Blue Since 76 wrote:To me, he needs to learn off Bale - knock the ball 5 yds past the fullback then race him to it. The only way to defend that is to commit another man as cover - midfielder or centre half. We did that to Spurs and it was fine, as there was no one else there to hurt us. Do that against us and you're giving Silva, Aguero, Yaya, Nasri etc an extra few yards of space.
So far, he hasn't tried to take the fullback on nearly enough. Some of that may be a Spanish keep the ball mentality, whereas I'm willing for him to lose out to a defender that far up the pitch as he'll still get past them or win fouls enough of the time.
Bizarrely for such a lightweight looking player, I think his best work has been done defensively and I've been impressed by how much covering he does.
dazby wrote:I think he's pretty easy to coach against.
Force him to go inside and guard against the ball down the line. If he does go down the line give him a nudge and the ball is yours. Or at least you've nullified him.
I can't remember seeing him make a tackle.
Douglas Higginbottom wrote:Blue Since 76 wrote:To me, he needs to learn off Bale - knock the ball 5 yds past the fullback then race him to it. The only way to defend that is to commit another man as cover - midfielder or centre half. We did that to Spurs and it was fine, as there was no one else there to hurt us. Do that against us and you're giving Silva, Aguero, Yaya, Nasri etc an extra few yards of space.
So far, he hasn't tried to take the fullback on nearly enough. Some of that may be a Spanish keep the ball mentality, whereas I'm willing for him to lose out to a defender that far up the pitch as he'll still get past them or win fouls enough of the time.
Bizarrely for such a lightweight looking player, I think his best work has been done defensively and I've been impressed by how much covering he does.
He clearly isn't just a flying winger as some believed when we got him.He is a wide player who often comes inside with the ball but also simply tucks in to become a midfield rather than wide player.That's what Pellegrini knew he was getting and what he wanted.
Yes he can play like a winger at times and maybe he hasn't done that enough because we know he can cross a ball but I am confident he plays to Pellegrini's instructions rather than just bomb down the right.And yes he is defensively aware too ,getting back where needed which included late on v Moscow when Zaba was strangely at center forward rather than defending.
Slim wrote:Have you noticed how much he has quieted since Silva's return?
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