Oasis007: Rangnick: "We need to insist that we need to work together. We can only get better in possession of the ball, together. We have to do things together. With passion, emotion and intensity. This was the problem against Wolves. We were only escorting them."
Now he is talking sense. No be when he dey talk before like say na Stoke City and Bournemouth PE teacher he be
eph12: Pressing is just one aspect. We were drinking goals before but that's no more the case. I believe that aspect of our game was highlighted in Rauf's first conference and he spoke about correcting that. The stats show that we have improved there. What I don't understand is why our play when with the ball has become so poor. When we should be adding more bodies to the midfield so the FBs can press forward with ease, Rauf depleted the midfield and still expect the FBs to press forward. Many times there's almost nobody in the midfield to receive the ball. The lack of options is killing our gameplay.
slimghost: My ranking of our CBs when fully fit 1. Varane 2. Bailly 3. Lindelof 4. Jones 5. Magwaya
The problem with Bailly is that he has the worst position and poorest reading of situations among the defenders.
Maguire is only having a poor season. I think things went into his head. Like being given the armband too soon. Otherwise, he is fine, except for lack of pace. He brought calmness to our defence, but right now, over calmness is now killing the setting.
patrickmuf: It is always best to head it over for a corner or to the side,edge of the box is an no-no even the commentator mentioned it.
The best option would have been to head it back to where the cross came from because we had 3 players there. But directing a header depends on the height of the ball vs how much you can jump to give a direction.
Heading it behind him towards AWB was expected to be was a no no, because only a Wolves player was there and he was waiting for such a gift.
Generally, central defenders head directly in front of the box every match day, but that front of the box should never been open widely for un-marked opposition players. This is how other teams play.
The coaches are not teaching the lads how to deal with situations and circumstances that might arise. The other day, I saw Carrick, vs Chelsea gesticulating to the lads how Chelsea free-kicks come in sharply behind the defence wall. When Chelsea took that next free-kick, it was exactly that kind of sharp ball dropping behind a defence line ...
ChristineC: that's the worst place to clear a cross into because there's no guarantee you'd get enough distance to it. it's amateur error. you either return the cross from origin or to the opposite flank, except you intend that header as a pass to another unmarked teammate. nobody is talking about it because it's not even a fraction of the reason the whole team display was rubbish.
Watch this video from 5.20 minutes. Vidic headed exactly to where Jones puts his heading last night. Ronaldo-J.S. Park picked it up and we scored from a counter attack. This is vs Arsenal in UCL semi final.
Numerous counter attacks goals where scored that way
I actually thought we should have pursue Zidane with all our strength and entice him with money. This is a modern player and coach who could have taught our players how to first of all trap the ball, hold it, use it and pass it well.
Rangnick said a coach should have an idea of the kind of football he wants to play. The duty of the coach is to transfer this idea to the head, hearts and veins of the players
Well, let's pray for him, so that his idea benefits us in the long run make we dey watch am first. But this is how LvG used to talk
Oasis007: Rangnick: "Today we showed similar problems the team had three or four weeks ago before I arrived. It is not an easy job to develop a DNA with and without the ball. The game today showed there are still quite a few steps to."
Sounds like those days we used to hear 'philosophy'
Hope in the process of developing a DNA, he will not end up stressing out players mentally as Mr Philosophy did.
And the first player he sanctioned for transfer-in, is a midfielder whose greatest asset is neutralising opposition with sliding tackles in midfield. If rumours are true
And then again, we can't rely on McFred kpata kpata... don't even wanna consider that possibility
It's crrringy
It doesn't hurt to have a Veratti and Bissouma in our midfield ...then throw VDB in the mix and imagine it
Fred and McTominay are the scapegoat of the team, just as Rooney was from 2013/2014 to the day he left. He was said to be holding back Kagawa, Chicharito, Mkhitaryan, Martial, and ofcourse the whole squad. "Remove Rooney and United will play fluid football" was the song after every match day. Since he left, we have not won even a rubber cup.
Now McFred are the sacrificial lamb in a team where an £80m midfielder exists.
Pogba even once played alongside Herrera. He played with Matic when Matic was still somewhat sharp. We once had Herrera, Pogba and Matic, and it was still same complain about midfield.
LostMyZeal: I hope you're not trying to brandish McFred as the best combo since yam and palm oil
If you look at our gameplay closely, you go easily see say we dey handicapped for that middle
How often do you see passes over the top from our clueless midfield? It's always been more of epileptic ground passes.
And to be fair to Pogba, he cannot thrive in a kick and run set up... That's for the Brunos of this world.
I'm not a Pogba fan, but when you reduce the tempo you go see him magic.
Shaolin soccer no be for the likes of Pogba and Matic
This is defending Pogba.
It is even a wake up call to Pogba that McTominay and Fred are are selected ahead of him. Pogba is playing under the 3rd manager with three different style of play he is still doing catch up withcTominay
adebayo201: And Bailly covered that Maguire shits yesterday before he's subbed. Elamp sometimes ehn...
That defence was our weakest department in that match. We could have conceded two goals in the second half due to the fault of the poor positioning of the central defenders if we played against a better side.
And then what we see always is talk about midfield. We have Pogba who was supposedly world best midfielder before he arrived. We have Matic who is 33 years old, same age Xavi was still ruling the world. These two cannot hold down their positions, but allowing Fred and McTominay to sometimes bench them. Now what we hear always we have no good midfielders. In a team we have Pogba and Matic. If Fred and McTominay are benching them, then credit to the latter dou instead of criticism.
Look at the last match, defenders would have conceded three goals from poor reading of the game by the CBs. But all we hear is midfielders.