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Player Dejan Kulusevski
- Thread starter The Fighting Cock
- Start date
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This has to be the setup in 65% of games where we expect to dominate the ball.
I don't see Sarr being as prominent this season as he was last. We need quality not just legs.
There's a fuck of a lot of scoreline punditry going on in here as ever.
If the idea was for him to be the R8, which I’m pretty sure it was, he was fucking terrible. Just kept avoiding the ball in build up, stood doing nothing pushed up in their defenders. It was worse than last week in terms of build up through the right side of midfield.
It was like we played with a hole in the R8 and two RW’s.
Bissouma (72 mins) 86 touches 80 passes
Maddison (78 min) 86 touches 62 passes
Vicario (90) 47 touches 35 passes
Kulusevski (66 min) 32 touches 19 passes
Sarr v Leicester (77m) 57 touches 46 passes
The only player, of our whole staring 11, who saw less of the ball and made less passes was Johnson. 19 passes for a guy who's supposed to be playing a transitional/creative midfielder is utter wank. he contributed so little to that game, he somehow managed to get himself yanked first - which is some feat given how fucking insipidJonson was. he also contributed very little on defensive transitions (even Johnson managed to out work him here) 0 tackles, 0 interceptions, atrocious tracking back to help (was often seen arriving late in picture plodding back into view.
He did a little sideways dribble and played it off for Bissouma to score a worldy. That was pretty much his shift over for the day.
For those not very good at reading, here’s a diagram:
Here’s what a proper midfield 8 looks like from the same game:
You can clearly see Maddison having to do more midfield work on Kulusevski’s side than Kulusevski did.
The notion that Kulusevski was "good" or even "there" most of the time is bogus. As a result, our right side was even more of a creative black hole than it was last week with Sarr/Johnson. Kulusevski managed to pass to Johnson 5 times in over an out, even Sarr managed 8.
That said, I still think he would have been more use as a RF (where he kept gravitating to anyway) in a game like this, where the opposition is pushed back and Johnson has no room for his straight line dash and whack thing. I would have started or brought on Bergval as the R8 and played/moved Kulusevski to RF because tactically Johnson offers fuck all in a game like this. But I can’t wait for Ange to buy a proper RF and play Bergval as the other 8.
If the idea was for him to be the R8, which I’m pretty sure it was, he was fucking terrible. Just kept avoiding the ball in build up, stood doing nothing pushed up in their defenders. It was worse than last week in terms of build up through the right side of midfield.
It was like we played with a hole in the R8 and two RW’s.
Bissouma (72 mins) 86 touches 80 passes
Maddison (78 min) 86 touches 62 passes
Vicario (90) 47 touches 35 passes
Kulusevski (66 min) 32 touches 19 passes
Sarr v Leicester (77m) 57 touches 46 passes
The only player, of our whole staring 11, who saw less of the ball and made less passes was Johnson. 19 passes for a guy who's supposed to be playing a transitional/creative midfielder is utter wank. he contributed so little to that game, he somehow managed to get himself yanked first - which is some feat given how fucking insipidJonson was. he also contributed very little on defensive transitions (even Johnson managed to out work him here) 0 tackles, 0 interceptions, atrocious tracking back to help (was often seen arriving late in picture plodding back into view.
He did a little sideways dribble and played it off for Bissouma to score a worldy. That was pretty much his shift over for the day.
For those not very good at reading, here’s a diagram:
Here’s what a proper midfield 8 looks like from the same game:
You can clearly see Maddison having to do more midfield work on Kulusevski’s side than Kulusevski did.
The notion that Kulusevski was "good" or even "there" most of the time is bogus. As a result, our right side was even more of a creative black hole than it was last week with Sarr/Johnson. Kulusevski managed to pass to Johnson 5 times in over an out, even Sarr managed 8.
That said, I still think he would have been more use as a RF (where he kept gravitating to anyway) in a game like this, where the opposition is pushed back and Johnson has no room for his straight line dash and whack thing. I would have started or brought on Bergval as the R8 and played/moved Kulusevski to RF because tactically Johnson offers fuck all in a game like this. But I can’t wait for Ange to buy a proper RF and play Bergval as the other 8.
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There's a fuck of a lot of scoreline punditry going on in here as ever.
If the idea was for him to be the R8, which I’m pretty sure it was, he was fucking terrible. Just kept avoiding the ball in build up, stood doing nothing pushed up in their defenders. It was worse than last week in terms of build up through the right side of midfield.
It was like we played with a hole in the R8 and two RW’s.
Bissouma (72 mins) 86 touches 80 passes
Maddison (78 min) 86 touches 62 passes
Vicario (90) 47 touches 35 passes
Kulusevski (66 min) 32 touches 19 passes
Sarr v Leicester (77m) 57 touches 46 passes
The only player, of our whole staring 11, who saw less of the ball and made less passes was Johnson. 19 passes for a guy who's supposed to be playing a transitional/creative midfielder is utter wank. he contributed so little to that game, he somehow managed to get himself yanked first - which is some feat given who fucking insipidJonson was. he also contributed very little on defensive transitions (even Johnson managed to out work him here) 0 tackles, 0 interceptions, atrocious tracking back to help (was often seen arriving late in picture plodding back into view.
He did a little sideways dribble and played it off for Bissouma to score a worldy. That was pretty much his shift over for the day.
For those not very good at reading, here’s a diagram:
Here’s what a proper midfield 8 looks like from the same game:
The notion that Kulusevski was "good" or even "there" most of the time is bogus. As a result, our right side was even more of a creative black hole than it was last week with Sarr/Johnson. Kulusevski managed to pass to Johnson 5 times in over an out, even Sarr managed 8.
That said, I still think he would have been more use as a RF (where he kept gravitating to anyway) in a game like this, where the opposition is pushed back and Johnson has no room for his straight line dash and whack thing. I would have started or brought on Bergval as the R8 and played/moved Kulusevski to RF because tactically Johnson offers fuck all in a game like this. But I can’t wait for Ange to buy a proper RF and play Bergval as the other 8.
Yeah but he got an assist by passing it sideways for a Bissouma worldie, so he must have been great.
He had a couple of nice moments. Everton are shockingly bad, so go figure. Laughable to suggest this game would change anyone’s opinion on him.
That's one of the most insightful things you've ever said
Bazali
Bazali
There's a fuck of a lot of scoreline punditry going on in here as ever.
If the idea was for him to be the R8, which I’m pretty sure it was, he was fucking terrible. Just kept avoiding the ball in build up, stood doing nothing pushed up in their defenders. It was worse than last week in terms of build up through the right side of midfield.
It was like we played with a hole in the R8 and two RW’s.
Bissouma (72 mins) 86 touches 80 passes
Maddison (78 min) 86 touches 62 passes
Vicario (90) 47 touches 35 passes
Kulusevski (66 min) 32 touches 19 passes
Sarr v Leicester (77m) 57 touches 46 passes
The only player, of our whole staring 11, who saw less of the ball and made less passes was Johnson. 19 passes for a guy who's supposed to be playing a transitional/creative midfielder is utter wank. he contributed so little to that game, he somehow managed to get himself yanked first - which is some feat given how fucking insipidJonson was. he also contributed very little on defensive transitions (even Johnson managed to out work him here) 0 tackles, 0 interceptions, atrocious tracking back to help (was often seen arriving late in picture plodding back into view.
He did a little sideways dribble and played it off for Bissouma to score a worldy. That was pretty much his shift over for the day.
For those not very good at reading, here’s a diagram:
Here’s what a proper midfield 8 looks like from the same game:
You can clearly see Maddison having to do more midfield work on Kulusevski’s side than Kulusevski did.
The notion that Kulusevski was "good" or even "there" most of the time is bogus. As a result, our right side was even more of a creative black hole than it was last week with Sarr/Johnson. Kulusevski managed to pass to Johnson 5 times in over an out, even Sarr managed 8.
That said, I still think he would have been more use as a RF (where he kept gravitating to anyway) in a game like this, where the opposition is pushed back and Johnson has no room for his straight line dash and whack thing. I would have started or brought on Bergval as the R8 and played/moved Kulusevski to RF because tactically Johnson offers fuck all in a game like this. But I can’t wait for Ange to buy a proper RF and play Bergval as the other 8.
Wow you put a lot of effort into that.
The only valuable takeaway I have from that is our right hand side needs to click like our left hand side because we play through the left MUUCH more often.
Imagine people see the assist Kulusevski have today and say it was just a sideways pass to a worldie… like there wasn’t a dribble round 2 players first in very tight spaces.
Also, please talk me through the reality of 32 touches and 19 passes as a stat. What happened to the other touches? Those 19 passes how many were successful and how many were progressive? Seems a bit of a fishy number to me.
And yet we won 4-0.There's a fuck of a lot of scoreline punditry going on in here as ever.
If the idea was for him to be the R8, which I’m pretty sure it was, he was fucking terrible. Just kept avoiding the ball in build up, stood doing nothing pushed up in their defenders. It was worse than last week in terms of build up through the right side of midfield.
It was like we played with a hole in the R8 and two RW’s.
Bissouma (72 mins) 86 touches 80 passes
Maddison (78 min) 86 touches 62 passes
Vicario (90) 47 touches 35 passes
Kulusevski (66 min) 32 touches 19 passes
Sarr v Leicester (77m) 57 touches 46 passes
The only player, of our whole staring 11, who saw less of the ball and made less passes was Johnson. 19 passes for a guy who's supposed to be playing a transitional/creative midfielder is utter wank. he contributed so little to that game, he somehow managed to get himself yanked first - which is some feat given how fucking insipidJonson was. he also contributed very little on defensive transitions (even Johnson managed to out work him here) 0 tackles, 0 interceptions, atrocious tracking back to help (was often seen arriving late in picture plodding back into view.
He did a little sideways dribble and played it off for Bissouma to score a worldy. That was pretty much his shift over for the day.
For those not very good at reading, here’s a diagram:
Here’s what a proper midfield 8 looks like from the same game:
You can clearly see Maddison having to do more midfield work on Kulusevski’s side than Kulusevski did.
The notion that Kulusevski was "good" or even "there" most of the time is bogus. As a result, our right side was even more of a creative black hole than it was last week with Sarr/Johnson. Kulusevski managed to pass to Johnson 5 times in over an out, even Sarr managed 8.
That said, I still think he would have been more use as a RF (where he kept gravitating to anyway) in a game like this, where the opposition is pushed back and Johnson has no room for his straight line dash and whack thing. I would have started or brought on Bergval as the R8 and played/moved Kulusevski to RF because tactically Johnson offers fuck all in a game like this. But I can’t wait for Ange to buy a proper RF and play Bergval as the other 8.
Go figure.
It means over half of his passes are one touch (which would include set pieces).
Bissouma had 86 touches and 80 passes though. One touch was a shot to score. Are we really saying that pretty much every touch was a one touch pass?
Maybe a touch means a touch which isn’t a pass or a shot ?
Biss' most annoying habit is dithering, tapping the ball a couple of times before a pass.
I would love to see a Kulu compilation of all his actions alongside a Biss one with all his.
IIRC Kulu's passes are nearly all forward?
Do you really need so many words and graphics to express such a shite opinion?There's a fuck of a lot of scoreline punditry going on in here as ever.
If the idea was for him to be the R8, which I’m pretty sure it was, he was fucking terrible. Just kept avoiding the ball in build up, stood doing nothing pushed up in their defenders. It was worse than last week in terms of build up through the right side of midfield.
It was like we played with a hole in the R8 and two RW’s.
Bissouma (72 mins) 86 touches 80 passes
Maddison (78 min) 86 touches 62 passes
Vicario (90) 47 touches 35 passes
Kulusevski (66 min) 32 touches 19 passes
Sarr v Leicester (77m) 57 touches 46 passes
The only player, of our whole staring 11, who saw less of the ball and made less passes was Johnson. 19 passes for a guy who's supposed to be playing a transitional/creative midfielder is utter wank. he contributed so little to that game, he somehow managed to get himself yanked first - which is some feat given how fucking insipidJonson was. he also contributed very little on defensive transitions (even Johnson managed to out work him here) 0 tackles, 0 interceptions, atrocious tracking back to help (was often seen arriving late in picture plodding back into view.
He did a little sideways dribble and played it off for Bissouma to score a worldy. That was pretty much his shift over for the day.
For those not very good at reading, here’s a diagram:
Here’s what a proper midfield 8 looks like from the same game:
You can clearly see Maddison having to do more midfield work on Kulusevski’s side than Kulusevski did.
The notion that Kulusevski was "good" or even "there" most of the time is bogus. As a result, our right side was even more of a creative black hole than it was last week with Sarr/Johnson. Kulusevski managed to pass to Johnson 5 times in over an out, even Sarr managed 8.
That said, I still think he would have been more use as a RF (where he kept gravitating to anyway) in a game like this, where the opposition is pushed back and Johnson has no room for his straight line dash and whack thing. I would have started or brought on Bergval as the R8 and played/moved Kulusevski to RF because tactically Johnson offers fuck all in a game like this. But I can’t wait for Ange to buy a proper RF and play Bergval as the other 8.
I think a "touch" has to lead to one of:
- completed pass
- incomplete pass
- tackled
- shot (goal / on target / off target)
- free kick won
- free kick conceded (which would include a pass to an offside player I guess)
- ball out of play for throw-in/goal-kick/corner
- ref stops play for half time / full time / serious injury / ball hits ref / pitch invader / force majeure
- Edit: I guess also a miscontrolled receive that bobbled to the opp's would count as a "touch" but not as a either incomplete pass or being tackled?
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Hi Deki’s sister!There's a fuck of a lot of scoreline punditry going on in here as ever.
If the idea was for him to be the R8, which I’m pretty sure it was, he was fucking terrible. Just kept avoiding the ball in build up, stood doing nothing pushed up in their defenders. It was worse than last week in terms of build up through the right side of midfield.
It was like we played with a hole in the R8 and two RW’s.
Bissouma (72 mins) 86 touches 80 passes
Maddison (78 min) 86 touches 62 passes
Vicario (90) 47 touches 35 passes
Kulusevski (66 min) 32 touches 19 passes
Sarr v Leicester (77m) 57 touches 46 passes
The only player, of our whole staring 11, who saw less of the ball and made less passes was Johnson. 19 passes for a guy who's supposed to be playing a transitional/creative midfielder is utter wank. he contributed so little to that game, he somehow managed to get himself yanked first - which is some feat given how fucking insipidJonson was. he also contributed very little on defensive transitions (even Johnson managed to out work him here) 0 tackles, 0 interceptions, atrocious tracking back to help (was often seen arriving late in picture plodding back into view.
He did a little sideways dribble and played it off for Bissouma to score a worldy. That was pretty much his shift over for the day.
For those not very good at reading, here’s a diagram:
Here’s what a proper midfield 8 looks like from the same game:
You can clearly see Maddison having to do more midfield work on Kulusevski’s side than Kulusevski did.
The notion that Kulusevski was "good" or even "there" most of the time is bogus. As a result, our right side was even more of a creative black hole than it was last week with Sarr/Johnson. Kulusevski managed to pass to Johnson 5 times in over an out, even Sarr managed 8.
That said, I still think he would have been more use as a RF (where he kept gravitating to anyway) in a game like this, where the opposition is pushed back and Johnson has no room for his straight line dash and whack thing. I would have started or brought on Bergval as the R8 and played/moved Kulusevski to RF because tactically Johnson offers fuck all in a game like this. But I can’t wait for Ange to buy a proper RF and play Bergval as the other 8.
Kulusevski completed a whopping 3 out of 4 forward passes attempted.
Bissouma 29/34
(Maddison 18/24 forward)
Bissouma completed nearly twice as many forward passes as Kulusevski actually completed passes and 10 times as many forward.
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Video evidence, please. Unfortunately the one
Starks
posted has been deleted.
Kulusevski completed a whopping 3 out of 4 forward passes attempted.
Bissouma 29/34
(Maddison 18/24 forward)
Bissouma completed nearly twice as many forward passes as Kulusevski actually completed passes and 10 times as many forward.
Enjoy your night shift Saddo
I suppose his assist would be classified as a backwards pass?
There's a fuck of a lot of scoreline punditry going on in here as ever.
If the idea was for him to be the R8, which I’m pretty sure it was, he was fucking terrible. Just kept avoiding the ball in build up, stood doing nothing pushed up in their defenders. It was worse than last week in terms of build up through the right side of midfield.
It was like we played with a hole in the R8 and two RW’s.
Bissouma (72 mins) 86 touches 80 passes
Maddison (78 min) 86 touches 62 passes
Vicario (90) 47 touches 35 passes
Kulusevski (66 min) 32 touches 19 passes
Sarr v Leicester (77m) 57 touches 46 passes
The only player, of our whole staring 11, who saw less of the ball and made less passes was Johnson. 19 passes for a guy who's supposed to be playing a transitional/creative midfielder is utter wank. he contributed so little to that game, he somehow managed to get himself yanked first - which is some feat given how fucking insipidJonson was. he also contributed very little on defensive transitions (even Johnson managed to out work him here) 0 tackles, 0 interceptions, atrocious tracking back to help (was often seen arriving late in picture plodding back into view.
He did a little sideways dribble and played it off for Bissouma to score a worldy. That was pretty much his shift over for the day.
For those not very good at reading, here’s a diagram:
Here’s what a proper midfield 8 looks like from the same game:
You can clearly see Maddison having to do more midfield work on Kulusevski’s side than Kulusevski did.
The notion that Kulusevski was "good" or even "there" most of the time is bogus. As a result, our right side was even more of a creative black hole than it was last week with Sarr/Johnson. Kulusevski managed to pass to Johnson 5 times in over an out, even Sarr managed 8.
That said, I still think he would have been more use as a RF (where he kept gravitating to anyway) in a game like this, where the opposition is pushed back and Johnson has no room for his straight line dash and whack thing. I would have started or brought on Bergval as the R8 and played/moved Kulusevski to RF because tactically Johnson offers fuck all in a game like this. But I can’t wait for Ange to buy a proper RF and play Bergval as the other 8.
I agree with almost all of that but am not inclined to lambast Kulusevski for it.
I agree with Richard that it's just not clicking on that right side. I don't think it worked much better with Sarr last there last week either. Between Porro, Sarr and Johnson vs Leicester, we had 15 progressive passes, 7 progressive carries and 0 successful take-ons. On the other side, Udogie, Maddison and Son had 27 progressive passes, 10 progressive carries and 6 successful take-ons. That's basically double the progressive output.
I agree with you that Kulusevski's positioning was often poor in build-up vs Everton. In his defence I don't think he's spent much time in that R8 role before? Also Son was doing some weird rotations into his space in the first half which I found confusing.
Kulusevski remains a challenge to fit into this lineup. I think in the short to medium term he is destined to be a utility that can fill in at RW / 8 / 10 / false 9 as required. Which is a valuable role, but frustrating too because I think he has a lot of potential.
It would be more valuable if he could excel in any of those positions. As I said previously, he would have been better as the RF instead of Johnson in this game because Johnson has no use at all in a game where there is no space to run onto balls in behind. I have no idea why Ange left Johnson on, the sub should have been Johnson off, Bergval on in the R8 and Kulusevski to RF.
Just to emphasise my point (further than the evidence already posted) that it was like having no R8 and two RF's, just look at Johnson and Kulusevski's average position.
Kulusevski's position averages out almost identical, but slightly ahead of Johnson and you can literally see a huge hole in the pitch where our R8 midfielder should be.
This isn't the first time Kulusevski's been asked to play R8 - Chelsea away backend of last season and he was similarly atrocious and uninvolved. They must work at it in training. Either way, it's ultimately on Ange. Poor tactical choice. But people saying Kulusevski was "good" today are nuts, and no surprised he was the first yanked off.