Borys
Statistics Wizard
Defending (and attacking) starts in midfield. The reason why some teams have so good defensive record is because they can prevent dangerous situations in Central areas, and in the end the defenders have much less to do. Similar things with attacking, midfield and attackers work the ball to isolate opponent defender and pull him wide to 1on1.Yeah, I’m curious how many teams end up getting a result after being reduced to 10 men and then switching to a back 5?
Taking off Donny was a mistake because it meant we totally surrendered the midfield and thereby possession of the ball. I just rewatched the first half and they really were doing very little against our 4. I have no idea why Ole switched to a back 5 except it seemed his attitude was hold what we have. A difficult task when you totally surrender the ball and have a whole half of football against 11 men and a fierce crowd.
Personally I think our manager and coaching stuff have no particular idea what midfield should be doing, so they just keep the number of midfielders to minimum (sometimes 2, sometimes 1) and give them very easy instructions: after you get the ball back, pass it to forwards, or if that's not possible, just pass it to defenders-they do the playmaking at United. So it doesn't really surprise me Ole though it's a good idea to sacrifice a midfielder for a defender.