It was obvious for some time before the goal that we were starting to flag and in serious need of a fix to the constant turnovers of possession in midfield. Understandably, ten Hag doesn't trust our bench and would rather leave the starters on until they're on fumes. That works some of the time, but at others, it looks like a failing of the manager when in reality, you can't legislate for the chasm in quality between our starting midfield and the bench options who may or may not simply make everything worse with their disparate ability.
Taking Casemiro off yesterday (or not starting him as some thought should have been the case) turns the midfield upside down. Even if his passing or retention drops a little, his positioning and innate ability to read and stuff out danger is not only top percentile in the world; it's the bar for others to meet. It's important in this discussion because there is no alternative in our squad to him. McTominay's ball-watching and unawareness when it comes to both positioning and preempting danger are arguably his worse traits, so not only do you go from the literal best in the world at these things, you drop below average in them when he isn't on the pitch. Allied to that, the competence in terms of short-passing and general nerve under pressure simply has no
recourse from our bench - fresh legs aren't more important than the ability to pass and use the ball, especially so if those fresh legs spend a fair amount of time accounting for their own mistakes. All this to say it's not constructive or conducive to seeing out games, particularly at the point in the game where pressure is intensifying and calmer heads with both skill and composure come to the fore.
I was left scratching my head as to what we could do to remedy the problem at least ten minutes before Casemiro's card and had no real answer. There's no point in making subs that exacerbate problems, so then you have to look at other areas of the pitch - say going long, or using the flanks i.e. some way to circumvent or dilute, but then, our right wing is in shambles currently and yesterday, Rashford wasn't having a good game on the left, nor is he a player you look to for control and ball retention, so the notion of condensing the midfield didn't really have any legs. Perhaps the answer is going long to the target man, relying on him to hold up play and work it wide? This bypasses the midfield and puts the onus on the opposition to counter the focal point ahead of them, at the same time, it provides deep-ball players the opportunity to diversify with their pass selection, simply playing the ball to the most open flank as whoever from the oppo finds themselves drawn into the vacuum of helping out against the big man.
The suggestions are numerous, but to me, they're flakey at best, which is why I can understand a manager not being sold on them. In your mind, what should we do the next time such a scenario as last night's presents itself? We've a tactical and personnel conundrum as far as I can see because using the same midfield over and over again is absolutely unsustainable, but the cover we currently have are of a standard where if things fall apart, you can hardly be surprised. Before anyone says I'm slating the cover, it's more a case of acknowledging just how good Casemiro is, as well as being aware that neither Eriksen or Bruno have direct replacements with anything like the passing attributes they do. Regardless of Bruno's flippancy in possession, he still has the ability to turn games in a flash, so there's logic in him staying on the pitch. Eriksen's passing massively goes to pot when he tires, like night and day difference, but even then, an exhausted Eriksen's passing is better than what could come on, right?
The anxiety toward ten Hag being slow with subs doesn't have that much merit to me when you can understand where he's coming from with the hesitancy. He doesn't trust the cover to be cover, for the most part, but then, neither do most of the forum despite utterance to the contrary (a lot of the same people then slaughter said cover for making mistakes) so where does that leave us? How can we maintain what are clearly fantastic standards from now until the end of the season in this predicament?
Taking Casemiro off yesterday (or not starting him as some thought should have been the case) turns the midfield upside down. Even if his passing or retention drops a little, his positioning and innate ability to read and stuff out danger is not only top percentile in the world; it's the bar for others to meet. It's important in this discussion because there is no alternative in our squad to him. McTominay's ball-watching and unawareness when it comes to both positioning and preempting danger are arguably his worse traits, so not only do you go from the literal best in the world at these things, you drop below average in them when he isn't on the pitch. Allied to that, the competence in terms of short-passing and general nerve under pressure simply has no
recourse from our bench - fresh legs aren't more important than the ability to pass and use the ball, especially so if those fresh legs spend a fair amount of time accounting for their own mistakes. All this to say it's not constructive or conducive to seeing out games, particularly at the point in the game where pressure is intensifying and calmer heads with both skill and composure come to the fore.
I was left scratching my head as to what we could do to remedy the problem at least ten minutes before Casemiro's card and had no real answer. There's no point in making subs that exacerbate problems, so then you have to look at other areas of the pitch - say going long, or using the flanks i.e. some way to circumvent or dilute, but then, our right wing is in shambles currently and yesterday, Rashford wasn't having a good game on the left, nor is he a player you look to for control and ball retention, so the notion of condensing the midfield didn't really have any legs. Perhaps the answer is going long to the target man, relying on him to hold up play and work it wide? This bypasses the midfield and puts the onus on the opposition to counter the focal point ahead of them, at the same time, it provides deep-ball players the opportunity to diversify with their pass selection, simply playing the ball to the most open flank as whoever from the oppo finds themselves drawn into the vacuum of helping out against the big man.
The suggestions are numerous, but to me, they're flakey at best, which is why I can understand a manager not being sold on them. In your mind, what should we do the next time such a scenario as last night's presents itself? We've a tactical and personnel conundrum as far as I can see because using the same midfield over and over again is absolutely unsustainable, but the cover we currently have are of a standard where if things fall apart, you can hardly be surprised. Before anyone says I'm slating the cover, it's more a case of acknowledging just how good Casemiro is, as well as being aware that neither Eriksen or Bruno have direct replacements with anything like the passing attributes they do. Regardless of Bruno's flippancy in possession, he still has the ability to turn games in a flash, so there's logic in him staying on the pitch. Eriksen's passing massively goes to pot when he tires, like night and day difference, but even then, an exhausted Eriksen's passing is better than what could come on, right?
The anxiety toward ten Hag being slow with subs doesn't have that much merit to me when you can understand where he's coming from with the hesitancy. He doesn't trust the cover to be cover, for the most part, but then, neither do most of the forum despite utterance to the contrary (a lot of the same people then slaughter said cover for making mistakes) so where does that leave us? How can we maintain what are clearly fantastic standards from now until the end of the season in this predicament?