Madness. It's one "England man" defending another imo. Utterly crazy to expect matip to be in two places at once. Matip is in good postion marking his.man and is goal side. Vvd is on the goalscorer and also drops off properly. Trents literally looked at the guy over his shoulder then just ignores him. He's got 3 yards on the guy but stops and ball watches as per. Matip has then had to leave his man and got try make it to trents man amd that guy has free hit. Vvd.comes over leaving the scorer to get to matips man and then the ajax lad jumps.oit of way and vvds man actually runs onto it and slams it home. In reality matip's man had a tap in. One moment that ruins all the work going forward just by not doing the obvious thing. Defend what you.like lads, it wasn't half as bad as napoli where he basically did the same with Elliott and got walked by but the same obvious error again
It's not a personal vendetta (well, certainly not in my case), just a footballing observation. The ball over his head has been a problem for years. When we were outplaying and outscoring others it was less crucial, but now we're under-performing it has taken on more importance. We're not steamrollering opponents, we're having to grind out results, and that requires more positional discipline. If he is to have an influential role in midfield then we need to change the system to cover, or have an actual RB. That gaping hole is there for all to see. Either way, I still think he creates more chances from the wing.
Anyway, better performance all round tonight, imo - but still work to be done. Can't leave it until the last minute all the time.
Are we seriously expected not to give away a chance in a game though? Can scrutinise the life out of it if you want but we’ve seen posts saying no team has ever kept Ajax this quiet in the CL also… Sometimes maybe just enjoy the result
I'm sure I saw them miss a great chance near the end that Trent ducked under. I did see that, didn't I?
I'm not bothered about the ball going over his head, that's just the system we play. Trent's lack of desire to get back and defend in desperate situations IS an issue.
Exactly. Was I happy about the build up? No But also witnessed Tsimikas in the centre at one point and completely let them through down the right, nothing came of it thankfully but don’t see anyone crowing about that one
Totally agree with this, but didn’t see that tonight and hopefully we don’t see much of that again this season
No we gave away several chances. That's not the issue here. The issue here is there's a clear trend of letting guys just run. See man utd first goals. See napoli goal. See this goal.
Yeah in fairness to both it did look dodgy from.very first view but from the other side it was clear he never had any chance of heading thst and he was marking the first guy so can't be in two places. Just like matip can't be.
morning after review: So we won. could we have won by more? yes, should we have normally? absolutely. I felt ajax were not exactly top class there, the amount of times they kicked the ball out on the full was hilarious. they were mostly hacking at us in midfield any time we got going and the ref indulged alvarez in particular (a guy who wanted his big move but i didn't see a player worthy of one TBH) I'd like to know how many of our "shots" we actually from set piece, that would be interesting as we had to have a fair proportion that were either nodded at keeper (I recall 3 vvd) headed over (i recall 4) but thats just one aspect. Overall: Yes we improved the effort levels. No we didn't resolve a few of the issues we had, still not quite the intensity in some areas and some players making the same mistakes. Yes there positives in a decent 60mins from jota with an assist and a couple good runs and shots, and yes thiago an fabinho did much better as a pair there. Yes tsimikas fought hard under quite a bit of pressure from tadic and yes he got the better of him by the end as tadic was shot, outlasting your opponents is a good thing imo. I guess you can sum it up in saying that if you add 3 first team players like jota, matip and thiago to the starting line up you will improve. I have to say diaz just gave everything to make the difference. he never got a pass through the channel but he worked like a dog, won header after header (including for the goal) and just never stopped. We need that. this shot is a good indicator Jota as doing this all game. Stood central but not really engaging those CBs. when the keeper got it he sprinted but otherwise we seems to just be occupying space. Look at thiago. He's chased up and across doing the pressing. So instantly that's a massive gap in the midfield zone in the fornt of this pic. He's trying to do the press. Look at salah. not really engaging the left full is he? kind of nowhere. Now look at elliott. Again he's in a position to see things but really doesn't do much. Now look to trent. He's clearly looking here at his man. he can see this run coming. Look at matip. He had bergiwjn and is is good position. Look at VVD. Hes got the goal scorer behind him in theory in offside position but will need to react. theres already danger here that no pressure has been applied upfront really and the right side hasn't gone and pressured blind. roll it on. Salah is jogging out, blind under no pressure. Trents already ignored the runner, quite what trent thinks is a question. Is he trying to block the passing channel or is he just drifting aimlessly? If you look he is actually opening the fullback/CB channel here. the gap is widening. Elliott is ball watching (for IBWT, yes you called this as well) Matip has dropped and has good position. vvd is getitng into good position against his man. Tsimikas hasn't actually moved infield much. Big gap there. Now again. Elliott is still ball watching. Trent has now completely gone square facing play the man is sailing by with no reaction. This is a nowhere position. Its not cutting off the pass, its not playing offside, its just a poor body shape and ignored the guy he looked at 2 seconds ago. Matip has gone deeper correctly iMO and bergiwjn has held out, this is clever of him. jus a quick ocmment that fabinho really hasn't reacted to anything and is hanging out observiing as well. VVD has recovered v the goal scorer. the damage is done. salah in all the images above hasn't gone to put a foot in. He's actually never really got close when he ought to be smashing that ball out. elliott has ball watched in the entire squence. Trent has finally woken up to the run, panicked and jumped to run out and try block the ball but it will beat him. The man is now "in" and matip has to go Again fabinho hasn't really moved. After this its a 2 on one. theres lot of players at fault in terms of intensity and reading this but the real big damage is done by trent not defending his channel and following his runner. that whole right side is the weak link again. now second half trent did a lot more as ajax were penned in and got tired so thats all good but the basics are the basics when our backs are to a wall. finally........... 3 home points. This is vital as now in the head to head we are above ajax so a draw away "will do" If we assume rangers are whipped by both teams our job now is to get those 6 points. I'd see this as (worst case is ajax and napoil exchange wins: Napoli P4 9 points Liverpool P4 9 points Ajax P4 6 points Rangers pl 4 0 points. This would then see us play napoli at home and ajax away. That still tight. It'd be nice to get a favour somewhere along the line here. Ideally we can win the group for the above position but could finish 3rd in the end. Napoli beating ajax twice would make this group ok but we would be 2nd. Napoli P4 12 points. Liverpool P4 9 points. ajax Pl 3 points. This would suit me just fine. We'd never get a 4 goal margin v napoli at home to top this group will we? thinking positively a favour will help us tonight but for an easy life, ajax getting smashed would be ideal as well. fingers crossed.
For me the rangers games are more dangerous than they look They are the type of team we should beat but struggle against. They are weak on set pieces though so as long as we're on the ball with them, we should be fine. I still think there's something not quite right about the way the front three interlink, although salah's goal was a positive sign. Agree that the right side is still a big weak point for us.
Much better. Even if we had dropped points, I probably would have still be satisfied because we finally looked like a team with a proper structure. Thiago and Fab give that defensive stability and the platform to attack. I was convinced Fab has looked poor simply because he has no support from his 8's, and last night confirmed that. Unfortunately, it does mean that we do need pray that Thiago stays fit. Trent came back with a much improved performance. Bar the goal, I Thought he was pretty good all round. Shout out to Thiago, Matip, Kostas and Jota - all came in and gave us much needed energy, technical ability, experience and composure. The RCM is still a big problem area - Harvey is simply not providing any defensive cover for Trent and his attacking output isn't enough to justify starting there. Let's hope he bring someone in January.
Diaz has been working his socks off without goals. I think we missed Mane, I still believe the front three will eventually gel together .
