Steev
Full Member
To critical in my view, Bayern targeted him as a weakness, he came through it.
Yeah, he did.
To critical in my view, Bayern targeted him as a weakness, he came through it.
To be fair, I was expecting Robben and Rafinha to rip him a new one today so I'm pleasantly surprised, even though he just tried to hoof it out instead of passing it to someone. Evra should still come in next game though.
He clearly shat himself every time he got the ball in the first half but was very measured, and for once not very rash defensively. Showed there is a good player in there if he can sort the mental side of his game.
So? Only 12 passes to make. How's that his fault? How many of these 12 times was he given the ball with the single purpose of clearing it? That's how the first half was played. Not like Giggs was hugging the line to help him out. Always the easiest pass to make for a full back. That option wasn't available for Büttner which left hoofing it or going back the way it came.
Still baffled by these Opta stats compared to the CL stats. They are so vastly different. Can't understand how that's possible with simple counting. Opta has Vidic with 17 passes at 94%. CL has him at 35 passes with 77%.
Yeah, the nerves very obvious in first 15 mins but very solid defensively. I was annoyed he wasn't closing down quicker, getting out to the ball sharper but it looks like it was a conscious decision to defend the box. He did very well.
We basically defended like Fulham did at OT, let them have space on the flanks and have the full backs narrow to close space in the channels for midfield runners to get into.
It was tactically astute. There. I've said it.
Did you watch the game at all? He touched the ball as many times stopping the opposition as he did in possession himself. There were 4 or 5 times in the first half where United actually made any progress moving the ball forward. He's the only one that was bad at it? No. Everyone where. He didn't make any mistakes defensively. That's all that matters.How about not smashing the ball up the field back to Bayern then he can be involved in a passing move or two? He just needs to find a CM and make a run.
Why do you say it's needless? Doing it a lot of times in a row and yes, it becomes needless. Tricks like that aren't needless. Threatening to move the ball when your teammates make runs around you is likely to make the defender lose notice momentarily, either of him or another player. It all has purpose.He didn't once do that thing where he rolls his foot needlessly over the ball. In fact, I don't think he went forward once in the match. Looked much better for it too. What ever happened to full backs who actually concentrated firstly on defending. He was under the microscope big time and he impressed.
One solid game and he's better than Evra? Or could it be that he wasn't massacred. He never really moved forward with the ball at all. Not taking anything fom his performance, but it seems his basic instructions were to stay back and maintain form. He contributed nothing in attack because if he did venture forward he would've been caught out because his positional sense is terrible.
Robben didn't really test him either because he played narrow and cut in a lot, leaving Rafina the space to bomb down the right. Buttner was a defend and smash the ball up player today...it was effective, but we'll still need to invest in a proper fullback like Shaw
Did anyone notice that as the second half wore on, the wingers on each side started taking the throw ins regularly with the fullbacks staying back. Normally it's the fullbacks who come forward for a throw in, but we decided to keep our back four in a very steady shape. Not a bad ploy and worked well.