Canagel
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Bruno should have come off before Pogba
I'm firmly in the pro Ole camp but this was some genuinely dumb shite.
Pogba was in midfield on his own all night getting pressed by three players and his midfield partner Matic spent literally the entire game pretending to be a centreback for some reason...I can only presume he was told to as he never got taken off but we conceded two really soft goals so I'm not even sure what this achieved.
When Fred appeared on the touchline I thought Ole had finally figured out what was going on but then he takes Pogba off and just replaces him with someone else. He'd have been better off doing nothing. Even when he brought Mctominay on he still didn't address the problem.
We have five players who can play in midfield to a decent level. There's no reason to spend an entire game struggling and under pressure because we choose to only have one of them in midfield. Absolutely bizarre stuff.
Ive always questioned Ole about his defensive tactics and you post just adds to my doubts in this area. Like Ive said many times though we do need one or two more signings defensively.I'm firmly in the pro Ole camp but this was some genuinely dumb shite.
Pogba was in midfield on his own all night getting pressed by three players and his midfield partner Matic spent literally the entire game pretending to be a centreback for some reason...I can only presume he was told to as he never got taken off but we conceded two really soft goals so I'm not even sure what this achieved.
When Fred appeared on the touchline I thought Ole had finally figured out what was going on but then he takes Pogba off and just replaces him with someone else. He'd have been better off doing nothing. Even when he brought Mctominay on he still didn't address the problem.
We have five players who can play in midfield to a decent level. There's no reason to spend an entire game struggling and under pressure because we choose to only have one of them in midfield. Absolutely bizarre stuff.
I agree that both James only ran a lot and Ighalo can hold up play (which in hindsight might have helped although we never got the ball out of our own half) but I can totally see Ole's logic.Well different opinions. James ran around a lot but we really needed to get hold of possession. Igalho is good at that.
You are right in saying that rotation is needed. The only catch is we have no strength in depth. I think Ole wanted us to win today and then rest players for our next game.
Ive always questioned Ole about his defensive tactics and you post just adds to my doubts in this area. Like Ive said many times though we do need one or two more signings defensively.
Hopefully he learns from me but at the same time I think the whole team just had a off day apart from Martial.
Martial has never played well on the right. Maybe we could have played him on the left and moved Rashford over to the right, but even he is normally fairly poor on that side (but at least he has had some good games).We didn't need to. Martial to the right. Igahlo on for Greenwood.
I agree that we should have rested Matic and started with Fred and Mctominay on this game alongside pogba with Bruno on attack. Bruno moves all around the pitch so starting him on the right side probably wouldn't have restricted him and could have brought fresher Mason for last 30 minutes. Plus it was surprising that we made no change on playing from the back when anyone could see pogba was the single one in between 5 of their player and they were pressing him like a pack of wolves. Also, didn't understand going 3 at the back after Williams going off, 2 banks of 4 with Martial infront dropping deeper on thier only midfielder would have been ideal with fred at left back than playing Rashford and James as CM?I would have played McTominay over Matic today and probably expected Bruno to drop back if needed.
Honestly I don't think we needed this game to know Matic and Pogba doesn't work against high pressing teams. While we've seen both McTominay and Fred can do very well even against a much higher quality pressing team in City.
I don't think Pogba is suited to these types of games in himself but he does at least offer the ability to pick out killer balls so you can maybe accept losing a bit of control over the middle to keep him there.
Tonight though it looked like a well coached team playing against a team that didn't even really know what the plan was.
It's better to use the sub to address the reason why Pogba was having a poor game, rather than simply sub him off and then carry on in the same manner but with an inferior player.Hindsight’s a wonderful thing. At the time it wasn’t a terrible decision, Pogba was having a poor game by his standards and Bruno looked fecked towards the end. But yes it’s clear now we can’t have both Bruno and Pogba off the pitch at the same time especially when the games in the balance, Has to be one or the other. We lose all ability to retain possession and play it forward when they aren’t on but can’t blame Ole too much he can only bring on what he’s got and neither Scott or Fred offer what they do. Might of been a better idea to bring Ighalo on and have an outlet, someone to hold it up and bring others in, relieve the pressure a bit but it’s done now.
Martial has never played well on the right. Maybe we could have played him on the left and moved Rashford over to the right, but even he is normally fairly poor on that side (but at least he has had some good games).
I'm firmly in the pro Ole camp but this was some genuinely dumb shite.
Pogba was in midfield on his own all night getting pressed by three players and his midfield partner Matic spent literally the entire game pretending to be a centreback for some reason...I can only presume he was told to as he never got taken off but we conceded two really soft goals so I'm not even sure what this achieved.
When Fred appeared on the touchline I thought Ole had finally figured out what was going on but then he takes Pogba off and just replaces him with someone else. He'd have been better off doing nothing. Even when he brought Mctominay on he still didn't address the problem.
We have five players who can play in midfield to a decent level. There's no reason to spend an entire game struggling and under pressure because we choose to only have one of them in midfield. Absolutely bizarre stuff.
For me the problem was the distance between them. Matic was effectively playing CB and Fernandes was so advanced he was closer to Martial than Pogba. It looked like the midfielders were in a vertical line, making it very easy for Soton to press and nullify
When we started off the match, Matic was playing ahead of the defensive line and was constantly struggling with the press. He took way too many touches to settle on the ball, and that resulted in our whole team dropping deeper to compensate for it. When Matic dropped back to make a 3, however, he had more time on the ball, and we were able to advance the ball better. The real problem was that our front 4 were way too high, and no one was dropping deeper to pick up the ball. Ole made that adjustment against Villa in the 2nd half by having both Martial & Greenwood drop deeper to pick up the ball. Against Southampton, though, our front 4 remained higher up, and we tried to play on the counter instead. That failed, of course, because when the ball came to our attacking players, they'd either get surrounded by 2-3 Southampton players or give away possession with a sloppy pass.For me the problem was the distance between them. Matic was effectively playing CB and Fernandes was so advanced he was closer to Martial than Pogba. It looked like the midfielders were in a vertical line, making it very easy for Soton to press and nullify
Fair point but this also includes when he was actually playing as part of the back 3 late in the game. Before that. Half the time he was right up alongside Pogba.Not sure that's a very good read of the heat map. Whoscored also have average position data, and I think this would sum up what we saw:
It should have been Bruno for Fred and push pogba forward. Bruno was poor and didn't relieve the press in midfield.