Originally Posted by
Nineteenx
I was talking about the title winning season, I wasn't talking about who is the best Captain. The success of our team and all the talents you mention is hugely dependent on our pressing and counter pressing and the organising and orchestrating of that and the holding together of that comes from midfield
When does Big Bear let goals in? Usually when the defence can't make the angles for him they usually do
When do even our very best defenders fail to make the angles for Big Bear, let players one v one against him or have a free hit without an angle being made for him? When the opposition get to play the ball from a midfield area with no pressure on the ball
When do opposition sides gets to play the ball from a midfield area to connect a forwards run with no pressure on the ball? When the midfield press, counter press, winning of second balls and tracking of running isn't at the levels it needs to be
It isn't rocket science, it's how our system works, practically every single goal we ever concede comes through our midfield press, counter press, winning of second balls, understanding which player they should be staying with or tracking not functioning at the levels it has to. Trent or Robbo don't get anywhere near as many opportunities to attack, show and provide their quality when it isn't working as it needs to either and neither do any of our forwards, unless released by a medium to long ball over the top, from the second ball from that attempted pass or a switch, which more often than not comes from Hendo and almost always came from Hendo in our title winning season
Looks at the Villa result, only Hendo and Mane were missing, the Watford result, only Hendo was missing, the disastrous first leg performance v Atletico in which Fab came in at No6 with Hendo moved to RCM and they parked the bus after scoring through targeting Gomez's weaknesses at a corner and had everyone except Fab marked up and let him have the ball and he didn't have the required distribution
The vast majority of what I mentioned about the importance of the midfield press are born out in the stats in that run or game
Virgil:
Bournemouth 0 Tackles 1 interception 2 clearances
Alisson:
Bournemouth 0 Saves 0 Claimed crosses
Virgil:
Watford 0 Tackles 1 interception 3 clearances
Alisson:
Watford 1 Save 0 Claimed crosses
Virgil:
Leicester 0 Tackles 0 Interceptions 2 clearances
Alisson:
Leicester 0 Saves 0 Claimed crosses
Virgil:
Wolves 0 Tackles 2 interceptions 3 Clearances
Alisson:
Wolves 1 Save 0 Claimed crosses
I could go through the entire list, I'm not a huge one for the stats, but the stats through that entire run I was speaking off completely and absolutely bear out, that in that title winning season, in the vast majority of all our games, the need for Virgil to defend as he can and as he did in 18-19 and Alisson to makes saves as he did just simply wasn't there, our press was SO fucking good, Virgil and Alisson were spectators the the vast majority of A LOT of the games and rarely needed to be called upon
In 17 Premier and Champions League games prior to Fab's injury we kept 2 clean sheets and conceded 19 goals
In 14 Premier, Champions League and CWC games in his absence we kept 11 clean sheets, which would have been 12 but for Twatkinson allowing Dunk to pass a free kick into an empty net v Brighton while the just introduced to the action Adrian was still lining up his wall after Alisson's rare misjudgement saw him sent off and conceded just 3 goals (one of them the Brighton Dunk goal) and the stats comprehensively so how little Virgil and Alisson were required to be called into action in the game in that run
Bookmarks