Why is our passing so garbage?

klayton88

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There's one obvious culprit but more and more players in our team can't play a 10 yard pass consistently. Is it infectious?

We constantly put ourselves in bad positions and on the back foot.
 

DWelbz19

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Our players (collectively) just aren’t good passers. Nobody in that team is a high volume or a high accuracy passer. Have an FBRef search of our 5 central midfielders (Bruno; Eriksen; Casemiro; Fred; McTominay) and I doubt any one of them is higher than the 50th percentile or so in the PL this season for accurate passes. It’s a huge issue.

We are too engrossed in playing transition based football, and that’s mostly because our players only really excel in that aspect of the game.
 

BluesJr

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Really disappointed with this aspect of the coaching tbh. Was expecting more.
 

amolbhatia50k

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You need to build towards being a possession team. Players like Bruno Awb WW are sloppy in the buildup. You can’t just forgo a few positions and maintain a high passing level.
 

Idxomer

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Because we decided to build our team on technically deficient footballers.
 

Skills

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Our players (collectively) just aren’t good passers. Nobody in that team is a high volume or a high accuracy passer. Have an FBRef search of our 5 central midfielders (Bruno; Eriksen; Casemiro; Fred; McTominay) and I doubt any one of them is higher than the 50th percentile or so in the PL this season for accurate passes. It’s a huge issue.

We are too engrossed in playing transition based football, and that’s mostly because our players only really excel in that aspect of the game.
This
 

sullydnl

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Today, being down to 10 men doesn't help.

In general, we tend to lack that profile of player.
 

hobbers

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Build a team around Bruno, dont expect to ever keep the ball. Even at home vs the worst side in the league.
 

Abraxas

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We're not really a possession team as yet. We play the ball forward very quickly. Any team is going to struggle to retain possession when you play like that. I guess it is because Rashford is our key player and any time he makes a run players like Casemiro/Bruno/Martinez/Eriksen are trying that raking pass. It's the next step for us, to get more technical quality into the team and be more patient.
 

hobbers

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We were playing with 10..
The players deserve praise .. Ever played 90 and that too with 1 man down
So what? Being a man down doesnt stop you keeping hold of the ball.

Bruno and Sancho gave it away about two dozen times between them that second half. Needlessly most of the time.
 

jamesjimmybyrondean

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Been saying this for long that this is our main problem. We can't control a game and lose the ball too carelessly. As others have said, the reason is due of the players we have. Most of them like to play too many risky passes and are careless with the ball. Our main midfielders are arguably the most careless which is the position that's needed to control games.

It's why I think players like Bellingham and Osimhen aren't what's needed as they are also careless with the ball
 

DownRiver

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You will see that Bruno is the biggest culprit. Absolute idiot.

We have players that have low IQ too in their decision making.
 
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El Jefe

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A team with De Gea, Bruno, Fred, AWB and Casemiro will never be a good passing team. Each of them are sloppy and it's part of their game. One or two in the team you can manage but not all of them starting every game.

It also doesn't help when Bruno and Casemiro happen to be our two best playmakers especially with Eriksen out.

Its a fundamentally flawed squad for a team that wants to be possession based.
 

mikeyt

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If you want to play possession based football it's quite simple, Bruno must be benched or better still, sold.
 

The_Midfielder

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So what? Being a man down doesnt stop you keeping hold of the ball.

Bruno and Sancho gave it away about two dozen times between them that second half. Needlessly most of the time.
We were going for the goal.. The only way to do that was hit those long balls and hope Rashford can score 1 .. Then shut shop..
 

sullydnl

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Ultimately all you can do is start upgrading players.

It's fairly obvious why we wanted FDJ in midfield, so a signing of that profile is step one. Beyond that you have the likes of De Gea, AWB, Varane, Casemiro and Bruno who are all either bad passers or high risk passers. You need to start upgrading the weakest of those.

You can work around a few players, but not that many.
 

hobbers

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We were going for the goal.. The only way to do that was hit those long balls and hope Rashford can score 1 .. Then shut shop..
They didnt give it away going for long balls. Bruno did what he always does when pressed and shat himself repeatedly. Starting Southampton counters with his no look flicks.
 

Red_toad

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How many times did Dave give the ball away when we're down a player? Playing it back to him is such a waste of possession. Then there's Bruno playing risky passes in our own half :o

Really need Sabitzer back asap, going to be hellish watching Bruno & McTommy as the pairing.
 

redIndianDevil

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Been saying this for long that this is our main problem. We can't control a game and lose the ball too carelessly. As others have said, the reason is due of the players we have. Most of them like to play too many risky passes and are careless with the ball. Our main midfielders are arguably the most careless which is the position that's needed to control games.

It's why I think players like Bellingham and Osimhen aren't what's needed as they are also careless with the ball
I’ll be happy if they tried a risky pass and misplace it. But they are misplacing the most basic pass without any sort of pressure. In the last 2 mins of extra time Fred, Bruno, AwB all misplaced really simple passes.
 

Leftback99

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Because we have too many wasteful players. De Gea, AWB, Bruno, Casemiro and Weghorst are not players you can build a possession team around.
 

Offside

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Our biggest issue. One of the main reasons we get shown up in the CL. It makes us a lot less enjoyable to watch as you’re constantly on eggshells waiting the inevitable unforced error.
 

Kag

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Casemiro and Bruno are high risk players and it regularly gets us goals.

Then you’ve got the likes of Wan-Bissaka, McTominay and Weghorst who are just shite on the ball.

Until we sign a midfielder or two who can really get on the ball and knock it about from deep (e.g. De Jong) then we’ll always have games in which we struggle to keep it.
 

VeevaVee

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You can add Fred to the list of shite passers, at least for 50% of every games he plays in. With him and awb you can see the mistake they’re about to make well before they do it.
 

Licha-Vidic

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At least people can see it now,
Up until we first change the Midfield area with quality ball players we won't do much in the grand scheme of things.

Or we go Klopp way, we bypass midfield but then we need to be press monsters.

I said after the Liverpool game we need 3 players need.
2 midfielders and 1 striker.

If we don't sign midfielders, Ten Hag job will hang by the thread as all games will be a struggle and end to end, and we know in end to end games it's your luck which generally determines the score.

I just hope he can see, you can't play in premier league with a disjointed midfield. This is our main problem for the last 10 years.

Casemiro is not getting younger, or else we will need again to replace DM position.

We need to get ourselves out of this mess,as quickly as August in the summer.
 

FrankDrebin

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I best ball player is Erikson by some distance followed by Casemiro and then ,someway below that ,Bruno.

We need more Erikson's.
 

Siorac

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Ultimately all you can do is start upgrading players.

It's fairly obvious why we wanted FDJ in midfield, so a signing of that profile is step one. Beyond that you have the likes of De Gea, AWB, Varane, Casemiro and Bruno who are all either bad passers or high risk passers. You need to start upgrading the weakest of those.

You can work around a few players, but not that many.
Yeah. Casemiro was part of a fearsome midfield at Real Madrid - but there he played with Modric and Kroos. A very different proposition to Fred and Bruno...

Every signing we make going forward should be comfortable on the ball and an above average passer. Otherwise we'll never get close to the major trophies. That's part of the reason why suggesting signing Weghorst on a permanent basis is absolutely bonkers.
 

amolbhatia50k

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I’ve been saying for ages that we need playmakers.

See Martinez. Even in an erratic team display the guys quality on the ball is incredibe. We need that trait in our signings whether it be squad players or first choice ones. Hence I may be in favour of letting Sabitzer go as he’s not exactly that profile
 

FrankDrebin

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We are so clearly running on empty though. Bruno, Casemiro, Rashford, Fred these aren't great possession players but they have been atleast good enough to get us here.

But we need atleast two ball players in the middle of the park in the summer or we'll be left behind.
 

amolbhatia50k

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Yeah. Casemiro was part of a fearsome midfield at Real Madrid - but there he played with Modric and Kroos. A very different proposition to Fred and Bruno...

Every signing we make going forward should be comfortable on the ball and an above average passer. Otherwise we'll never get close to the major trophies. That's part of the reason why suggesting signing Weghorst on a permanent basis is absolutely bonkers.
Agreed
 

Malone_Post

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Really disappointed with this aspect of the coaching tbh. Was expecting more.
Eriks not a magician.

He’s not going to be able to make the likes of De Gea, AWB, Mct, Fred, Weghorst etc great technical passers. They just don’t have the ability.

Martinez & Eriksen are a step in the right direction. We need more in the summer.