[sammsky1]

I read that Laird came back from injury a few weeks ago. It'd be really, really great if he could kick on and offer some competition. Wan-Bissaka makes me incredibly nervous with how loose he can be with players making runs in behind and balls over the top. I thought he was a bit better on the ball today to be fair to him.

I think Laird was probably Ole's intentions for RB comptetion this season, but his injuries have really messed that up. Same way injury ruined Tuanzebe's progress last season.
So frustrating this kid cant catch a break right now, as we've all heard so much about his supposedly "greenwood" level of talent.
Anyone know when he might be ready to play? Would be good if he can be ready by the time Europa Cup starts again.

 

[Eternitiy]

So wheres this list of really good rightbacks defending in the air?

Wan Bissaka's problem isn't that he's bad in the air. It's his complete lack of awareness of his surroundings. It's the reason he's targeted by opposition and also the reason he has to go to ground to tackle as often as he does.

 

[El Jefe]

I must have watched a different game to most of the posters in the last couple of pages. You'd think he had a shocker like his RBL game judging from some of these comments.

I thought he was pretty good. Yes he made some mistakes but it was that sort of game especially with how aggressive Leeds attack. I think most are just overreacting to the header he went under in the second half.

He used the ball very well and did very well up against Raphina.

 

[downunder red]

I thought he had a great game. Yes he got beaten now and again but Leeds have done that to nearly all the fullbacks this year. They kept going at him again and again but he soldiers on doing tackle after tackle and block after block. Yes he has a lot to improve, especially his throw ins, but he gets little help from the ones in front of him at times.
Next game keep a look out how slow Lindelof passes to him when they are working it out from the back. Sets AWB up numerous times.
I am not saying he is a perfect fullback but give me his tireless effort every game he plays. Unlike some players further up the field who jog around moaning half the time.

 

[Icemav]

Wan wasn’t calamitous at all today, but we definitely need a RB to cover for him. He’s played virtually every minute this season and he looks a man who’s a bit broken physically.

He also looked trashed physically at the end of last season. Very irresponsible if we do not find a rotation option for him as he will get burnt out and injured.

 

[Ekeke]

Wan Bissaka's problem isn't that he's bad in the air. It's his complete lack of awareness of his surroundings. It's the reason he's targeted by opposition and also the reason he has to go to ground to tackle as often as he does.

He doesnt have to, he wants to. He purposefully plays for players to take him on so he can slidetackle them

 

[Andersons Dietician]

He doesnt have to, he wants to. He purposefully plays for players to take him on so he can slidetackle them

I kind of agree with both here. His awareness isn’t the best at times of where the danger is or what’s around him but I sware yesterday I saw him slow down so a Leeds player could get the ball and as soon as they did he started sprinting again to catch them then smash them with his trade mark slide.

Normally I’d be like well that’s just terrible defending, who’d do that but now I’m starting to wonder if really sometimes he does want them to get the ball first so he can do that.

 

[Borys]

He was thrashed yesterday, Leeds knew exactly what to do with him. They targeted his side with crosses - highest number of aerial duels (7, lost 4). For comparison, Shaw only had 1 aerial duel. This is a massive issue for us if teams pick up on it, I have zero confidence in him if the ball is not played on the ground. Some of his attempts to head the ball are ridiculous.

He did a lot of mistakes yesterday. He did make a few good passes too but also misplaced quite a few, Leeds created a scoring chance at least two times because of those. He needs rest and we need to look for alternatives.

 

[acnumber9]

Wan Bissaka’s problem yesterday is what all our defenders struggle with. Being left one v one or two v one constantly. Our defensive midfielders are good at the pressing and hassling but they aren’t very good at actually protecting the defence. That goes for the forwards too. Our wide players don’t track back and yesterday in particular that seemed quite deliberate. We wanted Rashford, Bruno etc to stay up the pitch so we could attack Leeds as soon as we got the ball. It worked, but it makes any defence vulnerable.

 

[Idxomer]

Watching it again, I think the 2nd Leeds goal is his fault.

He just stood there and let Dallas shoot without any pressure.

 

[Foxbatt]

He also let the ball pass over his head where DeGea pulled that save in the second half. His heading and his positional play is poor. I think that we do not seem to have a coach who has been a defender is also detrimental to our defence.

 

[arthurka]

Around the 60th minute yesterday with us leading by 4 goals he had 47% passing rate. He is atrocious with the ball.

 

[MadDogg]

Around the 60th minute yesterday with us leading by 4 goals he had 47% passing rate. He is atrocious with the ball.

That's actually surprising as I thought he was better on the ball than he normally is. Pulled off some nice one-two's and threaded some decent passes to somebody who was in a better position while AWB was being surrounded and hounded by Leeds players.

 

[Adisa]

How many times has he left the back post exposed this season? I cannot wait for another RB.

 

[noodlehair]

I hope the people who love slagging him off so much have been paying attention the last two games to how much we miss him.

Definitely needs to sort out the issue he has with covering the far post but our all round play on the right has suffered massively the last two games through not having a good right back there.

Tuanzebe is an example of someone at fullback who IS fine defensively but not good enough going forwards. Lindelof is an example of someone who just shouldn't play there.

 

[Silas]

I hope the people who love slagging him off so much have been paying attention the last two games to how much we miss him.

Definitely needs to sort out the issue he has with covering the far post but our all round play on the right has suffered massively the last two games through not having a good right back there.

Tuanzebe is an example of someone at fullback who IS fine defensively but not good enough going forwards. Lindelof is an example of someone who just shouldn't play there.

Don't think anyone that's slated him has said we have better options within the club, to be fair.

 

[Harry190]

How many times has he left the back post exposed this season? I cannot wait for another RB.

All the time. That's where all the balls for the goals we concede come from.

 

[bond19821982]

I hope the people who love slagging him off so much have been paying attention the last two games to how much we miss him.

Definitely needs to sort out the issue he has with covering the far post but our all round play on the right has suffered massively the last two games through not having a good right back there.

Tuanzebe is an example of someone at fullback who IS fine defensively but not good enough going forwards. Lindelof is an example of someone who just shouldn't play there.

Not really. We would still concede that goals if he was playing. It wasn't a right back mistake (the goals we conceded)

Yes, Tuanzube wasn't really any upgrade on the attacking side but we knew already. Any right back who is semidecent on the ball would do wonders to this side.

 

[Bebestation]

I really like him and look forward to a Telles like RWB to help Wan Bissaka compete but also improve the little way I have seen Shaw improve a bit this season in particular.

 

[elmo]

I hope the people who love slagging him off so much have been paying attention the last two games to how much we miss him.

Definitely needs to sort out the issue he has with covering the far post but our all round play on the right has suffered massively the last two games through not having a good right back there.

Tuanzebe is an example of someone at fullback who IS fine defensively but not good enough going forwards. Lindelof is an example of someone who just shouldn't play there.

Just because he's the best out of a bunch of worse options doesn't mean we shouldn't be looking to improve on him.

 

[bond19821982]

How many times has he left the back post exposed this season? I cannot wait for another RB.

It's a Ole thing. Did you see how we lined up to defend FKs ? Tuanzube was leaving the same space open.

Yes, agree we should have done better with that 50m.

 

[Bebestation]

Wan Bissaka wouldnt have deflected that goal at all.

Absolutely no chance. Would have cleared it off the line.

 

[BlueHaze]

He's started every single game since joining. Was bound to be left out injured sooner or later. Just hope he's not out too long..

 

[Lassitude42]

It's not Lindelof's fault as he isn't a RB but Barnes would've had a much harder contest against AWB today

 

[Dinghy]

I hope the people who love slagging him off so much have been paying attention the last two games to how much we miss him.

Definitely needs to sort out the issue he has with covering the far post but our all round play on the right has suffered massively the last two games through not having a good right back there.

Tuanzebe is an example of someone at fullback who IS fine defensively but not good enough going forwards. Lindelof is an example of someone who just shouldn't play there.

You must surely be taking the piss? Against Everton we dominated for most of the game and Tuanzebe was every bit as good as him offensively. Actually don't think we've condeded any chances from our right side at all in these two games without him. It's been a refreshing change.

 

[acnumber9]

I hope the people who love slagging him off so much have been paying attention the last two games to how much we miss him.

Definitely needs to sort out the issue he has with covering the far post but our all round play on the right has suffered massively the last two games through not having a good right back there.

Tuanzebe is an example of someone at fullback who IS fine defensively but not good enough going forwards. Lindelof is an example of someone who just shouldn't play there.

They won’t though. Their position has become entrenched.

 

[MadDogg]

You must surely be taking the piss? Against Everton we dominated for most of the game and Tuanzebe was every bit as good as him offensively. Actually don't think we've condeded any chances from our right side at all in these two games without him. It's been a refreshing change.

I actually disagree with that. AWB is nowhere near good enough on the ball for my liking, but he still does provide a lot more than what Tuanzebe and Lindelof have these last two games. Actually I don't think Lindelof was too far off him, but I've been very disappointed with Axel these last two games when he's been on the ball. Obviously he's not a fullback, but with his pace and athleticism I would have hoped for a bit more going forward.

 

[lex talionis]

Lindelof put in a very decent shift today, but we did miss AWB. I’ve got high expectations for Tuanzebe but he had the look of bambi for the own goal.

 

[Bastian]

Don't think anyone that's slated him has said we have better options within the club, to be fair.

This. Flawed logic exposed.

 

[Dinghy]

I actually disagree with that. AWB is nowhere near good enough on the ball for my liking, but he still does provide a lot more than what Tuanzebe and Lindelof have these last two games. Actually I don't think Lindelof was too far off him, but I've been very disappointed with Axel these last two games when he's been on the ball. Obviously he's not a fullback, but with his pace and athleticism I would have hoped for a bit more going forward.

I can see what you're getting at as AWB is probably slightly better at playing himself out of the press, but I don't think it's been that much of a difference in these games. In his last game, AWB gifted Leeds two chances with his passing and the space behind him was constantly being targeted. For our last two games away against tough opposition we've barely conceded two chances in total with Tuanzebe and Lindelof as RB's. There are loads of decent attacking RB's out there, surely we have to be in for one.

 

[el3mel]

Why didn't Williams replace him today though ?

Having CBs covering for our RB when he's absent isn't sustainable long term. We need a similar player like Telles on the right.

 

[SATA]

What was his injury? Strange no one is picking this up

 

[Mickson]

The fact we haven't missed him despite using two different CBs at RB says it all about his qualities. A baffling buy from Ole in the first place.

 

[Ekeke]

The fact we haven't missed him despite using two different CBs at RB says it all about his qualities. A baffling buy from Ole in the first place.

We've had no runs down the right wing from our RB in the 2 games hes missed. In his most recent match he had 2 alone. We've missed him a lot going forward as he would be part of our breaks, while the two CBs have no been

 

[Eriku]

You must surely be taking the piss? Against Everton we dominated for most of the game and Tuanzebe was every bit as good as him offensively. Actually don't think we've condeded any chances from our right side at all in these two games without him. It's been a refreshing change.

Not sure about Everton, but you’ll want to re-watch today’s match.

 

[noodlehair]

Not really. We would still concede that goals if he was playing. It wasn't a right back mistake (the goals we conceded)

Yes, Tuanzube wasn't really any upgrade on the attacking side but we knew already. Any right back who is semidecent on the ball would do wonders to this side.

Its not so much that he wasn't an upgrade, to that not having Bissaka there is a very noticable and large downgrade to our ability to play any football or attack down the right.

Bissaka is "semi decent" on the ball. That's kind of the point. If he was as bad as you lot claim every game would be like the last two have been where our right fullback is utterly useless as soon as the ball comes out of our own half.

 

[Mickson]

We've had no runs down the right wing from our RB in the 2 games hes missed. In his most recent match he had 2 alone. We've missed him a lot going forward as he would be part of our breaks, while the two CBs have no been

Fair enough but every other natural FB does that. I think this buy is such a waste, and it will stop us from buying another RB for years. Let's hope Laird stays injury-free in the future.

 

[noodlehair]

The fact we haven't missed him despite using two different CBs at RB says it all about his qualities. A baffling buy from Ole in the first place.

How on earth can you have watched these two games and conclude we haven't missed him

Tuanzebe had a mare against Everton and in Sholesies words "Lindelof at fullback is something I hope we don't see again"

I honestly think there isn't a right fullback in the world who you lot wouldn't slag off.

 

[noodlehair]

Fair enough but every other natural FB does that. I think this buy is such a waste, and it will stop us from buying another RB for years. Let's hope Laird stays injury-free in the future.

Erm, no they don't, and most of the ones who do rarely set up or get on the end of chances.

The point is that the last two games have been an example of what actually happens when your fullback is as poor going forwards as the cadf likes to claim Bissaka is...and the reality compared to the claims are an absolute world apart to anyone with a pair of working eyes.

 

[noodlehair]

I actually disagree with that. AWB is nowhere near good enough on the ball for my liking, but he still does provide a lot more than what Tuanzebe and Lindelof have these last two games. Actually I don't think Lindelof was too far off him, but I've been very disappointed with Axel these last two games when he's been on the ball. Obviously he's not a fullback, but with his pace and athleticism I would have hoped for a bit more going forward.

He's not a natural fullback and he isn't very good at it. He wasn't when he played there last season either. Even in the game he supposedly played well in against Arsenal his main contribution was setting up Arsenal's goal for them.

Athleticism and speed doesn't make you a good attacking fullback, and it's hard for a player to make do there because we don't have a natural right sided forward so the onus is entirely on the fullback. Another thing people conveniently miss when they slate Bissaka. Alexander Arnold would struggle in our team because he would have to constantly beat a man or two men before he could do any attacking. The easy option for any player not comfortable at doing it is to sit further back which is what Tuanzebe has been doing.