At first, Robbo looked really raw going forward. Constantly looking to cross the ball all the time without looking. But he’s developed in such a short space of time. Choosing when to cross and when to play it short. Looks more refined. And it helps playing alongside VVD.
he must have half a brain. the concept of listening to one's coach and changing your game is a radical one but for some players it does make a difference. For some you could tell them 1000 times and they'd still be looking at the wall behind you.
Did you also make general comments about how Lucas Leiva "always passes sideways or backwards"? "Terrible" is a subjective term. He's 25, so has yet to hit his peak. Carra was 24 before he started being the Carra we now think of. His shooting could be better but then he wasn't a goalscorer before we bought him. https://www.footballwhispers.com/blog/revealed-best-attacking-full-back-premier-league "Walker and Delph can usually be found alongside Fernandinho in centre-midfield. You could say they’re more likely to get a hockey assist from playing a pass into the feet of the more creative players before they set up a goal. "It doesn’t make them bad going forward, it just means what they do can’t be quantified. "The same could be said for Moreno. The Spaniard impressed early on in the season before picking up an injury in the 7-0 win over Spartak Moscow in the Champions League. He’s often portrayed as a reckless player who ignores his defensive duties so you’d assume he’d rank high on this. But he doesn’t. "Moreno is third from bottom with an xG+xA90 score of 0.10. On the surface it’s a fairly low score but, like his City counterparts, he’s usually the man playing the hockey assist an therefore he doesn’t get the credit for it." Andrew Robertson is rated higher in this table than Moreno, yet hasn't scored this season, either. Fullbacks don't score many goals anyway. The two top rated fullbacks in that table, Sead Kolašinac and Ashley Young, have scored 4 and 2 respectively this season. He can obviously cross both high and low. He can play quick passes. He's not "fatanstic" but he's not "terrible" either. He's about £12m's worth of bench depth. And Lucas could pass forwards.
I backed Lucas from the start, often defending him in his initial two seasons when most were criticising.
Moreno has improved on last season........lets face it, he couldn't get much worse. His positional sense is poor, he ball watches in his own penalty area and has made too many rash challenges in and around our defensive third. We need better as a second choice LB imo.
