I only saw the 2nd half and thought Brook was OK. He looked a little slow to close on attackers at times, but also made some good tackles and had his usual good distribution from the back.
Like Wolfsburg his first half was better. They had a lot of possession and he was a quazi deep playmaker when the the ball would feed back out. He had a couple good long balls Check out @BetweenThePosts’s Tweet: Passmaps & xGplot for Schalke '04 against Wolfsburg. #passmap #xGplot #autotweet pic.twitter.com/HczJFxyrRt— Between The Posts (@BetweenThePosts) January 20, 2019
He had at least 3 very impressive cross field switches in the first half. Really pinged those balls on a rope, very impressive
Agreed, his cross field ball accuracy was impressive. I also thought his direct passing from deep was impressive as well. He seems to put just the right amount of weight on those balls to feet to allow the midfielder to attack right away. Very accurate, appropriately weighted balls. He was not under a lot of pressure making those passes, but the completion rate of his passes must have been pretty high.
Brooks has really good passing touch/weight for a big CD. I always feel like his marking is a little lax - or his reaction time/pace is not quite quick/fast enough to make him really top notch. He's very composed, and with the right CD pairing could help a better team, but defensively he always looks a bit less than elite.
no more like whenever things go South for Wolfsburg, Brooks is usually one of the worst players, like yesterday. Dude is still inconsistent.
He was literally marking no one in the two run-of-play goals. Sometimes he disconnects and goes to his happy place. It happens less now than before, fortunately, because when he's on, he's good.
Started & went 90 in 1-0 win: Here's how we start in Berlin! 💚 #BSCWOB #VfLWolfsburg pic.twitter.com/pz4swPBMEs— VfL Wolfsburg US 🇬🇧🇺🇸 #GetENwithUS (@VfLWolfsburg_US) February 2, 2019 1091736914409984000 is not a valid tweet id
That's a big win that puts them up to 6th place (Europa League place). That part of the table is super congested, so any sustained run of results can get a club up to 5th and 6th. Frankfurt is in 5th with 32 points; Mainz is in 11th with 27 points.
Team of the Week: 🇩🇪 Bundesliga Team of the Week -- @DieRotenBullen are the dominant side in this XILukás HrádeckyLukasz PiszczekWilli Orban@j_brooks25Marcel Halstenberg@HazardThorgan8Janik Haberer@tyler_adams14@leonbailey@stindl28Alfred Finnbogasonhttps://t.co/m9Ss60TZR4 pic.twitter.com/kKkhqQTaGK— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) February 4, 2019
He was really good in this game. The announcer was apparently in love with him, which was too much, but really he was excellent. I can only remember one time thinking he made a clear mistake, and it was at midfield, which is the place for a defender to make one.
Starts in cup match: #RBLWOB Our cup team vs. @RBLeipzig_EN. #DFBPokal #VfLWolfsburg pic.twitter.com/2SjaDfucuG— VfL Wolfsburg EN/US 🇬🇧 🇺🇸 (@VfLWolfsburg_EN) February 6, 2019
Matchday thread: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/adams-brooks-starts-2-6-leipzig-v-wolfsburg-dfb-pokal.2095717/
I think John Brooks can be summed up as being easily good enough to start regularly for a top 15 team in the world when his team has the ball. But his defending, well, that can be very mid-table.
Yeah. That’s what I’m including. I think the difference between midtable and best in class isn’t the routine performance, it’s how regularly you have a bad outing and how bad it is.
For a CB, I'd take a consistent, albeit lower defensive performance level than a high one with a doozy thrown in. Beggars can't be choosers......
Really though it depends on whether he makes up for the goals he prevents in his great games with those he's to blame for in his crap games. Hard to quantify this sort of thing.
His style of defending and frame kind of dictate this. He plays for interceptions and blocks on D. When he plucks a dangerous pass from the air with his long legs, it looks good and it shuts down the danger. But if you play for the interception and you miss... you are having a bad day on D. He is never going to be able to stick close on a shifty, low-center-of-gravity attacker. So that mostly means that on a day when his timing is a little off, his perception of what he can get to is a little off, or the attackers are really nailing their passes, then his defensive weaknesses are exposed. On days where the opposite is true, he looks like a defensive force field that makes the opponents dribble the ball in rather than pass.
Starts: Here's the starting XI that'll defend our colors in Freiburg. 🐺💚#SCFWOB #Bundesliga #VfLWolfsburg pic.twitter.com/VMCSNpYvAO— VfL Wolfsburg US 🇬🇧🇺🇸 #GetENwithUS (@VfLWolfsburg_US) February 9, 2019
that's usually what happens when Wolfsburg does well, Brooks does well. When things go south, usually the worst player on the field. in fact, Freiburg scored a 4th goal in injury time but was ruled off, which could have made Wolfsburg lose 4-3, very close.