I loved that article at the time - hilarious. But to be fair, the situations were a little different. Poch was reacting to the terrible look more than anything I thought.
Kinda true though. Wasn't that great Save through a screen by De Gea from a Chuckwueze shot? Another time he did create a chance for himself but his shot was just outrageously poor.
Has he talked about the goal at all I wonder? People were chasing me with pitchforks for speculating it might have been a cross but I'd be curious what he said about it. Jhon recently confessed he never saw the keeper in his awesome goal against Bayern Munich.
At the time when Hernandez grabbed the ball to take the PK I thought to myself that he wants to take the PK to make up for having conceded one earlier. Plus he has tenure and was wearing the armband. Then during the PBP I was reading the comments that CP was given the role. Still didn't much of Theo Hernandez grabbing the ball as I thought surely the players sorted it themselves. But Tammy Abraham? He had no business pulling rank, sorry. He has no rank.
Think it very well might have been a cross, honestly, it's very plausible that he was just cushioning that back across. But on YA I'm sure we've all seen a lot of things like this get strong pushback in the opposite direction because it ostensibly makes a yank look better if we assume the best. So I'll never blame anyone for not wanting to go 12 rounds over stuff like this. Either way, they all count! And 5 goals in 7, that's all that really matters in the end. So, keep it up by any means necessary CP.
I mean Pulisic isn't the only one who has taken a PK this season. I think it's more fluid than people here want to admit, but Hindsight is 20/20.
Yeah - that's how I see it. That said, a little luck is often involved in incredible goals and few players have the skill Pulisic has to softly cushion that back across. The hands in the air thing I wondered if it was the equivalent of I didn't call bank.
Dempsy hit a few of those in his day and I recall once he was asked if a ball was a shot or a cross and he said something to the effect of “I tried to put it to the far post and hope something good would happen.” Which I think is often the “thinking” (which is more like instinct) on those kind of balls.
you know, it never occurred to me that this wasn't a shot. He certainly reacted as though it was a shot. I doubt he'll address that since I hadn't heard this anywhere except here.
I thought the same exact thing, so I'm with you 100%... but yeah, goal scorers score all kinds of goals! Kane has scored dozens of tap ins, probably. They sure don't count for less, but I always wonder the same thing in these moments.
Made TOTW: 🇮🇹 Serie A Team of the Week pic.twitter.com/5mYye5rPZK— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) October 7, 2024
He won't address it because you haven't heard this anywhere but here? Interesting point. As discussed, I thought the hands in the air perhaps was an admission of lack of intention, but who knows. Ask objective people who have played at a high level and I'll bet you get more honest responses like Dempsey's above - put the ball in a good place and see what happens. Does it matter? - not really - but I think you can be in awe of his skill and also be real about the possibility that he didn't call bank. I thought the announcer went a little over the top. #shrug
It didn't become a spectacle due to anything Pulisic did or didn't do. It was a spectacle because they grabbed the ball and then missed. It would have been just as much of a spectacle had Pulisic wrestled with Tammy and then missed his PK.
I'm saying that had they not missed, nobody would have asked the manager who the designated PK taker was and it is unlikely he would have said anything to the media about it.
(understand this is a side-bar about selfish captain types, but...) I mean, de Jong wasn't signed to be a starter. As a backup, he scored 7 goals in 29 games over 938 minutes. A couple of goals were even crucial. Pulisic is doing better (per minute/game) this season, and Pulisic does more in terms of assists. ...but de Jong absolutely did not lay an egg. (And de Jong scored pretty well at Newcastle too, and....) For me, I'm really glad that Giroud was at Milan in Pulisic's first year. They really seemed to have a great connection - seemed to look for each other. Seems like too many players at AC Milan look for themselves first (and, perhaps, only?). Pulisic looks for others and could do even better if his teammates would look for him more often.
Typically the training on those is to aim for just inside the far post since your teammates are also trained to crash that area - either it goes in, they head it in, or are there in case the keeper gets a glove on it to put in the rebound. I'd call that a shot more than a cross - he put it on frame, but also probably expected someone to be making a far-post run.