after reviewing how did we concede the goal maybe this is the best reason why a player shall not play by instinct, like running for the ball.
this was when the possession lost because of a foul on falcao. the transition from attack to defense began. we had enough numbers in defense and mcNair, smalling & herrera formed a nice triangle in the center:
valencia prepared to intercept, mata tracking down, rooney shut down the space of fabregas, smalling watched out the dribbler & had an eye on oscar. herrera tended to run into the space too despite he didn't need to. he was better to watch out where would be the real danger:
herrera turned his direction up. it looked like he predicted a square pass from fabregas and tried to intercept:
instead fabregas passed the ball foward to oscar. herrera turned back again, and aimed at oscar also. hazard started to run in:
hazard run into the blind side of herrera when he was focus on oscar:
oscar passed on to hazard who cut in the space:
herrera followed the ball and changed his focus to hazard:
hazard run into the space between smalling & valencia. it looked like smalling once tried to point herrera to take oscar (but his can't be confirmed unless a close up in slow motion displayed). from this snapshot if smalling could cut in with full throttle right now he might be able to intercept hazard somewhere inside the box. can't tell if the without marked oscar distracted him:
herrera chased hazard from behind. the distance between smalling and hazard didn't close down:
herrera kept chasing hazard from behind. the distance between smalling & hazard didn't close down:
hazard cut in the space between smalling & valencia and started to out run them:
smalling now determined to cut in hazard but it's too late:
herrera gave up chasing and moved himself into the center to cover. it's already too late for smalling to intercept:
everything was too late. we let hazard to run through the space:
i don't blame herrera for the loss. it's more a collective defeat rather than just a single error committed by anyone. even though if we could take three points from this game to be honest the title chase was still very remote. so this is not a disaster to lose out this game. but if herrera can learn from this lesson of why running for the ball can be a very wrong way to play football, this can make him a better player by the next season