Few thoughts from me on the game.
Overall, utter poo. To have nearly 3/4 of the possession, do so little with it and yet Newcastle look threatening every time they go forward really was a concern.
Overall it’s been a really good season and no matter what happens from here until the end of the season I’m Ange all in. The future is very bright!
The only concern is how prevalent some of these issues have been for a while and how we seem to be hoping they’ll go away as opposed to strategising around them. Work to be done.
COYS
Overall, utter poo. To have nearly 3/4 of the possession, do so little with it and yet Newcastle look threatening every time they go forward really was a concern.
- First goal, calamity of errors all round. I actually felt sorry for VDV on this one as anyone can slip, but Son and Maddison losing the ball on the edge of their box, Udogie getting muscled by Gordon and most importantly, Romero stepping to Gordon when he really didn’t need to as VDV was right in front of him - the whole thing was a shambles.
- Watching it back, I’m not even sure Romero knew Isak was there. Very poor.
- The other 2 goals, obvs poor from Porro on the first but VDV has done poorly for both. Nightmare game for him but I won’t single him out as he’s been so good for us all season.
- Newcastle’s tactics could have been created by a spurs fan who knows how we struggle; press high and if we do break the press set 2 banks on the edge of your area because we can’t break that down.
- Biss is a problem. 5 games into the season I had an argument with a gooner saying he would be better than Rice, I feel like an idiot now. Apart from his lack of overall energy /presence, the most alarming thing for me is how he isn’t helping the back 4 transition from defence to attack in the slightest. Not even a little. The Biss of the start of the season was demanding the ball under pressure and retaining it, helping us to transition into attacking patterns. He doesn’t want it now. He’s allowing himself to be marked so easily and isn’t creating space to pick the ball u off the back 4. Big big issue, I’ve been no fan of PEH but he should have started yesterday. Biss isn’t there right now. The biggest criticism of Hojbjerg is how poor he is under pressure with his back to goal, but at least he wants the ball. Bissouma is hiding right now
- Alongside Biss we need to talk about Son. Sonny has good stats this season but his overall play outside of that initial run has been utterly shocking. It has for 2 seasons now. He CANNOT RETAIN THE BALL UNDER ANY PRESSURE. What I don’t understand is why he is coming deep so often, stick on the shoulder and spread the pitch. No defender wants Son running in behind them. Not sure why he’s trying to play like Kane.
- The overall quality of our attacking trio is more like top 6-10 level rather than top 4. Long way to go there. I’ve written for months about the inability of our wide players to really beat their man with any guile and what a problem that is, won’t go into that again.
- Ok, our inability to beat a “set” defence. It’s a worry. We play in and around the edge of the area for prolonged periods without any real plan as to how we create a chance or penetrate the back line. My biggest concern is how few men we have making the box. Werner gets it on the left, he generally has Udogie underlapping, and 3 CMs (including our number 10 Maddison) queueing on the edge of the box to receive a square ball, and no one making the box with runs from deep. If Maddison is going to demand the ball square, Son and Johnson need to be in the box and Bentancur and Porro need to be making late runs to joint them. Runs from deep are so hard to mark, it’s how Fat Frank scored a billion goals - we don’t have any of that. It’s all too predictable, too low-risk and too slow.
- Set pieces. At what point do we wave the white flag on this zonal tactic? Every corner was nerve inducing and any scouting report on us would say it’s an area of concern. It absolutely has to be sorted.
- MF generally. There was a time around December where I thought outside of City we had the best MF in the PL. We are miles off that right now. It’s time to mix it up. If PEH, Sarr and GLC would have played against us yesterday they’d have ran the show, I really believe that. Hojbjerg should have started and I really think we could get more out of Lo Celso.
- Porro has not been the same player for a month or so now. Doesn’t seem to have had that aggression. Carrying an injury perhaps?
Overall it’s been a really good season and no matter what happens from here until the end of the season I’m Ange all in. The future is very bright!
The only concern is how prevalent some of these issues have been for a while and how we seem to be hoping they’ll go away as opposed to strategising around them. Work to be done.
COYS
