Macca also gets caught upfield as he does like to attack the box, but he lacks pace both in a straight line and off the mark and goes down way too easily to be a ‘beast of a midfielder’
His mentality is still very good and at his best he is an asset, but he does have a weakness when facing up a player in 1 v 1 situations without a compact shape and that will happen under Iraola’s system as it did under both previous managers. I feel opposition players are told to target this when facing him 1 v 1
Btw as with most of our team and as Sweeting says, Macca and most of our team gets a pass from last season.
Forest definitely did for their first goal against us and the Cape Verde left back took him to the cleaners at the World Cup.
Look none of them are perfect. They are a far cry from the Xabi, Masch, Stevie midfield. Even the Hendo, Gini, Fab midfield, especially at their prime, were streets better.
But here we are. We can definitely look to improve the personnel in the off season but for now Andoni will have to maximise their effectiveness.
Thats when the players around him and the coach need to help him positionally and Macca needs to show them into traffic or away from goal or as he does, commit a cynical foul and get a yellow, if only Szob had done that last one against Wissa,
From yesterday it felt like the remaining missing piece to some extent, but with a sign or two of progress. The attack is looking a bit more slick and getting into form. The defence was quite solid and you can see it coming together. Midfield is the area I think that if we can get it together, it will take us to the next level.
Mac I thought did well defensively. He got a foot in a lot and won the ball back fairly high, releasing it early. For me the big issue is still when they have the ball from deeper positions. We struggled to get Wirtz on the ball and it was still a bit sidewaysy. Wirtz was the worst of the three though. He seemed away from where he should be a lot and when he got the ball he was sluggish and lacked any cutting edge.
If we can get it flowing in that midfield I think our game will go up to the next level, given how promising the attacking players look and how the defence is starting to get there. Nyoni made a decent cameo. I´d be tempted to start him next to Mac and see if that helps things.
Not for the world cup but apparently after he was.
Yeah that´s what I think. Or somebody with excellent positioning and defensive instincts perhaps like Fabinho may work. Wouldnt be a very mobile 3 with Wirtz, but I think it would be balanced and excellent on the ball. Ultimately he would need somebody to make up for his shortcomings, as did Pirlo, Xavi and Scholes. Obviously much better players but similar roles to some degree.
Doesn´t have to be Wharton of course. Just a more passing-focused player to bring Wirtz into the game and offer that direct forward threat over the top or through teams. These passing types are often less mobile.
You would think so. Neither has the athleticism to recover if the team faces transitional situations, but both have good positional awareness, read the game well and look to pass rather than carry. So the deeper role suits them best.
I agree and I don´t. We don´t necessarily need a guy who charges around but we would benefit from a more defensively minded player, in my view. Especially if we pair them with a ball playing CM. Fabinho and Thiago would be perfect.
It depends what you think he is? I think he is similar to Trent, a bit of a flawed footballer in some respects, but whose quick, incisive, vertical passing allows his team break lines of pressure and bypass build up. He is an asset for teams that want to get the ball into congested central areas or to their forward/wingers early.
If a team value those things they will mitigate his weaknesses with team structure.
Yeah I agree. And it’s quite similar with Camara as well, he’s not a recovery demon either in transition situations.
But I don’t think that’s needed anyway. It’s about the structure of the team, for example what we’ve seen with CBs jumping up to join the press and take care of the space behind the midfielders when they jump up to press. I thought we saw a bit of that against Ipswich. And also wide players tucking more central when the situation requires it.
Some degree of mobility and athleticism is obviously needed, but I don’t think a big space defender in midfield is necessary with the way Iraola thinks about the collective.
Yeah. You want a bit of mobility ideally but we have quick and agile midfielders already and it hasn´t made us really solid. Decent mobility is enough, with a sharp mind.
Football is played with the mind. Barcelona dominated athletic midfields for years, with short and/slow blokes.
I think the more “defensively minded player” is probably more mobile than Fabinho, who was better at travelling laterally than vertically.
There is also the consideration that Liverpool has sold a bunch of out of possession demons in Nunez, Diogo, Diaz, who covered a lot of ground, and bought in more technical, less aggressive variants.
Probably you´re right ye. But I still thank that´s mostly enough. Being in position and shifting to snuff out danger. Good point on the aggressive chasers. Iraola will have to get the unit moviing together to compensate.
I do like the look of Camara. Decent forward passer but has a great ability to get a foot in and he´s usually in position.
Yeah, the way the team behaves out of possession appears to be migrating closer to what you would expect from an Iraola team.There were points on on Friday that were really encouraging.
I haven’t seen a great deal of Camara but I got the impression that he was quite quick across the ground.
Yeah, really like Camara too, from what I’ve seen, he’s what you’d call a complete midfielder. I thought he would kill it at Chelsea so I’m chuffed Monaco’s chairman temporarily developed the dickhead gene. Hopefully he’ll be cured if he ever receives a call from the Reds about Lamine.
Yes, I think he’s nippy, quick over 10 yards. Looks quicker in that sense than Mac Allister, or Wharton for that matter. But not a chase down transition defender like Caicedo/Anderson, at least not from what I’ve seen.