Premier League - Gameweek 12

[Annihilate Now!]

You know that I watch our games right?

He was extremely poor for us, pretty much consistently. I know because I watched him.

He was very good today. Let’s not pretend that was the level he played for us more than perhaps once or twice.

I mean I'm not his biggest fan by any stretch, but that is pretty hyperbolic. He had plenty of games where he was genuinely excellent for us.

 

[Chipper]

Not gonna go as far as Noods, but I never thought he was as bad at certain things as people made out.
Not good on the ball - false
The jogging back thing was the thing that did my head in.

He's been doing a lot of the uninterested jogging back so far this season too, or at least was the first few weeks. Didn't watch tonight so maybe it was different?

By chance, just wanting to watch a lot of games in the first 8 or 9 weeks I ended up catching about 6 full West Ham games and it was happening all too often. They'd look better down that side when Coufal would come on, often with AWB switching position to left back or right midfield.

 

[diarm]

I mean I'm not his biggest fan by any stretch, but that is pretty hyperbolic. He had plenty of games where he was genuinely excellent for us.

It’s really not. I wrote something else first and then dialled it back because I didn’t want to go over the top on a lad who always seemed a good sort.

But I can remember maybe 2 games where he was as good as he played tonight and that is pushing it.

I know we love to look back on failed players with rose tinted delusion here - I call it Redcafe Chris Smalling Syndrome, but he was a very, very average to weak footballer for us.

He was like a giraffe wearing roller skates on the ball. He was lazy running back and he was all over the place positionally, particularly when the ball was in the air. He was a very good tackler - as good as anyone in the league, but that didn’t nearly make up for all his weaknesses.

 

[Grand Vizier]

It’s really not. I wrote something else first and then dialled it back because I didn’t want to go over the top on a lad who always seemed a good sort.

But I can remember maybe 2 games where he was as good as he played tonight and that is pushing it.

I know we love to look back on failed players with rose tinted delusion here - I call it Redcafe Chris Smalling Syndrome, but he was a very, very average to weak footballer for us.

He was like a giraffe wearing roller skates on the ball. He was lazy running back and he was all over the place positionally, particularly when the ball was in the air. He was a very good tackler - as good as anyone in the league, but that didn’t nearly make up for all his weaknesses.

He had plenty of excellent games for us. At times he was marauding forward and dribbling past defenders and wingers with ease while also completely nullifying wingers defensively. What he struggled with what his sudden lack of focus and positional sense. His ability on the ball was good, just looked very awkward.

 

[noodlehair]

Oh dear

I know it became cool to slag him off and claim he was crap at everything but, you could try just watching him play rather than borrowing opinions from the same idiots who thought Bruno would be dropped for Mason Mount, and now will be too childish/bitter to do anything but slag him off.

 

[always_hoping]

Eddie Howe devoid of any criticism with the English media? only two points ahead of Man United who have sacked their manager and the same amount of goals scored.

 

[Ludens the Red]

It’s really not. I wrote something else first and then dialled it back because I didn’t want to go over the top on a lad who always seemed a good sort.

But I can remember maybe 2 games where he was as good as he played tonight and that is pushing it.

I know we love to look back on failed players with rose tinted delusion here - I call it Redcafe Chris Smalling Syndrome, but he was a very, very average to weak footballer for us.

He was like a giraffe wearing roller skates on the ball. He was lazy running back and he was all over the place positionally, particularly when the ball was in the air. He was a very good tackler - as good as anyone in the league, but that didn’t nearly make up for all his weaknesses.

Yeah you’re wrong. He didn’t have “maybe 2 games” where he was good. It was way more than that.
He was a limited player who had some weaknesses but in general he was a decent signing for us. If you look at the players we’ve spent 50 million or more on during his time here, he’s one of the better ones.

He’s better than the redcafe fav Dalot who stinks the place out way more than AWB did.

 

[noodlehair]

Not gonna go as far as Noods, but I never thought he was as bad at certain things as people made out.
Not good on the ball - false
The jogging back thing was the thing that did my head in.

He's not the best on the ball but he's actually more reliable with it than Dalot which used to do my head in when people would bang on about it being why he should be dropped. It still does now with the fecking garbage we serve up from the wide positions.

All of our players jog back. He was far from perfect but he was a solid fullback in a decent team for a period of time. Only Shaw of our current fullbacks can claim the same and he's a) nearly always injured and b) even when he isn't gets tired after an hour and starts committing stupid fouls.

You make a point on here which is actually a fairly obvious one and get sarcastically shot down by morons who are obsessed with shitting on our current and ex players and seem to pick the more useful ones to pick on and grind down

 

[Chipper]

That was fascinating. Nice one!

From Ipswich's point of view not exactly sure they were strictly man for man on our goal before the part about Fernandes finding space even happened. It could have been that they were trying to be or maybe it was part by design that they don't actually want to press fully man to man and at least keep somoene zonal. Hard to tell from just the one clip.

Cajuste in the middle (number 12) with the line drawn between him and Casemiro I think it is on the analysis drops right off. Nobody close to Evans either intially. As the ball is played to Evans and someone scampers after him, the player shadowing Mazaroui abandons him to move towards Casemiro as Cajuste drops off like that. It's why Maz has the space.

The part about Bruno was cool, and even after that I suppose Ipswich might feel they still could have succesfully tackled Diallo or even fouled him and took a booking.

On the first United clip I liked that bit with Evans, how Amorim wasn't too thrilled with him for not stepping up and shadowing all the way. Everything has his strengths and weaknesses I suppose. Pressing like we presumably want to do from now on you can absolutely smother teams. On the downside when it breaks down there could be a massive gap in behind Evans.

A common kind of goal that you see against teams that want to do that is the defender stepping right up as the ball is played into someone with their back to goal. The receiver lays it off quickly and a through ball is played into a pacey player exploiting the huge gap vacated by defender trying to press into the midfield. Could be a winger who is quicker than the full back/wide centre back in a 3 and he steals a march on him running from outside to in, or a third man run from deep.

Just got to try and prevent getting caught like that by cutting off any passing lanes for the initial lay off but you do see it a fair bit.

Spoiler: Bad drawing time

So if Evans steps up to where the red block is as Tuanzebe runs to the blue block, the white line pass is on behind if the ball is laid off to Tuanzebe. It could aimed to the number 7 on the right wing making a similar run if he was tucked in a bit more to begin with too. It's Tuanzebe who doesn't really have that pass in him so we're ok there, but some players do. Got to be aware of situations like that if we're going to play like that I feel, and try to somehow stop any ball to Tuanzebe or his equivalent if we can. Even if we can't we're still alright for the most part as long as the 2 covering defenders are switched on. If not, or if one of them got outmuscled to a ball it can spell trouble..

Will be interesting to see how we progress with that kind of thing.

 

[CannibalSpectre]

He's not the best on the ball but he's actually more reliable with it than Dalot which used to do my head in when people would bang on about it being why he should be dropped. It still does now with the fecking garbage we serve up from the wide positions.

All of our players jog back. He was far from perfect but he was a solid fullback in a decent team for a period of time. Only Shaw of our current fullbacks can claim the same and he's a) nearly always injured and b) even when he isn't gets tired after an hour and starts committing stupid fouls.

You make a point on here which is actually a fairly obvious one and get sarcastically shot down by morons who are obsessed with shitting on our current and ex players and seem to pick the more useful ones to pick on and grind down

Amorim would've appreciated AWB. He was the only defensive player I could trust to win most physical challenges and speed duels while also being able to carry the ball forward with ease. Dalot has always been the lesser of the two