noodlehair
"It's like..."
Anyone else find it quite staggering how easily our players seem to panic when put under any kind of sightest pressure at either end of the pitch?
We're second in the league and quality wise that's probably about right, yet we showed less composure on the ball today than you'll see from any other PL side, including the bottom ones. Almost no one willing to pick a pass out from the back, or even take the care to clear the ball properly. Most times we did get forwards, not being able to pick a pass or a decision, and instead just charging into defenders or shooting in a panic, or freezing completely.
It's actually a bit embarassing when you watch teams with much worse players (e.g. West Ham), play against the likes of City and Chelsea, and pick passes, play their way up the pitch, and play football under pressure as if it is no problem for them. Then in the exact same situation we make it look like it is impossible.
Lukaku today for example. Every time the ball went to him you could almost see the blood rush to his head...he actually had the ball in dangerous positions more than enough times to hurt City. He missed an easy chance, fired wide on his weak foot in a good position instead of shifting the ball. Twice got in behind their defence then just panicked and ended up running into a defender he'd already beaten. Cost us the game with a completely unecessary panic clearance (as a team we must be close to about 100 of these in the last two games alone).
And he is just an example of what most of our players were doing. Only Matic, Martial, and Valencia showed any ability to keep their head. Of the rest, Lingard was the only one with his head screwed on enough to even attempt to put in a footballing performance.
If we want too be taken seriously as title contenders, we can't really have over half our outfield players turning into a non league side every time there is a bit of pressure. Imagine what they'd be like in a game like today if there was actually a league title or cup on the line.
We're second in the league and quality wise that's probably about right, yet we showed less composure on the ball today than you'll see from any other PL side, including the bottom ones. Almost no one willing to pick a pass out from the back, or even take the care to clear the ball properly. Most times we did get forwards, not being able to pick a pass or a decision, and instead just charging into defenders or shooting in a panic, or freezing completely.
It's actually a bit embarassing when you watch teams with much worse players (e.g. West Ham), play against the likes of City and Chelsea, and pick passes, play their way up the pitch, and play football under pressure as if it is no problem for them. Then in the exact same situation we make it look like it is impossible.
Lukaku today for example. Every time the ball went to him you could almost see the blood rush to his head...he actually had the ball in dangerous positions more than enough times to hurt City. He missed an easy chance, fired wide on his weak foot in a good position instead of shifting the ball. Twice got in behind their defence then just panicked and ended up running into a defender he'd already beaten. Cost us the game with a completely unecessary panic clearance (as a team we must be close to about 100 of these in the last two games alone).
And he is just an example of what most of our players were doing. Only Matic, Martial, and Valencia showed any ability to keep their head. Of the rest, Lingard was the only one with his head screwed on enough to even attempt to put in a footballing performance.
If we want too be taken seriously as title contenders, we can't really have over half our outfield players turning into a non league side every time there is a bit of pressure. Imagine what they'd be like in a game like today if there was actually a league title or cup on the line.