One thing that’s starting to stick out for me is that pressing is easy against one-footed players. That’s why Santi, rosicky, Hleb et all were so good against pressure—two footed. We have a team of one footed players. Even our best player rarely passes is his weaker foot. He may have to bring miki into midfield if he wants to be good at this. Xhaka almost never uses his right. So when he is pressed, he can only take the left option or turn back to goal and place a defender under pressure. Sokratis seems pretty one footed as well so with cech that’s three one-footed players out of the 5 there that are easy press targets. That said, I don’t think our play out of the back has been that ineffective actually. Cech kicked the ball long a lot in the second half which basically handed them possession 75% of the time with no effort required. At least playing out makes them run a lot and earn a turn over. You are right, but sometimes we just focus on the goals and not the number/quality of chances conceded. We conceded way too many shots of lower quality which cech did great against. On their others they were very efficient. XG I think it was about 2-2. Not great defending but we need to give it some time I think. As I said before, this season I’m more concerned with how Emery will deal with the fodder of the prem and the EL. If you look at Chelsea winning two seasons ago, they lost to us, Liverpool, United, spurs and still won the league because they won against the meat of the league.
Yesterday's loss was pretty devastating, just because we easily could have buried Chelsea. If only Auba could have finished yesterday! Still not too upset. The season starts next week. These first two games were always iffy for me. Now we HAVE to kick on and start winning. Hopefully that will let us play into a rhythm and find our identity before we hit the big boys again.
To echo what others have said, there were positives in this match. When we attacked, we looked dangerous. But the defense is a big worry and I'm not sure how any system will fix it. Playing a high line with two less than pacy CBs is going to be brutal. And neither one of them is so good with passing out of the back to make up for their lack of athletic ability on defense. The Sokratis purchase is more and more of a head scratcher every day.
A last thought on Xhaka. I actually feel bad for the guy. He keeps looking poor because managers keep utilizing him incorrectly. The guy is not a 6 - not a d-mid. Playing him like that next to a freewheeling 8 like Ramsey or Guendouzi (or Wilshere last year) is going to make Xhaka look bad every game. I'd love at some point to see Torreira next to Xhaka, where Xhaka takes on the more freewheeling, lead-from-the-back passing role. Guendouzi is marvelous, don't get me wrong, but I think Xhaka would fare much better next to a 6 rather than at that position. Hopefully they let him play a game or two there.
Quick CBs would certainly help, but if the opposition doesn’t have space/time to pick out a pass behind then it doesn’t matter. I think that’s Emery’s tactic. The problem yesterday on more than one occasion we gave them space to pick out a pass which let them in—the first goal I think Jorginho was unmarked by ozil and kante got behind when Luiz has too much time. The second goal came from a really great pass under pressure and mustafi recovered fine and really was unlucky or it was a great finish depending on your point of view. If the press gets more organized and/or the defense learns to retreat when the press isn’t on then we will be better.
That's a great point and makes me want to see him paired with Torreira for a match. He has been underwhelming, but he does very well for Switzerland when paired with someone more defensive in Berhami.
Didn’t create all that many great chances in the 5-3, but we converted almost everything. That game at OT, Adebayor should have had a hat trick 20 mins in.
Agree for the most part. But even the best press can't stop every ball just lumped over the top, and our defenders seem to have trouble dealing with this sort of thing. Sheesh, with them being as slow as they are, the ball doesn't even have to be as good as that Jorginho ball to Morata was --- just lump into space for a quick striker to run on to and Mustafi and Sokratis will mostly likely struggle with it.
Your memory is better than mine. The only Utd game I remember from that period is the CL semi-final and Ronaldo's goddamn free kick
I think the Highline essentially ********ed us when we had no idea when to press or not. There seems to be confusion when Chelsea had the ball even in the middle third . Which is somewhat expected considering this is second game under new coach. Granit really struggled With this new set up. A lot of positives can be drawn from the wing play, and we had some wonderful cross passes for great shots on goal . Once hazard came on, we were a bit rattled and we sat back . Torreira had a couple mistakes is possession ( and should have done better on Alonso) but he cut off several passes at great angles, which is sorely needed for this club. PEA Obviously should’ve had a couple of goals but it was a weird day for him . This game could’ve ended up 5-4in our favor, but our lack of offensive movement in a second sealed the fate. All in all, I think we’re gonna be OK. I am weirdly optimistic even though again we are dropping a lot of points in August.
Growing pains. Possible signs that changes are needed at certain positions, but it wasn't horrible. And as I've said before, "not horrible" has the potential for good things down the road.
It's interesting how much of this was down to basics (which are hard to do) which is a good sign from Emery 1. Cutbacks after breaking down the defence - 2 of these were huge chances that were blazed over the bar 2. Players getting into high quality shooting positions
My thoughts 1. The attack (which was 2nd= for goals last season) looks better if anything. Adding Mhki and Auba more than makes up for Alexis. And with Ozil that is an elite forward line especially seeing Mhki has goals in him. 2. The defence remains disastrous - but Liverpool took more than one season to fix this for example. The diagonal ball for the goal Alonso created for Pedro says it all really. 3. The midfield is still a hot mess at times. Xhaka is hugely problematic. Without him, the team seems to lack any passing quality. But he is a defensive liability.
Do we think Kroenke is going to stump up £85m odd on defenders to fix this problem as Liverpool did? Another £90m of central midfield (Keita & Fabinho) was spent in front of them this Summer too, plus a £60m or so goalkeeper behind them. This is what it takes, while I like the look of what I've seen of Torreira who looks somewhat of a bargain, getting the players we need for the fees we're willing to spend is going to be hard work.
Right, I gotcha. A sweeper keeper helps too. Cech probably could have got to that ball morata scored on. But the question is which will earn us more points over this season with the current squad. We could sit deep and counter I suppose. But I’m not sure I want mustafi et al defending for 60+% of the time. That was the second half v Chelsea and we got worked. At least the press+high line forces the opponent into quick action which allows us more transitional play and more possession too if we want it. I also doubt we will play like that against every opponent. Without cesc, hazard and a pacy forward they weren’t a huge threat in behind on paper. All we needed to do was to keep their deep passers pressed, which we didn’t. We spent decent money this summer; have players on huge wages; and bought two 50m strikers last season. I suspect money to be available next summer for one big signing at least if progress is being made. Liverpool only have that money to spend because they sold their best player and got to CL finals, not becuase of ownership investment. They got pretty lucky (or were good) at replacing his output fairly cheaply which is why they are in their situation. Also, the Klopp project is working so the club is willing to reinvest profits in it.
Oh no doubt, it's a bit of a dilemma. And if pushed to choose, yeah, with our attackers, I guess I'd go with the Liverpool model of the last few years, ie., try to score at least 3 or 4 goals every match and hope your defense doesn't screw up too badly.