Well if it was that easy, no one would build from back at all because all we need to is mark the defenders and let the GK go long . Point being, the first phase of the build up play is very crucial and we haven't been doing it at all since Licha and Martinez was injured. You will see a difference going forward.
6
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 14
- Clean sheets
- 3
- Goals
- 0
- Assists
- 1
- Yellow cards
- 4
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Jamie (@Vault Dweller) are here to talk about United's dreadful home defeat at the hands of Big Ange's Tottenham Hotspur. Should this have been the end of Ten Hag? How long does he actually have left? And does Nik finally want ETH out?!
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Thank feck we’ve got him back!! Hopefully with him and Casemiro returning we’ll start to see a bit more structure and solidity in our play.
Shaw is also key to this setup which was obviously what ETH wanted to start with this season. But I fear that, just like at the start of the season, the opposition will simply force us to swing the ball to the right which is far weaker in the build-up phase, and clog up the midfield.
It's very obvious that teams are happy for Onana to have ball rather than close him down as they do with other keepers.
And that's not down to Onana but the players who refuses to move to open space and receive the ball.
Great to see him back. He only did one or two of them but I have missed those quick passes between the lines
exactly. Takes him a fraction of a second to do it too. He is with no doubt a great boost for us. We need his intensity and work rate at the back. We also badly need this “come near and i’ll kick you in the arse” kind of attitude.
Correct, it baffles my mind.
Yup our off the ball movement is woeful. Martinez usually is great at that though so he will be a massive help for us and will hopefully enable Onana to release the ball faster.
That’s just basic football? My son’s 15 and he knows you don’t press the keeper. It’s been drilled into him for years. That just leaves a defender wide open for the keeper to pass to. Instead, the attackers block off passing channels and press the receiver as soon as a pass is played. The art of beating the press is having a receiver who can take the ball on the turn or has the ability to hit accurate first time passes through the lines. Which is where Martinez will improve us.
Great to have him back…such a great player.
De Gea was pressed all the time. Onana isn't.
Teams are happy to funnel the ball to him, Varane and Wan Bissaka because they'll do very little with it.
They don't press him because he can easily pass through the press?
Do we really see that? He usually ends up going long because they cover the short passes. And then we lose it.
De Gea gets pressed because he shits the bed when that happens. That’s an unusual, very specific tactic because he is almost uniquely vulnerable under pressure.
As I said, it’s a basic fundamental of football coaching for attacking players to not press a goalkeeper. This is what is drilled into attacking players at all levels of football. It’s particularly stupid with a keeper like Onana, who is very calm under pressure. Nonetheless the combination of his calmness and accurate short passing with Martinez’s ability on the ball will obviously make us a lot better at working the ball out from the back.
Him and 90% of modern goalkeepers.
Great to have him back, from the get go he looked good. Nice firm accurate passing, looked confident.
Great to see him back, but until he picks up his past form, the season will end I'm afraid.
Talk about not understanding the reason for something
It's more than that, you just don't press high up all the time like a maniac anyway. That's how you get gassed, and get little reward out of a high effort action.
You target certain players or certain situations when you want to press - for most teams that's when the ball goes out wide to a full back or someone's receiving the ball facing their own goal. CBs are also rarely pressed because they often receive the ball facing forwards and always have a safe option of a short pass back to the keeper.
Newport County 2:4 Man Utd
We’ve missed him big time. His ability on the ball is on another level to anyone else in central defence.
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He’s a top player and most of all I just enjoy watching him play. His passing, movement, control is on another level compared to our other centre backs. Should have had an assist for that stunning pass into Garnacho. We have severely missed him and now I hope he can put an injury free run together.,
Absolute standard setter. Please stay fit.
He was great. Looked confident defending, played some wonderful long balls, and scored a fine goal to cap it all off.
Spot on. Great to see him back. We have desperately missed his quality and physicality.
I think Bruno also does far better when Martinez is in the side because he’s willing (and able) to fizz the ball into his feet in the half spaces. That’s where Bruno is then at his best and can play those killer balls more quickly. All our other CBs either want too much time or are incapable of playing those kind of passes into the striker/number 10. Great to have him back.
Assume you mean central defence because you are doing a massive disservice to Shaw imo.
Him and Shaw are the only players we have that Pep would gladly take off us I think. He's very good.
Yes, I should’ve made that clearer, Shaw is also very good. It’s good to have some composure in the back line once again but we need to be looking at upgrades in the summer for the right hand side of the defence.
Hard to disagree with you. Scary to think what kind of player Shaw would be had he been at City all this time under Pep.
He’ll probably go down as Hag’s only genuinely good signing.
Good to have him back. But not yet fully fit
Looked back to himself today.
We missed him. Here's hoping the injury has been fixed properly now.
It's early days still, but he looked slightly tentative occasionally the first time he came back and I didn't see that today.
Assume Bayindir trusted him to have the composure to get out of the tight space he put him in but he did it with such aplomb to spin out and send a superb pass to Garnacho that we should have converted from
Was he always that stocky? Maybe my memory is deceiving me but he looks heavy to me.
Good performance
Good to have him back. He had a good game.
Hope he can stay fit now, desperately need him at the back to play the ball forward through the lines.
Hope he can stay fit now, desperately need him at the back to play the ball forward through the lines.
Good game. He is so nicely press resistant and his passing is fantastic for a cb. We have missed him so much.
Thought the same, I hope he’s not going for 2nds at the training ground like Casemiro
He does look a bit more bulked up. He was never rapid anyways and relied on his agility and positioning to get to the ball first, so a bit of muscle is not necessarily a bad thing.
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