Or maybe because FBs always face wingers one v one and the only way to win the ball is by tackling them.
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
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This is laughable.
Stop digging
It was always a weird decision spending 50m on player who had one season of professional football under him, especially for a club of this magnitude.
Nevermind, a player that doesn't suit our style. We knew what we got with him. It was said before he joined. Great tackler, but poor positional sense and not great going forward.
None of that is his fault.
The blame for that lays at the feet of our recruitment, not him.
Nevermind, a player that doesn't suit our style. We knew what we got with him. It was said before he joined. Great tackler, but poor positional sense and not great going forward.
None of that is his fault.
The blame for that lays at the feet of our recruitment, not him.
Completely agree. Baffling signing.
He can still be coached on Positional and Crossing. But I don't really have any faith in our defensive coach, whoever he is. Can you enlighten me who it is.
He's a very good young defender, at the point we bought him we were a mid table quality team looking to close the gap on the teams further up the table. Not sure it's that baffling!
I don't even know if we have one, tbh. :|
I guess we can't have it both ways. We can either develop a player or buy them ready made? The 50m is based on potential, buying 22 year old that could be here for a decade. Best tackling RB in the league is a good achievement in a season and a foundation to build on. I think a lot of his failings can be coached out or will improve with experience.
Pep would love him.
Maybe you should tell that to literally every other fullback in the league then, because they all made less tackles than him last season.
The best defenders rarely make many tackles.
Because they are not good tacklers like AWB. Ricardo Pereira makes as many tackles as AWB btw.
They all attempt many tackles but only AWB wins at such high rate.
| Total Attempted Tackles | |
| Ricardo Pereira | 6.1 |
| Sidibe | 5.8 |
| Jonny | 4.5 |
| AWB | 4.5 |
| Ryan Fredricks | 4.2 |
| Aurier | 4 |
| Azpi | 3.4 |
| Digne | 3.2 |
| Reece James | 3.2 |
| TAA | 2.8 |
| Chilwell | 2.8 |
| Shaw | 2.6 |
| Robertson | 2.5 |
Zabaleta who was one of the best FBs in last 10 years in PL averaged 5.9, 5, 5.1, 5, 4.7, 5.1 tackles attempted for ManCity.
This simplistic "More tackles = bad positioning" myth should die and fast. That might be applicable for CBs but never for FBs who deal with wingers 1v1 all the time.
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Carlos queiroz used to do it, so I imagine in must be Phelen. Doesn’t seem to be particularly effective though.
Yeah, 3ed best defense in the league separated from first by 3 goals. Truly a terrible job.
Pereira made 114 tackles to AWB's 115 last season. But is he really who we want to be comparing our starting full back to?
Look at the names in your list. Look at Shaw on the other side. You are making my point for me. Nobody we would want to compare him to is anywhere near, and they're all facing the same wingers 1v1. He is a great tackler, but he relies on it too much and is getting himself into situations where he has no other choice.
It is pretty baffling though. He was never going to take us to the level we need to get to. Priority is attack. You can sort your defending out once you can score and create for fun.
Ricardo Pereira is easily the 2nd best RB in the league.
Good that you ignored one of the best RBs of last 10 years in PL.
Seems to have gone backwards and I wonder how much of it is related to coaching - he seemed to be a player that relied on natural defensive instinct and seems he may now be over-thinking.
He's not been the same player since the restart. He used to have that right side locked down, now it's arguably our biggest area for concern.
He's not been the same player since the restart. He used to have that right side locked down, now it's arguably our biggest area for concern.
I’m not saying he AWB shouldn’t do better, but that pass from Maguire puts him on the spot, as soon as he receives the ball he is under pressure and all other players around him are covered.
So what you want the opponent to give him space? go to 5 seconds and pause it. He has a simple pass into Pogba or a pass to Greenwood. The fact that he gets his body shape completely wrong is his fault.
At this level you cannot be scared of the ball, which AWB seems to be.
I said in the post AWB should do better, so let me be clear: I’m not defending AWB at all. I’m just criticizing the pass from our supposed passing CB Maguire. That pass is asking for trouble.
If you are not capable of dealing with that cross where he had enough time to take a touch, then you shouldn't be playing in the PL. It was not a bad pass, it was very poor control. The pass has nothing to do with it. The pass was in his stride, he didnt have to stretch to it, make a run or neither was it an awkward height.
Those are moments we are losing, causing us to concede goals.
Huh? This is the PL, receiveing the ball in pressure is part and parcel of the game. To me it looks like he receives the ball in space and if he had a good first touch he'd be home and dry.
There are so many question marks on our defence inc DDG, it's going to impact on the player who is the youngest, least experienced in the back four. His form was always going to dip and this has not helped. He is flawed but the opposite side of his deficiencies is the best tackling one on one defender maybe in Europe. That's a great starting position for a 22 year old young man.
I'm not a fan but the pass from Maguire is absolutely fine, he beats the press and gets the ball away from a congested area. AWB in return doesn't change his body shape to actually be able to move the ball forward and then the rest is history.
Saying that this was his first game back and he's capable of playing better. I agree with the post stating he is a work in progress. He played as many games last season as he's played in his career before. So many aspects of his game still need to be worked on, mainly right now his fitness and concentration. Of course, buying a player for £50m should get you someone more equipped for his position than him but here we're.
Saying that this was his first game back and he's capable of playing better. I agree with the post stating he is a work in progress. He played as many games last season as he's played in his career before. So many aspects of his game still need to be worked on, mainly right now his fitness and concentration. Of course, buying a player for £50m should get you someone more equipped for his position than him but here we're.
Tactically we are telling him to press too high up the field. Every time he does that he ends up out of position and then struggles to get back into position quickly enough. Lindelof then can't cover him as he isn't quick enough or good enough to spot the danger.
Honestly we should just leave him to defend, then only go forward if the wants to overlap or help the winger. Why he needs to keep pushing up so high following back their winger? it doesn't make sense.
I've noticed our fullbacks often struggle against the wingback system as our wingers don't follow the wingback so they get pulled out of position easily.
Honestly we should just leave him to defend, then only go forward if the wants to overlap or help the winger. Why he needs to keep pushing up so high following back their winger? it doesn't make sense.
I've noticed our fullbacks often struggle against the wingback system as our wingers don't follow the wingback so they get pulled out of position easily.
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Decent analysis of the goal.
Shocking, shocking, shocking. So lethargic too. Doesn't understand the urgency of the situation... if you can't get it out, just clear it!!
The question on which i never got an answer; if we want to be attacking side and if our manager said that he wants full backs who attack then why the feck we spent 50 mil on maybe worse fb in Pl in attacking area?
Once again, I am not defending AWB, I’m criticizing Maguire’s pass.
His performances will be under a lot more scrutiny this season as his attacking output will be expected to improve. Personally don't think he has the technical ability to nail down the RB spot for the long term. Hopefully Laird or Williams can overtake him in the next season or two as I can't see us investing another £40m-£50m on a new RB.
Like all our back four he was much better suited to the counter attacking tactics Ole previously used.
I liked him at Palace but like Maguire we paid double what he was worth, 65m worth of players cost us 130m and neither will ever meet expectations. I hope he will improve a lot but his potential looks a lot lower than thought previously.
I liked him at Palace but like Maguire we paid double what he was worth, 65m worth of players cost us 130m and neither will ever meet expectations. I hope he will improve a lot but his potential looks a lot lower than thought previously.
It is not "more tackles = bad positioning" . It is more like "last ditch slide tackles = bad positioning" usually. AWB is very good at those tackles but having to do a lot of them and simply watching him will tell you that his positioning needs a bit of improvement. And also, good tackles means you get the ball and start the movement from the spot. Not to kick the ball out of the field. It is why CBs have to be very good at positioning to know how and when to tackle without giving the ball away to another attacker.
Again simplistic view. Take Sterling vs AWB as example, he made few last ditch tackles, not because this positioning was poor, that's because he was one v one against winger who took on him and only way to win the ball is to tackle the player, on occassions with desperate attempts.
Other part, don't think anyone argued he is very good with ball, argument is on "more tackles because poor positioning".
Ya I think Brandon Williams is probably better right now. We havent seen Brandon play at right back but presumably he's gotta do a lot better than what he's been showing at left back.
Imagine AWB at left back, he is struggling in all aspects of the game at right back as it is.
From a pure football skills standpoint, AWB has got to be one of the worst players in the PL.
Disagree. Lindelof's short passing options were blocked so he had to look long. Sure AWB was being closed down but he still had enough time to not mess up as badly as he did. Kind of annoying how uncomfortable he is on the ball.
We don't have an imposing right wing attacker (either winger, forward, or just midfield that drag wide). Attacking potent would help lowering the work load for our RB to own the whole flank, especially for team that relies on counter attack.
As heavily skewed to use left wing to attack as we are, our left wing is not very great in attacking sense, that we can just relieve AWB from his width providing duty.
Against wing back system, the best tactic would be going with 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 AKA system with true wingers. We have a half baked system with Rashford, and Greenwood being more forward, than a winger who can own the flank, and being effective out wide, and in our own half.
All in all. The signings and the way we play ain't looking like a well thought out plan.
The goal was Bruno's fault, not sure why people blame Bissaka for the goal. However, the Brighton 100 chances came from both our full backs, Bissaka was caught ball watching and not aware where his man was the whole 90 minutes except from that goal.
We should go after lamptey. I’ve already written this guy off. I just don’t see how we ever evolve as a team with players not comfortable with the basics. It’s so easy for Trent to make passes towards the center which is the basic minimum and yet awb can’t even do it. It’s not enough that he can just defend. More is need as a modern fullback.
Whilst the first touch is poor and the decision to try and dribble out is equally bad, bigger picture this highlights exactly the issues with our defence and also our RW.
Greenwood is jogging back into the shot, actually closing off his own angle when AWB gets the ball. Our style is hugely dependent on width, hence why the left flank is so overused, but we need to start using the RW properly. I also don't get why Maguire has played that ball when he can just play a simple pass to DDG with no risk of interception - it's not like AWB is screaming for it because he can see an opportunity, he's also running back towards his own goal. To play out of a press it's about off the ball movement and that's something we've been behind other teams on for a while.
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