Great win. Now let’s focus on thrashing WBA to start off the new year!! Must win especially after what Big Sam said about us
it depends on which period you are digging through your memories for. there are stretches when it was, "whoever is the nearest takes corner" and then it's just a clusterfuck. when there is a plan and a design - ie, ozil taking corners with girous, koscielny, and mertesacker moving - then we look good and can be productive.
I think Mari has been just fine across two games. Frankly, Holding and he as a pair in the middle look reasonably solid.
He looked solid, IMO. Holding did too. Mari had a really smart, calm back header to Leno that stood out to me - right before Elneny that (who did not have a good game) made a poor pass that BHA intercepted and should have converted. As I recall, most of their strongest attacks came on our right side. Mari and Tierney didn’t seem to have to deal with much on our left. What they did have they handled well.
He was solid. Brighton focused on crosses and balls over the top. He’s never going to be bothered by anything in the air.
Impressive second half. Plenty of praise to go around for everyone. The guys who stood out were ESR and Saka. ESR MOTM. The only trouble that stuck in my mind was Elneny with a few shocking moments. Other than that he did his work quietly.
man, i am not particularly certain about holding future as a long-term starting centreback yet but, as no 3 and no 4 centrebacks, that would be a nice 2nd team/EU pairing to have.
Just read on NBC Sports that in the first half we held 55% possession, but were out attempted 8-1. In the second half we conceded Brighton 55% but out attempted them 10-5. Mikel and his staff deserve credit for the half time adjustment.
i saw that in highlights! that was cold blooded! i loved it. interesting. i wonder if that was on us or on them - like, whether their attacks just focus more on their left side or if they decided to attack our right side. a lot of bottom half of the table teams focus on attacking with crosses and balls in the air and, if he is solid against that, he would be a nice option to have against them where gabriel can be rested.
Danny Higginbotham had a segment on NBC the other day where he talked about how most teams in the Premier League want to be rid of the ball, and let the other team ******** up when they have it so they can counter. Today's second half, particularly the first 20 minutes, was a great example of that. Like Holding, he seems like a perfectly competent backup. I never want either of them to be relied on for more than 10 starts, all competitions, in a season.
I imagine the conversation had is: "the more we go side to side the more vulnerable we are to a mistake and a counter." So if the focus becomes more vertical that means our spell of possession becomes shorter, but we're creating in less compact areas and if we lose possession were likely losing it in less harmful areas. The perfect example of this was the counter down the left channel where Saka drilled it across to Auba. He didn't score, but it resulted in a corner which is another scoring opportunity and it allows the team up the field to pin back Brighton and likely create another turnover is they manage to clear the danger. With that being said, we have to figure out our corner situations. Not good enough at the moment are they?
I'm looking at a stat right now on fbref.com called a goal-creating action, defined as "The two offensive actions directly leading to a goal, such as passes, dribbles and drawing fouls." One of the categories underneath that definition is PassDead aka set pieces. Our number there is 1, which is obviously tied for worst in the league. The best is 6, tied between Chelsea, Everton, and West Ham. So yeah, our corners, free kicks, throw-ins (lol no kidding) could use some work. Someone on Reddit described our set piece coach as a war criminal for his wage theft, and that's...not all that far off.
The first defender thing has always struck me as a sort of red herring. Like yeah, you'd love to always get a corner past the first defender, but doing so means taking pace off it and elevating it more, which means that a defense will have a much easier time dealing with it. But it looks bad when the first defender clears it, so it's an easy thing to latch on to. If our corners are cleared by the first defender more often than normal though, then yeah, that's a corner-taker problem.
You make a good point about the type of ball in the box. Anything too high generally plays to the oppositions advantage. I do like that we see a bit of variety in what we try. Nothing seems to work, but there's clearly some serious thought about the things we try.
I mean this is the entire concept of gegen-pressing and playing in the transition - so the EPL is rather late to the party I do think what has changed is how teams are more direct. e.g. Pep's barca used possession to push up high, precisely so they can attack you in the transition. But now don't bother with the possession part - which is very much the German approach of recent years This is not specific to football - Rugby has also gone this way
yes - its like hitting the wall with your free kick. Of course you can make sure you don't - but then you make it harder to get the ball down
Ted has been on about this in recent years It's a cheap way to get goals - hence why it was popular in international football as it is easier to drill
in the highlights i saw, commentators have been raving about cresswell's delivery. wonder who are delivering for the other two. ours have been dreadful, if i understand correctly. arseblog dude have been pissed about it for weeks. :-D i mean, our defensive set piece numbers (at least as of a few games ago) was quite good so, while he has not helped offensively and, if we are blaming him for that, it seems fair to credit him for the defensive record as well.