We’ve been set up all season playing inverted full back malarky (having bought in two players that like to offer width) with Joe Gomez nailed to the bench.
The team set up in the long losing run was bizarre. Lopsided with teams just targeting the huge gaps we inevitable leave when most go forward.
Since Salah’s benching, we’ve actually mixed it up more with one of the full backs offering width and the other tucked in more. Perversely, I think this would help Salah more had he not burned his bridges, as the Gakpo and Salah hug touchline tactics offered no combination play as they were so isolated.
Of course, the question remains is that how long before Joe picks up an injury. Bradley suspended for Brighton, and Frimpong only just returning means having to push Joe once again. We look more solid with him there, better in defending corners and keeping things simple.
It may have suited Mo more offensively, but part of the reason Mo was dropped, was for his defensive duties as teams were open it talking about targettingour right side and the space he leaves.
From the few I watched the physical/blocking side of our game isn’t good enough.
We either mismatch in our marking, don’t do our jobs or don’t know who is responsible for what.
When the ball comes in you have to get that first shoulder charge in to prevent your opposite number taking the piss.
It’s not just in set pieces, we are too passive when we don’t have the ball or when we are in the 50/50 duels. We give too much room for the opponent to manoeuvre the ball in individual battles. You win 2/3 of these battles consequtively and suddenly you create a chance for the team.
We used to do this and be very good at this. For whatever reason we have dropped off this season.
I’m not saying fly into challenges like that lummox Tarkowski, but when the opportunity presents itself, absolutely pounce on the ball and don’t second guess yourselves.
Didn’t we often left our back post area unguarded (same issue with latter half of last season)? We let a few in when the corners were taken deep. Even the match against Leeds, CuJo was pointing towards the eventual scorer from Leeds, asking Grav (or someone) to mark him.
Just a shoulder bump can be enough. If you just cause them to lose balance a little it can buy the time necessary to stop an attack dead.
If you don’t you end up having to get desperate which leads to making mistakes and foul play.
We have become pretty useless on man to man duties. Definitely something we need to work on unfortunately we don’t have the time for much of the season so need to do training during preseason. Which isn’t for a while.
Are we afraid of foul calls? I remember this happening in matches under Jurgen when we got called for any contact and the opposition got no calls (City away for example) and then the team collectively reacted by backing off legitimate challenges and that led to us getting overrun.
I don’t recall that as much this season. We start off giving opponents time and space to collect the ball unimpeded.
I can only say this could be because of a disrupted preseason.
This is where it might have started. Of course that is a risk as well
It needs to be shoulder to shoulder, also without sandwiching I think, so it’s quite technical. Often it means running at the same pace or faster, in which case you could nip infront, than the opposition.
Specifically we are talking about set pieces where players are relatively stationary which comes more down to timing. ‘Hit’ them just before or at the instant they make their move.
There’s also the quantity of aggression, Maca has to be careful here as he often appears very aggressive which conveys to the ref so the ref is more likely to call the foul (though I feel at this level a ref should be experienced enough to judge these things better).
Essentially though we just need to pick players up better.
One of the things that is notable is how often the ball is allowed to travel way too far through the area without someone getting anything meaningful on it. Yes we can bitch about the second balls, but you’re playing with fire if you allow so many second balls to be up for grabs in as dangerous an area as we repeatedly do.
It almost feels like we’ve got too many players too focused on making sure their guy cannot get anything on it with no one left trying to actually clear the fucking the thing. See the mistake Kirkez made on Newcastle’s first on a macro scale.