Sofyan Amrabat | 2023/24 Performances

[Roboc7]

It’s a thankless task playing that role alongside Bruno and Mctominay. He tries at least but very ordinary player and thankful only a loan.

 

[Adnan]

He was very good in the game and performed very well but was let down by some poor passes in the first phase which allowed Bournemouth to score twice from high turn overs. And just looking at the statistics, they back up what I saw in the game, which show he had a good game.

Poor passes from Bruno and Shaw cost us the first two goals and our weakness in rest defense along with being weak at carrying the ball in central areas is a real weaknesses with players like Bruno and McTominay. For me, Amrabat and Garnacho had a good game.

https://www.sofascore.com/player/sofyan-amrabat/359272#tab:matches

 

[bond19821982]

Okay but he had no support. Maguire - Sofiyan axis is way too slow to do anything. They need proper support from full backs or midfield.

Still one of the better players today.

 

[Ekeke]

Very average. He wasnt the main problem with our attacks, but hes almost always playing the most basic of passes and takes a lot of touches to move the ball. He's a downgrade on how Matic was playing for us before we got rid

Edit - He's also clumsy with his challenges. Was a shame when Hoijlund won the ball back on the edge of their box but Amrabat came in from the side and tripped the player with no need.

 

[flappyjay]

He is average but has more responsibility because of mctominay. I would like to see what he and mainoo look like.

 

[Insanity]

He plays in slow motion. The league is too fast for him. Let's hope we are not stupid enough to trigger any automatic buy clauses in his loan deal.

 

[girish]

He did his job rusher well. But pretty much everything around him was crashing and burning.

 

[adamwest]

He's ok but so so so slow in most actions. Like a regen of Maguire in midfield. He's not the problem but he doesn't exactly provide a solution either.

 

[Sanchez7]

He has a fairly good first touch and is composed on the ball but doesn't have the physicality to play in this league. I have some sympathy though as he is playing on his own in the midfield

 

[shabadu84]

He's ok but he's been hung out to dry the same way Casemiro was at the start of the season. Set up to fail with the tactics despite having a potentially great midfield partner sat on the bench the entire match. Madness

 

[Telsim]

It's kind of hard to blame him. An ordinary player asked to do what even world class players would struggle to do. Could have probably been a good squad player under a proper manager, but...

 

[hasanejaz88]

Seems to passive and afraid on the ball, takes too long to play a pass and it's mostly because he's unsure what to do. Doesn't give a lot of confidence when put under pressure.

 

[InfiniteBoredom]

He's ok but so so so slow in most actions. Like a regen of Maguire in midfield. He's not the problem but he doesn't exactly provide a solution either.

He is a problem though.

When you lack any physicality as the 6 and take so long to evade pressure/release the ball, it gives the opponent a lot of time to get into shape, or threaten you with a turnover. To his credit, he doesn’t lose the ball that much despite being so slow and weak in duels but he doesn’t win them either.

 

[Born2Lose]

Another suicide pass to Maguire to the goal that thankfully didn't count. Not the first time this season and doubt it'll be the last.

 

[InfiniteBoredom]

He was very good in the game and performed very well but was let down by some poor passes in the first phase which allowed Bournemouth to score twice from high turn overs. And just looking at the statistics, they back up what I saw in the game, which show he had a good game.

Poor passes from Bruno and Shaw cost us the first two goals and our weakness in rest defense along with being weak at carrying the ball in central areas is a real weaknesses with players like Bruno and McTominay. For me, Amrabat and Garnacho had a good game.

https://www.sofascore.com/player/sofyan-amrabat/359272#tab:matches

Neither of them had a good game. The only one coming out of that with any credit is Maguire, the rest were just different shades of bad.

Amrabat took a lot of touches for the most simple passes that slowed down our tempo noticeably, and Garnacho for all his hustle and bustle fluffed a lot of promising situations through a combination of heavy touches and bad decision making. Neither of them were rotten but if that counts as a good performance then our standards are in the pits.

 

[Manny]

Thought he was poor. One the reasons we looked rushed was because he didn't get on the ball enough. The ball went to Bruno who spread it forwards or it went to McTominay who gave it back to Bournemouth.

 

[mu4c_20le]

Might as well rotate Donny and Hannibal and put the 8m to other use.

 

[Mickeza]

I’m a big critic of Ragnick but one thing he was totally right about was the total lack of physicality the team had - his famous you don’t need glasses to see the issues comment. To have managed to find the only player on earth potentially less dynamic than DVB and think he can play behind two 8s who run off into the distance…I just don’t have words for the stupidity of that decision.

 

[Ekeke]

Might as well rotate Donny and Hannibal and put the 8m to other use.

£8 million?

 

[InfiniteBoredom]

£8 million?

The loan fee.

 

[Ekeke]

The loan fee.

Already paid. Cant do anything about it now

 

[DRJosh]

I’m a big critic of Ragnick but one thing he was totally right about was the total lack of physicality the team had - his famous you don’t need glasses to see the issues comment. To have managed to find the only player on earth potentially less dynamic than DVB and think he can play behind two 8s who run off into the distance…I just don’t have words for the stupidity of that decision.

It’s not stupidity it’s naivety. The man has only ever managed a “big club” once in the guise of Ajax. He is out of his depth

 

[Mickeza]

It’s not stupidity it’s naivety. The man has only ever managed a “big club” once in the guise of Ajax. He is out of his depth

So two issues with that. ETH shouldn’t be solely responsible for signings and if he is that’s already stupid. And secondly ETH had managed a big club by the start of this season - he’d managed us for a year - I remember it happening. He’d witnessed the physicality of the league for 12 months.

 

[InfiniteBoredom]

So two issues with that. ETH shouldn’t be solely responsible for signings and if he is that’s already stupid. And secondly ETH had managed a big club by the start of this season - he’d managed us for a year - I remember it happening. He’d witnessed the physicality of the league for 12 months.

Hence the loan, it’s widely reported that we paid a loan fee that steep because we weren’t sure how he would perform in the league with his profile.


Licha, Antony, Case, Mount, Hojlund - all the big money signings are hardworking and physical, it’s the loan signings and punts like Eriksen that he gambled with other qualities. We shouldn’t have let Fred go if the alternative is this though, as erratic as he was, he just had a pretty good season and we know he can cope physically with the league.

 

[Rossa]

Thought he was one of our better players. But what is his best position?

Is he an upgrade on Fred? I think we miss his motor and quick legs. Still he wasn’t good enough.

 

[Adnan]

Neither of them had a good game. The only one coming out of that with any credit is Maguire, the rest were just different shades of bad.

Amrabat took a lot of touches for the most simple passes that slowed down our tempo noticeably, and Garnacho for all his hustle and bustle fluffed a lot of promising situations through a combination of heavy touches and bad decision making. Neither of them were rotten but if that counts as a good performance then our standards are in the pits.

Taking extra touches in the first phase of the build up is a must against teams who defend high up the pitch if the aim is to control the game in possession and play out of a press. And Amrabat did that very well with the stats backing that up as well. Bournemouth's tactics were to win high turnovers and play in transition. And they won the game by playing in transition, which got them their first two goals due to mistakes we made by giving the ball away from deeper areas of the pitch. Maguire did have a good game but he again showed his vulnerability to play on the turn when being pressed and almost gave away a goal due to his lack of ability in confined spaces.

The problem (imo) wasn't getting the ball forward from deeper areas of the pitch but rather our inability to open Bournemouth up from central areas of the pitch with both Bruno and McTominay not having the ability to open the game up via a dribble in the final third. That then puts a lot of pressure on the wide players to deliver and I thought Garnacho's ball carrying from wide areas was our most potent threat considering the two players occupying box to box roles in McTominay and Bruno were completely ineffective in that regard.

There's two massive problems with the team currently. And the problems are that we have a weak rest defense where our players at the back are weak at defending large spaces in transition when attempting to play out of the back upon losing the ball. We don't have the pace and athleticism to control the defensive transition. And we don't have players in central attacking positions who have the craft and guile along with the dribbling ability to unhinge a settled defensive block.

 

[Hostekule]

Just me or does he look overweight? His acceleration is so poor. Don't understand why we signed him.

 

[bosnian_red]

He's just not very good. Too slow (reaction wise and agility wise) for the league. But also asked to do too much in that impossible role of playing on an island as a deep playmaker while ten hag tells the others to just abandon the midfield.

But Mainoo plays a similar style so it makes no sense to spend money on him anyway.

 

[MadMike]

I thought he was relatively good today. As in, the team was rubbish but he didn’t really make many mistakes. But god is he slow on the turn.

Another suicide pass to Maguire to the goal that thankfully didn't count. Not the first time this season and doubt it'll be the last.

That wasn’t a suicide pass for gods sake. It was a simple pass which Maguire easily controlled and had ample time to do something with it but he dawdled (perhaps unaware of the Bournemouth player) and got caught in possession.

People want the team to play out of the back. Well that means receiving and making passes while under pressure on your half of the pitch. Otherwise we might as well hoof it every time.

 

[acnumber9]

Just me or does he look overweight? His acceleration is so poor. Don't understand why we signed him.

The answer is simple. Ten Hag knew him.

 

[RonaldoVII]

Just me or does he look overweight? His acceleration is so poor. Don't understand why we signed him.

Options were limited, who else could we have brought in on loan? The issue was Mount being our 1st choice summer signing and having little left for a Casemiro backup.

 

[LDUred]

You can't really be too critical because a peak Sergio Busquets would look lost in Ten Hag's fundamentally flawed system.

His main passing options are two players who constantly go missing, who do not know how to track back.

If Erik Ten Hag does not sort out some form of defensive cover for the Liverpool game it is going to be yet another mauling. He is the problem, here.

 

[Hughes35]

Who would have thought that the loan signing from an average club, with an average career would be average ?

He's not good enough and never will be. Neither are Martial, Rashford, Reguilon, Anthony, Onana, Van De Beek, Lindelof, Evans, McTominay.

 

[Litch]

Thought it was a honest performance....

 

[FerociousCorgis]

Not sure why people were so high on his Chelsea game. Swear every time I watched him on ball it was backpedaling 30 yards with the ball trying to avoid any pressure.

Oh and his defending on the corner was absolutely fecking pathetic

 

[Big Ben Foster]

Not our biggest problem but not the answer either. We shouldn't sign him permanently, even as a squad player. Thank him for his time and part ways at the end of his loan spell.

 

[Flanders Devil]

Taking extra touches in the first phase of the build up is a must against teams who defend high up the pitch if the aim is to control the game in possession and play out of a press. And Amrabat did that very well with the stats backing that up as well. Bournemouth's tactics were to win high turnovers and play in transition. And they won the game by playing in transition, which got them their first two goals due to mistakes we made by giving the ball away from deeper areas of the pitch. Maguire did have a good game but he again showed his vulnerability to play on the turn when being pressed and almost gave away a goal due to his lack of ability in confined spaces.

The problem (imo) wasn't getting the ball forward from deeper areas of the pitch but rather our inability to open Bournemouth up from central areas of the pitch with both Bruno and McTominay not having the ability to open the game up via a dribble in the final third. That then puts a lot of pressure on the wide players to deliver and I thought Garnacho's ball carrying from wide areas was our most potent threat considering the two players occupying box to box roles in McTominay and Bruno were completely ineffective in that regard.

There's two massive problems with the team currently. And the problems are that we have a weak rest defense where our players at the back are weak at defending large spaces in transition when attempting to play out of the back upon losing the ball. We don't have the pace and athleticism to control the defensive transition. And we don't have players in central attacking positions who have the craft and guile along with the dribbling ability to unhinge a settled defensive block.

Really good assessment, and great post. But it's depressing, because I'm not sure which phase we were good in now... haha

 

[Lay]

The most average player you will find

 

[Devil81]

Shopping at Fiorentina and Atalanta this summer. What could possibly go wrong.

Let's hope and pray its just a loan and not a deal in place already. He's 27 and only played for average sides, does that not ring alarm bells.

 

[Adnan]

Really good assessment, and great post. But it's depressing, because I'm not sure which phase we were good in now... haha

Everything looks bad after a 3-0 defeat at home against Bournemouth. But we have to try and understand why we lost and how we can improve. And there's posters on here who point to Rangnick as someone who was telling them about improving the team when the reality is that I've been posting on here for years about us needing players who have the ability to defend large spaces in transition. And defending large spaces in transition is a thing now due to how the game has evolved tactically in the EPL in the last 5 to 10 years.

So when you have a team that struggles to play out from the back or even struggles to progress the ball effectively, it won't allow you to press high effectively in a compact block. And this has been the problem for the last 10 years where managers have created teams without thinking about progressing play from the back, pressing high and then controlling the defensive transition in large spaces. All three of the aforementioned concepts can only come together if there's cohesion within the system which requires the team to be compact from the defensive, midfield and forward lines. That compactness is not there because we don't have players in midfield and at CB who can compact space in a high defensive line. And a coach's tactics are only as effective as the players he has at his disposal if the aim is to play a more dominant brand of football by playing higher up the pitch in a compact high block.

So with the current team, the problem is very clear and that is that those spaces between the defensive, midfield and attacking lines are too big when defending transitions. And they're too big because too many of our players (especially at the back) don't have the physicality and athleticism to compact space. But having players who have the ability to compact space will allow us to be more compact as a team and sustain pressure higher up the pitch. It's why the club attempted to sign Amadou Onana and then made a attempt to loan in Youssouff Fofana from Monaco to raise the physical and athletic level of the midfield and also wanted to sign Todibo in the CB position. All three of those players have the ability to compact space and help us control the defensive transition due to their duel winning capability in a larger space.

I said a while ago that ten Hag is in a precarious position. And the reason for that is quite simply down to us being a weak team at controlling the game out of possession in rest defense. The equation for me is very simple, and that is he (ten Hag) needs to somehow get through this season and raise the technical, physical and athletic level of the team come the summer transfer window by adding at least 3 players in midfield and at CB who have the aforementioned attributes. If they sign the right players it will change the whole complexion of the team imo.

1.playing through the opponent's press.

2. Pressing high in coordination with the collective.

3. Controlling the defensive transition in rest defense by controlling or containing opposition transitions in large spaces.