News: The 2021/22 Season Preview/Review Thread [R]

Chong w/ the opener, won it back high, tried a chip and got the rebound and belted it home. Not the brightest start if we are honest, but only Garner/Levitt have played much together.

Tuanzebe/Mengi will not be beaten in a race or physically.

 

They wont, but damn they've had a tougher ride than any other player. Its first game, so dont wanna be to harsh. But a lot of mistakes.

 

Yes. I think the lack of a proper holding midfielder makes it hard for them. Neither Garner nor Levitt were 'sitting' so there just a lot of space all the time. Even for experienced defenders, it is hard to defend a lot of space. I thought they were shaky to start and they got better as the game wore on and as we as a team got better control.



I love watching Shola play. I just wish we could see more of him and Hannibal specifically in a near full strength team.

 

Can't keep a clean sheet in pre-season #OleOut

 

What about Shola's game impresses you? Not criticizing, I just genuinely haven't seen enough of him and when I have he looks pretty meh to me. Unlike Hannibal who really flashes.

Also, Pellistri looked good today. He's still obviously a couple years away from our 1st team but he makes a lot of good runs and seems lively on the ball.

 

Almost everything about Shola impresses me, but his two standout qualities are reading of space and vision.

Shola sees EVERY pass. He 'misplaced' a pass to Facundo early in the 2nd half and what he actually did was put the ball where the run should have gone. Facundo was on his heels. He was in space and that was where the ball should have gone but he wasn't confident Shola would see him so he never made a run.

Fast forward to the goal. A simpler chance but one that a lot of players in Facundo's position might go early on. Having seen that Shola knows exactly where he is, Facundo holds his run and Shola delivers on a dime.

As for reading of space, watch a comp of Shola's if you can and see how he is always receiving in space. Some of that is clever movement. You'll see him stop moving when the play is going away from him and end up in space. You'll see him push in the direction of the play and then step off to create room. You'll see him drop off completely. All of that is standard stuff for a playmaker on a team that values possession. He does it well, but by itself, that's not super impressive. Where he's next level is the time on the ball. Even when a defender sees Shola in space and starts to close him down before the pass arrives, Shola still has time.

Shola will receive the ball and use his body as a shield, use the defender's momentum against him or simply ignore the pass and let it roll to a teammate instead. His technique is so clean that if he decides to kill the ball and invite pressure, he can do that. Shola has more angles where he can receive the ball and create danger than Bruno and maybe even Pogba.

His game is full of that and for someone so young, it is a joy to behold. I feel like if he were Italian or Spanish, he'd play deeper, but England takes all the best technical players and turns them into attackers.

EDIT:

the other thing about Shola is that he's not one to loan out. It would be like loaning out Busquets. 90% of teams would have no use for a player like him despite his immense qualities. Shola's value increases as the technique and reading of the game of players around him improves.

It makes sense that you'd rate Hannibal more quickly than you would Shola. Hannibal's game jumps off the screen. He's overrated in the same way Grealish is. His qualities are so obvious you wonder why every pass isn't in his direction.

 

Shola is going to be a seriously good player as part of a Utd that dominates the ball. Most of his spikes, as Johno said, are in how well he already understands the detail at seven-********ing-teen.

If you just look at his technical ability, it’s still really high - just not as in your face as Hannibal (who is also brilliant). His mobility too - high, just not extreme. But Shola is going to be one of those players where you’ll see opposition players in future say he was so tough to play against because they just can’t get near him. That’s because he’s so far ahead cognitively - he’s either moved into space without anybody noticing or he manages to wriggle out of tight spaces because he uses his body and his touch with precision.

And he’s so switched on - as well as his assist yesterday, you could see for Jesse’s woodwork shot how Shola immediately sprinted to offer the overlap rather than ball watching or wanting it to feet. That’s the movement that opens up blocks, that just looks like a great cut inside & shot by Jesse but was possible because a 17 year old has better focus and game understanding than Martial and Rashford.

https://footballtalentscout.net/2021/07/08/shola-shoretire/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

 

Switched on is an excellent way to describe him. In the lead up to his assist you can see him make several decisions that look natural but have to be the result of good coaching and excellent retention.

He was too deep and Jesse yelled at him to get up the pitch and he did but under control so that when the ball was played past him, he was still in the play (a thing Bruno and Rashford fail at constantly). He turned with the ball so he always knew where it was, which allowed him to see the Matic challenge and recover the ball, laying it off for Jesse with 1 touch. Every 17yo at that point would congratulate themselves on a job done well. This kid oriented his body again (3rd time in like 10 seconds) as he was playing that pass to open up space for the return ball.

If he doesn't do that, Jesse has to go sideways to AP and maybe the move that led to the goal never happens.

He gets the ball from Jesse and drives into space, reads Jesse's run, makes the right choice and to make it even better, he plays the pass to Facundo with disguise.

If you moved this sequence 35 yards further from goal, it wouldn't be weird to expect that from Busquets who is amongst the best readers of space the game has seen.

Like nothing Shola did in the build up could have been countered. If Derby played the goal a million times analyzing it, there's nothing anyone could have done to get closer to or prevent what Shola did. You could have marked Facundo better, the CBs maybe could have stayed a bit more central and not got dragged out of position by Hugill but there was never a moment to stop Shola in that sequence. Everyone was reacting to him and it was too late when they did.

 

Long way to go, but we all came though and survived some dark, dark times to get to where we are;

the corner https://t.co/e3sYw2zxbg pic.twitter.com/Dj014uabI1

— CK (@stateoffooty) July 20, 2021

 

Thinking about this proposed 433.

My initial thought is that a 433 doesn't work with our personnel. However it is possible that we are going to change some things that make that more doable.

If we stopped asking AWB to be an outlet in the first phase of possession and he played like a 3rd CB, the lone "DM" could play as a decoy. Unless a team presses with 4 or 5, then a shape that looks like


-------------LW------------------ST
LB----------------------------------------------RW
--------------8--------------------------8
--------------------DECOY MID
---CB------------------CB------------------RB
-------------------------GK

will be difficult to press. Like if you keep a 442 shape to press (as many teams do), your 2 are not pressing the CBSs. Even if you press with 3, your 2nd bank of 3 has to push very high to deny the ball to the 6. If you press with 3, one ball to the LB or RW opens up the final 1/3 and if you leave the 6 unmarked, they can find either 8 or either wing.

The challenge will be Shaw getting up the pitch and the defense shifting over on time.