Re: The part inadequate midfield personnel plays in lack of progressive passing
Xhaka again, pulling a nice half turn and a pass to allow his team to break through. Sometimes that's the entire difference between getting out in transition versus the ball finding its way back to the keeper in no time.
Meanwhile, that's how someone like Palhinha half turns
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Here, I discussed in detail why Porro was justified in not making that pass to Palhinha or Bentancur. Not going to go over that again.
But it's illustrative in that you can see the kind of avenues that a progressive passer or two could open up for us.
This for example would've been a simple breakthrough, similar to Sunderland's above, with VDV bursting forward with the ball. Instead it's a long kick by Vicario.