[Oranges038]

He had a good game, a lot of it I'd say was down to adrenaline because of it being his first game back, it's usually enough to see you through.

But there's already a large body of evidence to suggest he isn't good enough. One game doesn't change that for me. For the second goal, Liverpool just waited until the ball was forced his way and then pounced, it was happening earlier in the season too when he was at right back. Teams identified him as the weakest on the ball and force the press to his side and pressed.

 

[The Original]

Teams identified him as the weakest on the ball and force the press to his side and pressed.

Any examples of this you can remember? AWB is usually quite reliable when it comes to beating the press.

 

[Oranges038]

Any examples of this you can remember? AWB is usually quite reliable when it comes to beating the press.

Definitely happened in the CL, Galatasaray/ Copenhagen. Remember it being specifically mentioned at the time.

 

[Dan_F]

He was boxed in the corner with nowhere really to go and found his man (Bruno) who was too weak at keeping the ball (some would say fouled). That's not Wan Bissakas fault

I’d argue the first part might have been his fault, Dalot didn’t get boxed in all game. Either way, it’s clearly a weakness, we’ve seen it for years.

 

[Prodigal7]

I saw a side to his game I've not seen before in moving the ball quickly and beating the press. Hope he does that every match from now on. He was brilliant.

 

[Cantonagotmehere]

I saw a side to his game I've not seen before in moving the ball quickly and beating the press. Hope he does that every match from now on. He was brilliant.

He sure was. What a performance coming off injury. Dalot's rise and AWB playing well gives me a little hope we don't have to spend much at the RB/LB position. Shaw cannot be relied on as a starter anymore though.

 

[Drainy]

The Fred of fullbacks. Shaky and will always let you down

 

[Based Adnan]

He's a mid table player. Can do a job if you're wanting to play anti football but will let you down if you ask more of him. Will be moved on in the summer if we have any sense.

 

[Dempsey19]

The Fred of fullbacks. Shaky and will always let you down

Spot on. Never looks like he knows what he's doing and his footballing technique is just non existent. Extremely limited footballer. He should be moved on in the summer for sure.

900 RBs and we picked this numpty.

 

[Idxomer]

He can't play football at this level, absolutely hopeless.

 

[harms]

When he doesn't have a man-marking job he can he really bad... his positioning tonight was atrocious.

 

[Roboc7]

With the exception of an odd game here and there he has no place being a full back at a team with ambition beyond mid table. Should be sold this summer but guessing we’ll have another year of this before he leaves for nothing.

 

[Pintu]

He f***d us really bad tonight…

 

[Godfather]

Put him on the right or on the bench. What is this stupid experiment.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

Piss poor and lazy for the goal

That's AWB of old right there.

 

[Red00012]

Too fecking lazy to sprint out and kept Toney onside for the goal .

 

[PoTMS]

Disgusting "footballer".

 

[flameinthesun]

Genuinely hilarious on the ball. Needs moving on in the summer.

 

[DWelbz19]

When he doesn't have a man-marking job he can he really bad... his positioning tonight was atrocious.

Yep. His best games for us are games of hyperfixating on keeping a player out of a game — City vs Sterling; Salah Liverpool, PSG etc. his basic positioning and back post defending is atrociously bad.

It’s like as a player he’s in the top 99th percentile for tackling and one v one defending and then the bottom 20 for every other defensive trait

 

[Valencia Shin Crosses]

Same as always. World class 1v1 defender but absolutely terrible in any other aspect of defense.

 

[RedDevilCanuck]

We have to resort to Amrabat now. That was so so bad.

Not having a LB is all on the club. It's shameful.

 

[E-mal]

If limited needed an emoji, AWB will be the archetypical symbol

 

[Sylar]

He's good one on one
I hate however how he defends as part of a unit. Usually caught under the ball from a cross from the other side. But the worst is how he jogs back out of possession.

 

[UpWithRivers]

He was fkn sht but so was everyone else and for me he gets more leeway for playing in the wrong position with no help from Rashford. Play Dalot LB and Wan B at RB. Why is that so hard?

 

[ManRant]

Put him on the right or on the bench. What is this stupid experi

He was fkn sht but so was everyone else and for me he gets more leeway for playing in the wrong position with no help from Rashford. Play Dalot LB and Wan B at RB. Why is that so hard?

You don't play a better player out of position for a lesser player. And his weakness would persist no matter which side he plays.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

You don't play a better player out of position for a lesser player. And his weakness would persist no matter which side he plays.

Dalot pretty much came to prominence covering Telles at LB at Porto and has played the position many times. It’s not as if he is pulling up trees on the right setting up chances every 5 minutes. I could understand it against Pool, putting him up against Salah who is most likely going to want to cut in coming on to Bissakas strong foot.

But now, surely yo swap them back unless he just wants him to keep learning the position because we have Pool again soon.

 

[Mike Smalling]

He comes across as not really switched on most of the time. I don’t know what it is, but his concentration seems awful, or he’s just way too casual. It does my head in.

He’s just such an awkward player.

 

[Telsim]

Why was he playing as a left back, and not Dalot, when Dalot has always performed better than him there? When has AWB ever been good as a left back?

 

[Mike Smalling]

Why was he playing as a left back, and not Dalot, when Dalot has always performed better than him there? When has AWB ever been good as a left back?

It was baffling to me. Only reasonable explanation would be if there was a particularly dangerous player for him to cover, but that wasn’t the case.

People will argue for not removing a good player in Dalot from his best position, but he didn’t do anything from right back.

 

[Oranges038]

He's just not very good, been saying it for years, he has the odd decent game but being the best "1v1 defender in the world" doesn't mean shit when you can't control, dribble and pass a ball properly.

 

[Remember the geese]

He's playing out of position obviously, but he isn't a very good footballer. Dalot has been good, so the easy option will be to not upset the apple cart and just keep Wan-Bissaka as cover. I'd sell him though for sure.

 

[2 man midfield]

I did initially blame him for playing Toney onside, but it was then pointed out he was tracking their winger who was basically by the corner flag. Don’t think he’s a bad player to have, but he’s clearly not good enough on the ball to start for us long term. We definitely need at least one full back in the summer, but I feel like I’ve been saying that since about 2015.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

He’s crap, as is Lindelöf. Having these two in a back four with McTominay in front of then, well… are any of us surprised how the game went?

 

[Plant0x84]

Not a left back, he looked lost last night. He even fluffed up his trademark slide tackle for the yellow.
I like the guy, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player look more like he is robotically following instructions that AWB. There is no natural fluidity to anything he does. He doesn’t seem to play with any confidence and
His teammates don’t seem to want to pass to him. Very weird to watch.

 

[MadDogg]

He was fkn sht but so was everyone else and for me he gets more leeway for playing in the wrong position with no help from Rashford. Play Dalot LB and Wan B at RB. Why is that so hard?

I guess the theory is that Dalot has been playing quite well, doing a fair bit to help us play out from the back and moving into midfield, things which he might find easier from the right. So keep him there and play AWB on the left.

From memory we did the same earlier in the season. Played Dalot right and AWB left for one game and it worked really well, so did the same the following match and it didn't work at all. Identical to what has just happened again these last two matches. Last time I think we switched them back to AWB on the right after that, so will see if we do the same now.

I was a bit surprised we didn't switch them during this game though. Dalot was having a lot less influence than he normally does so that plan wasn't really working.

 

[Godfather]

You don't play a better player out of position for a lesser player. And his weakness would persist no matter which side he plays.

That would only work if AWB was able to do a half decent job on the left. But he already struggles with his positional awareness on the right and it seems completely gone on the left. He was utterly lost there and basically a huge harm to us.

 

[luke511]

He had no business playing left back against Brentford’s unconventional set up. When the opponent is set up with a wide forward, it helps Bissaka’s game as he knows what his job is out of possession and helps his positioning too. Against a set up like Brentford’s, where they have two strikers instead of wingers and wing backs making unpredictable runs, it fecks his game up completely. Throw in him playing on his unnatural side, it was a disaster waiting to happen.

 

[RedStarUnited]

He comes across as not really switched on most of the time. I don’t know what it is, but his concentration seems awful, or he’s just way too casual. It does my head in.

He’s just such an awkward player.

Yep was coming to say this.

He has zero sense of danger.

 

[criticalanalysis]

AWB at RB concerns me if it means moving Dalot to left back.

His 'defending' and effort to let that ball go past him before Antony conceded the penalty is so typical of him with his lackadaisical approach.

 

[Ekeke]

He comes across as not really switched on most of the time. I don’t know what it is, but his concentration seems awful, or he’s just way too casual. It does my head in.

He’s just such an awkward player.

Its really interesting because there are certainly times when he doesnt react fast enough. When marking a player, or seeing a run, or sometimes if the ball breaks... And yet averaging 2.3 interceptions a match AWB is 2nd only to Antonee Robinson from Fulham for interceptions. He has 2.5 per 90 mins.

So his positioning, anticipation and concentration to see that a teammate is going to try and find his player and ability to come in and take the ball off them is top level in the premier league. I guess this just goes to show how many potential oppertunities to win a ball a defender gets, that he can look slow to react at times but factually intercept and take the ball more than his peers other than Robinson. And we all know he's a great tackler on top

So yeah I really think it comes down to specific situations. One being marking where he's not the best in the air and he's not the best at competing with a player he's marking from set pieces. And another being runs behind him. If its in front he'll usually deal with it