Is this the worst goal we have conceded in the PL era?

[Oranges038]

No, I don't think it is. Collectively it was terrible defending and it was a bad goal. But there have been worse goals conceded. Southampton, the grey kit game . A couple Taibi let in were far worse. That 4-1 against Liverpool there was at least 2 shockers in there. Spurs and City 6-1 games had some awful goals in them.

And I remember Rio trying a back header against Blackburn, so I decided to look it up, and came across this beauty of a video. He was class, but every player makes mistakes. 2.10 on the video is the goal I'm talking about, it was definitely worse than that last night. The video title is funny and also some of the mistakes are comical, 2006 is a long time ago now though, the video title hasn't aged well.

 

[harms]

I already posted this in the "postmatch" discussion, but I think it applies here too. Lots of teams could get a shot off when they're seven v five in and around the penalty box.

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I couldn't believe what happened with Sheffield's second goal, so I re-watched it.

If you look closely, you'll see that several players care less about clearing the danger than the glory of our next counter-attack.

Martial is stood waiting for the ball, as is Cavani, as is Bruno. Rashford is out of shot, so is presumably waiting on our right hand side.

Pogba is in the penalty box, but stands there doing nothing, like his job is to feed Martial, Bruno, Rashford or Cavani, not defend.

It's as if all those players are already thinking about our counter-attack, because Sheffield are so far up the pitch, that's the time to pounce.

That's why seven Sheffield players could pass it so easily around our five actual defenders (the defence + Matic)

We didn't clear the danger. We got punished.

Next time, defend first, counter-attack second!
---

It’s not even debatable that this approach (prioritizing potential counter-attack over defensive stability) is Ole’s conscious choice. It happens all the time — sometimes we get games like against Liverpool, where our flying forwards tear teams up on the counter, sometimes we get burned.

That goal had so many horrendous decisions that weren’t directly tied with that approach though.

 

[RussellWilson]

The Demba Ba goal was bad but the reason I think it's worse is that, the Ba goal was dumb and we got punished.

But here we had about 4 chances to make good the previous errors in the phase, but instead we just carried on doing the same nonsense.

 

[Berbasbullet]

We concede clown cart goals every two weeks I swear, we need to sort it out. Ridiculous own goals, and brain dead players, etc.

 

[Siorac]

That's just a speculative shot that trickled in because of a horrid mistake by a goalkeeper. That happens.

Their second goal yesterday, however, was the culmination of utterly atrocious work by at least four players, including the goalkeeper. A complete collective breakdown.

 

[big rons sovereign]

Reminded me of the Leipzig goal. Similar in that it was due to poor communication. De Gea needs to own his area, which he failed to do for both goals yesterday.

Just like the Leipzig one, De gea was cowering on his line and stuck.out a token foot.
He needs dropping. He's clearly way too comfortable.

 

[KeanoMagicHat]

This was worse than any keeper mistake like Taibi or any bad single goalkeeper or defender mistake that led to a goal - De Gea has had a few bad ones for example last few years. Because it was such a long sequence of mistakes, mistake after mistake, it beggars belief. At any point over a 30 second period if a player does the right thing, it’s not a goal.

 

[Tom Cato]

This is the type of goal you score when the coach has blown the whistle during practice and everyone are just milling around where they were standing, not paying attention, while one guy who just wont listen plays some random ball and someone puts it in the net before paying attention to what's being said again.

It made my soul throw up

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

It’s not even debatable that this approach (prioritizing potential counter-attack over defensive stability) is Ole’s conscious choice. It happens all the time — sometimes we get games like against Liverpool, where our flying forwards tear teams up on the counter, sometimes we get burned.

That goal had so many horrendous decisions that weren’t directly tied with that approach though.

Tell me, by “flying forwards” you mean Rashford, right? Because Martial & Greenwood are tortoises.

 

[Born2Lose]

There's definitely a correlation emerging between comedy goals and DDG playing.

 

[RedRonaldo]

In terms of team effort this one is probably one of the worst. Individually I still think the one conceded by Maguire wrestling down Shaw is more hilarious.

 

[harms]

Tell me, by “flying forwards” you mean Rashford, right? Because Martial & Greenwood are tortoises.

Well, Greenwood did alright in that game, finishing one counter and assisting in the other. Same goes for horribly out of form Martial, who has been a crucial part of many great counter-attacks over the years.

 

[tomaldinho1]

The one earlier this season where it was just a long ball and everyone messed up. Was in one of the first games.

 

[kafta]

I bet our top 10 would be quite the highlight reel.

We wanted to concede that goal more than they wanted to score it.

 

[SuperiorXI]

Comical defending, don't understand how that happened, it's almost like we wanted them to score.

 

[spiriticon]

This goal is right up there for me as one of the worst we've conceded in the last 30 odd years. After it went in, I felt the team may as well have walked off the pitch and forfeited the game if they didn't feel like playing it.

It would save us fans from another 20 minutes of watching them walk around and sighing.

 

[El Zoido]

It was comical, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. And it wasn’t even the first time something like that happened this season! Actually, not even the second, the goals away at Istanbul and Leipzig were amateur-league as well. I can’t fathom how a team can defend this poorly as a collective, it’s giving me a headache trying to comprehend it. You see individual players having a ‘mare, falling asleep and losing their man. But this is most of the team! It was like someone playing FIFA unplugged the controller.

 

[bsCallout]

Almost makes me want to cry. That is up there with the worst. When you see the defending Sheffield UTD done to win that game and we gift them two ridiculously easy goals. Ole will get blamed but it's moments like that which have nothing to do with him and cost us big time.

Again DDG showing no control of his own area. Allison has more control of the area outside his box than DDG has over his own 6yrd.

 

[Gio]

Rashford is out of shot, so is presumably waiting on our right hand side.

Pogba is in the penalty box, but stands there doing nothing, like his job is to feed Martial, Bruno, Rashford or Cavani, not defend.

It's as if all those players are already thinking about our counter-attack, because Sheffield are so far up the pitch, that's the time to pounce.

Yeah, it's most apparent with Rashford there (I presume it's him just outside the box on your right hand side). If he tucks in a couple of yards, he can pick up the attacker on the edge of the box, which enables Pogba to pick up Burke. His positioning there is to place him in the best possible position to counter-attack (in the blindspot), but it only works when every opposition attacker is picked up. It ends up as a purely tokenistic defensive gesture.

Under normal circumstances Tuanzebe is in the right area as the spare man covering the ball across the six-yard box. Without the organisation in front of him happening though, he should step out to pick up Burke as that is a higher priority than covering a space from the ball reaching 2 marked players.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Fred passing to Baillys outstretched arm pointing only resulted in a free kick if I remember correctly

Feck me. You’ve reminded me he did it twice! There was another game (maybe Soton?) where he conceded a penalty after the ball hit his pointing arm.

 

[Knux]

The more I watch it the worse it gets. So many wrongs in one video. Embarrasing. The obvious thing is that De Gea should’ve cleared it. But after seeing it mulitiple times the whole defence is just ball watching. They just stand there like cones.

 

[Bobcat]

Tweet

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I can't remember a worse one.

The loss of possession, the lack of any desire to get it back, the joke attempts at clearing the ball.

If any one can post one that can top that, you have a super memory.

Dont know about worst, but its up there for sure. An impressive number of feck ups in a short time span

 

[Cutch]

Feck me. You’ve reminded me he did it twice! There was another game (maybe Soton?) where he conceded a penalty after the ball hit his pointing arm.

Ah yes, I remember your incident now. feck me, we're definately not the brightest.

 

[RashyForPM]

Phil Jones own goal in that Newcastle 3-0 game in 2011-12 which ultimately played a part in costing us the title was unbelievable.

 

[2 man midfield]

It’s really weird how poorly coached we are defensively. We concede set pieces every week, consistently have feck ups like last night every few weeks, and players who were good at certain things before seem to forget how to do them once they become part of our back 4. Wan Bissaka looks lost positinally or whenever he’s not facing raheem sterling, and Maguire is yet to find the sort of form that made us buy him in the first place. It’s like these players are having to make it up themselves because they aren’t being told what to do.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

In the Premier League? Yeah it's definitely up there... people will mention Taibi or whatever but thats just one player doing something stupid/having a freak accident.

Here you have several players all simultaneously forget they're actually involved in a competitive game of football and behaving like absolute idiots.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

He literally is unmarked in our box for 18 seconds.

18!! He has his first shot after around 9 seconds...apparently not enough of a warning.

 

[Chairman Steve]

Should have been Carroll fumbling Pedro Mendes over the line in 2005. That was at the start of 2005 too.

What a shit year 2005 was. Start off with that and ended it with getting dumped out of the CL groups.

 

[Cultured left ankle]

In isolation it was a dreadful goal to concede, but the result and that type of goal had been long coming, unfortunately.

in almost every game, there are periods where we look shaky defensively and it suggests a real lack of organisation during coaching sessions and leadership during games. We don't necessarily need someone bellowing at everyone, but look at how Jakielka was constantly keeping his defensive team in line and organised throughout yesterday's game. Just as we attack as individuals, we defend in the same manner. So many of the goals we concede come from players not knowing where's their space or who's their man to pick up. How no one gave a call to Pogba (even though he's looking right at him) to get on Burke shows how rudderless we can be.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

I think that was the worst goal conceded this season. Almost the whole team are pathetic in the conceding of it.

 

[matt23]

I've managed to convince myself it was because Burke had only just come on, and some of our players probably wouldn't tie their own shoe laces if they weren't explicitly told to do so by someone.

Perhaps he was just 'someone else's problem'.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

I wish they kept that goal on loop all training session on a mega screen.

 

[Grande]

We certainly have done a lot worse many times before, a better question is if it’s the worst piece of defending this season. I think Basaksehir is the worst, followed by Spurs goal, Hendo’s mistake, this and Red Bull goal in fifth. Rather different goals, and different players involved.

Let’s agree it was a ‘masterpiece’, and I love putting team efforts ahead of solo goals when we score, so it’s fair to do the same in this case. It was a superb/dreadful team effort, but some deserve honorary mentions:

6. Telles - nothing really horrible, he’s surprised by Martial, gets back, is outnumbered, and tries to close down the nearest man several time. Allowing the squared pqss is not good defending, but not a big gaffe either. Just meh.
5. Martial - unalert - again, slow to return, half hearted press when he does. Bad, but outshined by others, after all a forward will lose the ball from time to time when surrounded by three players.
4. Tuanzebe. The deflection is not a mistake. Close range shot, should he duck, should he pounce? It’s flipping a coin at that point. What is horrible is his positioning. First he doesn’t move up to set the offside line, then he not once but twice fails to notice that Maguire is to his right and he needs to assume the LB position, which means closing down Burke instead of pulling towards the right. Brainfart. Excused slightly by lack of game time and playing experience (only slightly).
3. Pogba. Not surprising really, but anyway, youre a CM in a pivote, your partner is ballside helping the LB, and you stand for ten seconds in the box watching no one while a man is free the full ten seconds ten yards in front of you. Anyone can do that once, only Pogba can be expected to pull it off regularily.
2. De Gea. Yes, I get it, you want to be proactive and positive thinking, start a counter instead of clearing it for a corner kick or throw in. It’s the wrong decision ten out of ten times, particularily as you have no free red shirts in eye sight. It would be wrong to play it to telles, matic or even martial. However, if you’re gonne do that, you at least need to be 100% sure its an easy pass and you’ll reach your target. Playing it straight out to an attacker 20 yards from goal is a half own goal in it’s own right. To bad, as the only other mistake he did in the game was not to go down and stay down when he was toppled in the box at their first.
1. Ok, this is probably subjective, but I have no words for the feeling I get when I not once but twice have to watch a player as a first defender in the box tries to close down the ball bearer while looking as if you are doing the party stunt of threading on slippers while simultaneously scratching your ass with both hands. To me, this is what elevates a strong team effort to a piece of art.

 

[croadyman]

I realize we are talking PL here but that goal away to Istanbul in this year's CL group stage has to be the worst we've conceded in 20 yrs.

That goal was the fatal blow in our champions league hopes forget the defeats to PSG & Leipzig

 

[croadyman]

Is it any worse than the Ndombele one at OT this season?

100% worse because of the opposition, they only had six subs on the bench and the 38 year old in defence

 

[UnofficialDevil]

Considering the opposition it has to be

 

[TsuWave]

Infuriating stuff

 

[Wayne's World]

It actually gets worse every time you watched it. There's literally about 10 chances to stop it going in and we fecked up everytime

 

[Falcow]

Watch it from the very start and look at nothing else only Martial.......there are no words.

 

[bsCallout]

Watch it from the very start and look at nothing else only Martial.......there are no words.

Of all the players to look at and be bothered by .. it isn't him. Even he must have been watching thinking, "you're going to clear this right?"