it look a really nice goal, but maybe masks how high probability a chance it was that he could probably have scored any number of other ways without having to rely on such an impressive finish.
One of Fabinho or Elliot should have been covering that space, I think itâs as simple as that. If one of them was there to cover for Matip then we donât allow ourselves to be beat by a simple cut back.
Ajax did move the ball around nicely for a long time before they got into that position which Iâm guessing led to a lapse in concentration.
To simplify our issues we leave ourselves with too few players defending the box far too often.
And unfortunately itâs the goal scorer and Elliott circled here.
When the forward pass is made, Elliott is only just jogging back into our half whilst the goal scorer is on the edge the centre circle and running at full speed. When the ball gets played across, Elliott isnât even in the picture anymore.
Again though, itâs not just his one mistake. Virgil is caught on his heels. Matip comes across leaving that big gap and waves to Virgil to fill in even though he hasnât a hope of getting there and thereâs not an ounce of pressure on the ball. But that tracking back and tracking runners theme is showing up more and more in the goals we concede and Harvey is at the centre of that quite a few times.