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I talked about this one before the Copenhagen game. Despite what the Frank cultists will tell you, there is absolutely no excuse for that sort of output, that's tactical.Brutal stat
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Nicely presented. Will be keeping a keen eye out for this sort of shape before common sense nonsense in the foreseeable future!Went back and watched the first goal again because it was so confusing how both Merino the passer and Trossard the runner were so open despite us sitting back with virtually everybody.
TLDR: Palhinha does a few things that are quite inexplicable and totally contradict his reputation as a destroyer, so I must conclude that it was by design on Frank's part.
Here's how it started. Not much to pick on here, other than Odobert giving Timber too much room to receive that pass. Whatever, no big deal.
Timber indeed receives the pass quite comfortably.
Now it gets interesting here. As you can see 3 players are in a great position to smother Timber to win the ball back. Palhinha in particular, the way he rushes towards Timber, looks like he's going to kick the crap out of him. Let's see what happens instead.
He decides to totally back down and give Timber the window to make a simple pass to a wide open Merino. What?
Now he's hurrying towards Merino to disrupt him instead. Right?
Wrong. He's backing down from a contest again, despite having a 5 man defense waiting behind him.
Palhinha drops so deep and gives Merino so much room that Richarlison feels compelled to close Merino down himself. Who's the destroyer and who's the striker here? You can also see Danso in the background ball watching and losing sight of the runner, but I think it's a secondary issue here.
Danso has completely lost the runner, and makes a last effort to get back in the play in vain. You know the rest.
Verdict: Despite apparently picking on Palhinha here, I think this sequence was the epitome of Frank's incredibly negative approach to yesterday's game in general. This guy's natural instinct is to tackle, and he also knew that he had the safety net of a back 5 behind him. Yet he went out of his way to avoid challenging opponents on the ball, trying to keep his defensive shape instead.
TLDR: Just a brief illustration of the kind of dilemmas our midfielders had to navigate regularly while defending due to the huge mismatch between the teams' formations
Seems like there's nothing to see here, but looking at this closely you can see that both Bentancur and Odobert have decisions to make. Bentancur needs to decide between closing down on Zubimendi versus staying attached to Eze, and Odobert needs to decide between following Timber versus helping Bentancur by crowding the middle himself.
As you can also see, this 3v2 situation is primarily due to VdV the LCB keeping his defensive shape at the expense of marking nobody.
Bentancur eventually decides to cover Eze, while Odobert decides to help him by keeping his distance from Timber to sit narrow. The ball eventually finds it way back to the halfway line
Now, matchups are slightly different here. Zubimendi drops back and wide to drag Odobert away from Bentancur, so Bentancur can no longer rely on him to address the situation where he has to mark two players at once. Bentancur needs to decide between Eze and Timber this time, instead of Eze and Zubimendi earlier. VdV still doesn't mark anybody mind you.
Bentancur is in quite an unenviable position, stuck between two players.
Eze gets the ball because there's little Bentancur can do there to prevent it, and now Odobert has to drop back and cover Timber to address the 2v1 that Bentancur finds himself in. But then he's also probably worried about overcommitting to the middle and leaving Saka totally isolated with Udogie on the right.
The ball eventually finds it way to Saka out wide, and you can see how much space he has in a 1v1 with Udogie in case he wants to have a go at it. Odobert wouldn't be able to help due to the pattern outlined above.
Verdict: I think this mismatch between their 4-6-0 and our 5-2-3 where our CBs were sitting back and watching us get overrun in midfield was the main reason behind this defeat. Everything followed from there, including all that time their players had on the ball in dangerous areas to make things happen.
TLDR: Just a brief illustration of the kind of dilemmas our midfielders had to navigate regularly while defending due to the huge mismatch between the teams' formations
Seems like there's nothing to see here, but looking at this closely you can see that both Bentancur and Odobert have decisions to make. Bentancur needs to decide between closing down on Zubimendi versus staying attached to Eze, and Odobert needs to decide between following Timber versus helping Bentancur by crowding the middle himself.
As you can also see, this 3v2 situation is primarily due to VdV the LCB keeping his defensive shape at the expense of marking nobody.
Bentancur eventually decides to cover Eze, while Odobert decides to help him by keeping his distance from Timber to sit narrow. The ball eventually finds it way back to the halfway line
Now, matchups are slightly different here. Zubimendi drops back and wide to drag Odobert away from Bentancur, so Bentancur can no longer rely on him to address the situation where he has to mark two players at once. Bentancur needs to decide between Eze and Timber this time, instead of Eze and Zubimendi earlier. VdV still doesn't mark anybody mind you.
Bentancur is in quite an unenviable position, stuck between two players.
Eze gets the ball because there's little Bentancur can do there to prevent it, and now Odobert has to drop back and cover Timber to address the 2v1 that Bentancur finds himself in. But then he's also probably worried about overcommitting to the middle and leaving Saka totally isolated with Udogie on the right.
The ball eventually finds it way to Saka out wide, and you can see how much space he has in a 1v1 with Udogie in case he wants to have a go at it. Odobert wouldn't be able to help due to the pattern outlined above.
Verdict: I think this mismatch between their 4-6-0 and our 5-2-3 where our CBs were sitting back and watching us get overrun in midfield was the main reason behind this defeat. Everything followed from there, including all that time their players had on the ball in dangerous areas to make things happen.
Palinha is a massive, massive issue. He can tackle, but that's it. Puts us under pressure because when he gets the ball, it doesn't go anywhere near an advanced player, so opponents can spring their press. He's also technically terrible, so gets caught and will never progress the ball.Went back and watched the first goal again because it was so confusing how both Merino the passer and Trossard the runner were so open despite us sitting back with virtually everybody.
TLDR: Palhinha does a few things that are quite inexplicable and totally contradict his reputation as a destroyer, so I must conclude that it was by design on Frank's part.
Here's how it started. Not much to pick on here, other than Odobert giving Timber too much room to receive that pass. Whatever, no big deal.
Timber indeed receives the pass quite comfortably.
Now it gets interesting here. As you can see 3 players are in a great position to smother Timber to win the ball back. Palhinha in particular, the way he rushes towards Timber, looks like he's going to kick the crap out of him. Let's see what happens instead.
He decides to totally back down and give Timber the window to make a simple pass to a wide open Merino. What?
Now he's hurrying towards Merino to disrupt him instead. Right?
Wrong. He's backing down from a contest again, despite having a 5 man defense waiting behind him.
Palhinha drops so deep and gives Merino so much room that Richarlison feels compelled to close Merino down himself. Who's the destroyer and who's the striker here? You can also see Danso in the background ball watching and losing sight of the runner, but I think it's a secondary issue here.
Danso has completely lost the runner, and makes a last effort to get back in the play in vain. You know the rest.
Verdict: Despite apparently picking on Palhinha here, I think this sequence was the epitome of Frank's incredibly negative approach to yesterday's game in general. This guy's natural instinct is to tackle, and he also knew that he had the safety net of a back 5 behind him. Yet he went out of his way to avoid challenging opponents on the ball, trying to keep his defensive shape instead.
