This is why i think southgate is very stupid to not even have him as a sub - considering how he can shut down nearly 1/3rd of the sides attack by himself - using him in national football where teams are much less cohesive is stupid because it can be very hard to penetrate. This is the best 1v1 defender in the world & he is thought as useless as a tactic.
29
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 27
- Clean sheets
- 4
- Goals
- 0
- Assists
- 3
- Yellow cards
- 5
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
Southgate has Kyle Walker who's pretty good at doing what you describe and has the bonus of being a better player going forward - AWB could replace him long term but Reece James might have a say in that
Im not saying he should be the starting rb - but at the same time him dealing with mbappe & neymar was fantastic & relatively simple.
Do you think Eng v Fra - that awb could have shifted the match to our favour? I dont think its unrealistic even as a sub.
England has fantastic worlds best RBs - but whilst plenty are more all rounded none are exactly the best 1v1 defender except awb.
Im not a manager but if i had the worlds best finisher then id have him in my arsenal even if i preffered to start more all rounded strikers like harry kane.
re: England v France - nope, England's problem that day was shooting straight, that's definitely not something AWB would improve on
Dalot being a better fit is just one of those things posters repeat because they think it sounds cool. Outside of his 4 month spell at the beginning of last season, he's never proved he's good enough to be here let alone start.
Dalot's short passing is nonexistent. AWB has had much better linkup play with Antony and Sancho.
Dalot just looks better on the ball. What he actually does with it is no better AWB except his long passing into the channels.
Dalot's short passing is nonexistent. AWB has had much better linkup play with Antony and Sancho.
Dalot just looks better on the ball. What he actually does with it is no better AWB except his long passing into the channels.
I'm surprised he's never even been tried out in a friendly - those are always good opportunities to experiment a bit. Although I guess it doesn't help that England now only play 2 or 3 friendlies a year, and they're usually bundled with Nations League or qualification matches so you can't call up an entirely different set of players for them.
His improvement on the ball this pre-season is quite astounding.
If he can maintain the same level throughout the season he's a world class RB.
If he can maintain the same level throughout the season he's a world class RB.
Yeah. Thought he was very good last night in possession and his defending was top notch too. Can he improve his creativity and provide more assists this season though as he’ll need to do so to have a long term future under ETH
No, it's not. His current level is not world class level whether he maintains it or not. AWB doing the basic on the ball doesn't means he's good at it.
I thought he was good last night, but that's with the proviso that I'm judging him through the lense of lowered expectations in terms of what he can do on the ball.
He kept possession securely which is the most I realistically look for from him, but in truth those complaining about the quality of some of his passing beyond not actually giving the ball away had a point. Even leaving aside comparisons from outside the club, there's a glaring difference in terms of how generally effective he is on the ball versus someone like Shaw on the other side of the pitch.
I would certainly be starting the season with AWB at RB rather than Dalot, despite having a stylistic preference for the latter, because he's playing better than him at the moment. Come next summer though RB should hopefully be one of the priority posititions to be addressed, because neither of them are at the level most other positions in our team already are.
He kept possession securely which is the most I realistically look for from him, but in truth those complaining about the quality of some of his passing beyond not actually giving the ball away had a point. Even leaving aside comparisons from outside the club, there's a glaring difference in terms of how generally effective he is on the ball versus someone like Shaw on the other side of the pitch.
I would certainly be starting the season with AWB at RB rather than Dalot, despite having a stylistic preference for the latter, because he's playing better than him at the moment. Come next summer though RB should hopefully be one of the priority posititions to be addressed, because neither of them are at the level most other positions in our team already are.
He's been outstanding on the ball against both Arsenal and Madrid and he was already world class defensively but now he's starting to look good on the ball as well.
Don't think you have to be the best attacking RB in the world to be considered world class.
There was a period in the middle of the first half where I thought he struggled a bit, but otherwise he was quite impressive on the ball.
It was actually defensively that there were more question marks. He did his usual trick of breaking the defensive line and arguably keeping Bellingham onside for the first goal, and there was another moment late in the first half where he got lucky not to be caught out when he was sitting unnecessarily central and gave the wide man far too much space. He also struggled much more than normal in stopping crosses and general delivery from his side, but I'm tempted to say that was Real doing well rather than AWB being poor.
It was actually defensively that there were more question marks. He did his usual trick of breaking the defensive line and arguably keeping Bellingham onside for the first goal, and there was another moment late in the first half where he got lucky not to be caught out when he was sitting unnecessarily central and gave the wide man far too much space. He also struggled much more than normal in stopping crosses and general delivery from his side, but I'm tempted to say that was Real doing well rather than AWB being poor.
He's never been world class defensively. He's world-class at defending 1v1's (probably the best in the world), but there's more to defending than that. He's always been poor in the air and has often been targeted at the back post by opposition crosses, and he has a nasty habit of breaking the defensive line and keeping the opposition onside (as he did again for the Bellingham goal). To be fair he did seem to improve the former last season so hopefully it's something he'll keep working on.
Some people only rate attacking fullbacks.
He hasn’t been beat at the back post for ages now & people still mention it like it happens every week
21 seconds look offside to me but I’ve also heard of possible rule change
very good last night, looked good on the ball as well. Bruno offered him no protection at all when their full back was attacking
Bruno is just not a right winger. AWB always looks better when he has Antony playing in front of him.
Been our best player during pre season. A shoe in for the start of the season.
Every player has their strengths and weaknesses.
Just because AWB doesn't have a flawless performance every game doesn't mean he's not world class defensively.
Ultimately in the modern game, fullbacks are judged defensively on how well they can deal with an elite winger 1 v 1.
If they get roasted people will say they're shit.
Exactly.
It's good that he's building confidence again. He was completely devoid of it during his worst period. Other minor things can be coached.
Come on now.
He’s absolutely terrible for this. Players get behind him regularly.
Wan-Bissaka is one of those weird players where the narrative is all wrong. Most folk think he’s this great defender, with lots of work to do going forward. The reality is that he has huge flaws positionally and aerially, while being solid in possession and quite nifty when put under pressure.
It seems that he’s going to enter the season as first choice. He isn’t good enough, though, and it’s a shame we haven’t the resources to bring in a better alternative.
Bellingham was offside according to the video i posted.
Whats the last 2 goals he played the onside trap?
He probably was offside. Wan-Bissaka was still out of line with the rest of the back four.
You’d find examples of this as recently as City in the final. I’m not making it up; I was swearing at the television screen in response to it. Whether this sort of thing has lead to a goal recently is not really relevant.
Im not denying it - but neither do i think it happens as much as people say, its just a bit of weakness he has for playing as a winger when growing up.
To me if he continues his performances at the back post & heading then he only needs to get a bit more aware on the offside trap as his defensive weakness, everything other than that he seems to have under control.
Its arguably the first season with a goalkeeper that allows to play a very high defensive line and today probably the first game.
AWB is either going to get better or worse at it with Onana & experience.
However to me, he shows his uses enough to atleast be a good defensive competitive RB to an attacking 1 in the future.
I dont get the posts acting like hes rubbish and should be sold the first chance we get. I think he has been in our top 4 players at the very least for the last 6 months including preseason where many calls him the best.
AWB has the chance to be really good in the CL this season - he shut down Mbappe & neymar with relative ease - & nearly everyone utelises a deadly inverted forward these days.
To me he seems like a bit of a cheat code for that and i really value it in our Arsenal.
He's world class at one aspect. It's an aspect that against some opponents is an incredible strength, and that is against tricky and/or fast wingers who like to dribble and get at the fullback. He also used to be absolutely brilliant at blocking crosses, but I have noticed that he's not anywhere near as good at that anymore (certainly still good, but he used to block pretty much everything which is no longer the case).
But he also has downright weaknesses, and against other opponents those weaknesses can get targeted more often. It's nothing to do with not having a flawless performance every game. His inability to defend the back post and also to hold a defensive line too often give the opposition chances that they shouldn't have had. Like I said he definitely showed some improvement with his defending the back post last season, so if he keeps that up it may not be an actual weakness anymore (I doubt it'll ever be a strength), but he's shown no signs of improving how often he breaks our defensive line. The latter will probably hurt us even more often than it already does if the proposed offside rules do go though (where every part of the attackers body has to past the defender to be considered offside). He also has a tendency to get caught out positionally against teams who pass the ball around him instead of dribbling at him.
Is he good defensively? Yes. Is he world class defensively? No. If he improves his weaknesses he might be in the future, but right now he's not.
The issue with him in possession isn't that he isn't solid. He's very secure, 84th percentile among fullbacks for basic pass completion last season. His pass completion compared to our other fullbacks
AWB - 84%
Shaw - 83.7%
Dalot - 79.2%
The problem is how he has to play to remain that secure.
Here's how those three players' attempted passes break down between short (5-15 yards), medium (15-30 yards) and long (30+ yards) last season, percentages rounded.
AWB - 63% short, 31% medium, 6% long.
Shaw - 52% short, 37% medium, 10% long.
Dalot - 38% short, 46% medium, 15% long.
In other words he offers a much more limited range of passing, with those medium/long pass attempts being 80th/72nd percentile for Shaw, 84th/85th percentile for Dalot but just 20th/4th percentile for AWB.
That conservatism is reflected across other stats too, with AWB being 30th percentile for passes into the penalty area, 58th percentile for passes into the final third, 46th percentile for progressive passes, 33rd percentile for progressive passing distance, etc. Both our other fullbacks beat him across all those areas, with his rival Dalot being 77th, 67th, 58th and 68th percentile in those stats respectively and Shaw generally better again.
Outside of passing, while AWB is better than Dalot in terms of progressive carries and attempted take-ons, Dalot is statistically more likely to carry the the ball into more advanced positions (final third/penalty area), not to miscontrol the ball and not to be dispossessed.
All of which is a whole lot of numbers just to say that AWB is limited on the ball and, presumably because he knows this, plays within those limitations. Which is very understandable and I don't think those limitations should see Dalot start ahead of him at the moment, as AWB has generally been in better form recently.
But looking beyond this season a fullback that limited and ineffective in possession really isn't good enough for a side looking to win major trophies. He gets the ball in space quite a lot as teams much prefer to see him in possession than Shaw on the other side, and we really need our fullback to be able to do more with that possession than predominantly play square to his CB or short to the RW in front of him who so often has to go backwards from there anyway.
The difference between our RBs and Shaw (who keeps the ball well and does effective things with it) highlights why this is an area that needs fixing next summer.
AWB - 84%
Shaw - 83.7%
Dalot - 79.2%
The problem is how he has to play to remain that secure.
Here's how those three players' attempted passes break down between short (5-15 yards), medium (15-30 yards) and long (30+ yards) last season, percentages rounded.
AWB - 63% short, 31% medium, 6% long.
Shaw - 52% short, 37% medium, 10% long.
Dalot - 38% short, 46% medium, 15% long.
In other words he offers a much more limited range of passing, with those medium/long pass attempts being 80th/72nd percentile for Shaw, 84th/85th percentile for Dalot but just 20th/4th percentile for AWB.
That conservatism is reflected across other stats too, with AWB being 30th percentile for passes into the penalty area, 58th percentile for passes into the final third, 46th percentile for progressive passes, 33rd percentile for progressive passing distance, etc. Both our other fullbacks beat him across all those areas, with his rival Dalot being 77th, 67th, 58th and 68th percentile in those stats respectively and Shaw generally better again.
Outside of passing, while AWB is better than Dalot in terms of progressive carries and attempted take-ons, Dalot is statistically more likely to carry the the ball into more advanced positions (final third/penalty area), not to miscontrol the ball and not to be dispossessed.
All of which is a whole lot of numbers just to say that AWB is limited on the ball and, presumably because he knows this, plays within those limitations. Which is very understandable and I don't think those limitations should see Dalot start ahead of him at the moment, as AWB has generally been in better form recently.
But looking beyond this season a fullback that limited and ineffective in possession really isn't good enough for a side looking to win major trophies. He gets the ball in space quite a lot as teams much prefer to see him in possession than Shaw on the other side, and we really need our fullback to be able to do more with that possession than predominantly play square to his CB or short to the RW in front of him who so often has to go backwards from there anyway.
The difference between our RBs and Shaw (who keeps the ball well and does effective things with it) highlights why this is an area that needs fixing next summer.
That may be true, but if he consistently does the basic things ont he ball well and improves his positioning (both of which are improving the last 12 months or so), then he can become a world class right back. That is essentially what Kyl Walker did over several seasons after movign to CIty from SPurs. He isnt exceptional going forward either
Would have liked to see us sign a new RB this summer. It's unfortunate ETH has to make do for another season due to lack of funds.
Yeah because citys fullbacks were attackers.
Seems a ten hag preference so should be here fine when trying for trophies even if we get a new rb to improve xi.
His goal line clearences & body blocks are just as occuring as an onside mistake, even more - but people talk like he only slides allday.
He was great playing with mr wood, so im wondering how our rw would be if he should return. I do think the lack of attacking prowess on the right puts more pressure on AWB to deliver.
City used akanji & walker who are hardly dani alves because they have mahrez, foden, b silva & de bryune putting attacking pressure from the right.
Seems a ten hag preference so should be here fine when trying for trophies even if we get a new rb to improve xi.
His goal line clearences & body blocks are just as occuring as an onside mistake, even more - but people talk like he only slides allday.
He was great playing with mr wood, so im wondering how our rw would be if he should return. I do think the lack of attacking prowess on the right puts more pressure on AWB to deliver.
City used akanji & walker who are hardly dani alves because they have mahrez, foden, b silva & de bryune putting attacking pressure from the right.
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If we had the funds to do so we would upgrade at RB, but I'm not that worried about it right now. We're settled well enough with AWB and DD.
Think you are making good points here. For me offensively, apart from the final ball, really he just needs to simplify his game and move the ball quicker. His best spells here for me have been when he is keeping it simple and moving the ball on quickly.
But he ISNT world class defensively and I say that having always been a fan of his, I agree. He IS improving this, but his positioning and defending tha box as well as not being sloppy movig out to close space and recieving the ball....they all need to improve further if he is to become a world class rb.
I dont think he will ever be world class, but 1 on 1 he is one of the best and if he continues the improvement keeping things simple tightening up his game and being more positionally aware.....he can be a very very good one. As you stte it isnt just offensively he needs to work on his game to reach the next level that the raw player at Palace to me at lease suggested he was capable of.....but either way, I have always said, he is by far the better option over Dalot
It’ll be his last season for us I reckon, rightly or wrongly. Gets an unnecessary amount of criticism imo and is often the scapegoat but I do think we can upgrade so I fully expect him to be playing his last season with us this season coming.
I think he's one of those players that part of the fanbase will never like. Regardless of how he's actually playing. He's done well since the 2nd half of 22/23, and some still won't give him credit. I also expect him to leave. The club gave Dalot a new contract, and AWB's runs out at the end of the season. We will probably activate the extra year and try and sell next summer.
We can and should upgrade next summer. I still think he's quite a bit better than a lot of people give him credit for. I would much rather him play than Dalot, at the very least.
Agreed.
He is just not a typical fans type of player. He isnt beautiful on the ball so people think he is holding the team back but they continually forget his performances where he is holding some of the best Lws itw back with relative ease. His goal line clearences & body blocks are amazing to me.
I wonder if hes a bit like de gea where we need a more all rounded player to take over him - but at the same time he isnt a number 2 gk that plays 1 game for us a season & should have his uses even as a back up no 2 rb to a more attacking/all rounded one.
I dont see why we wouldnt bring him on off the bench to shut up mbappe or vicinius jr after managing to grab a lead late in the 2nd half of a CL game at the very least.
Id be dissapointed keeping dalot & selling awb if dalot doesnt improve to show a good season of form because now i have seen 2 under Ole & 1 under ten hag as soon as he was available.
Become one of my favourite players recently & reminds me a little bit of a rb version of someone we havent had since Vidic or Jones.
Despite his improvement, it depressing that we’re going into a new season with no too drawer right back :-(
Having to make do simply won’t be enough
Having to make do simply won’t be enough
I have a feeling Boys going to have a magic season 
I have loved this over the years. I think it's something that rarely gets talked about. He is brilliant at it and has saved us from conceding many times because of it. His ball carrying is also a lot better than it's given credit for. He isn't a progressive passer, but you can count on him to progressively carry.
I do think the De Gea comparison has some merit, but it is different with a keeper. Keeping De Gea as a #2 wouldn't have made sense. AWB could stay as the backup RB and it wouldn't be a problem. The first choice would hopefully be similar to Shaw in skillset.
The type of performance against ASM in the Carabao Cup final is a big reason why I think we should keep him. He has had performances like that so many times.
I agree, but since Dalot was given a new contract, I assume the club has already chosen who will stay. Dalot needs to get back to his early 22/23 season form to be a good choice. He has been at the club for 5 years, and we've only seen half a season of good performances from him. AWB has 2 and a half years worth.
We are, just because you don’t like him doesn’t mean that he’s not. He’s there because he’s convinced the coaches
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I hope the wrong narrative of AWB not being good on the ball dies soon. Against Madrid he was our best player in possession by a distance. Almost always gets the ball out of defence when we're playing out. passes forward. can receive the ball in tight spaces.
Though I imagine we're in for another season of "he's not good on the ball"
Though I imagine we're in for another season of "he's not good on the ball"