I see three defenders heading in one direction, and the fourth heading in a different one. And it is the fourth's responsibility to make sure they are all heading in the same direction.
Dragusin is playing the attacker onside Romero is facing the ‘wrong’ way It depends how you choose to view the photo. Either way the centre back pairing weren’t on the same page, that comes back to coaching for me. Get them well drilled out in training so things like that don’t happen as often
Damn you lot are smarter than me, I thought the odd one out in the pic was Werner seeing as he’s impersonating a footballer.
Gets back to the lack of leadership again. Difficult to tell from a split second frame of atction but to me Romero's position is all wrong here and you can see that he is already on the back foot as soon as the ball is released from the Newcastle player. I agree with @KingHotspur, this is the sort of thing that needs good coaching....
Here is the picture a couple of seconds earlier. All the defenders are facing forward, they turn as Joelinton beats his man but Dragusin overtakes the Newcastle attacker playing him onside. At that point he is ahead of Isak but instead of staying close to him he runs diagonally to a position where he can neither tackle the player with the ball or intercept the cross. For me that is two mistakes by Dragusin.
Yep, I see that side of the argument as well! Still think it is all down to coaching though, defending appears to have been forgotten about in the drive to play the Pep way at the moment. It does make for loads of goals though...
There are still a few crucial seconds between this frame and the through ball. In that time, Romero needs to glance over and see that Udogie is isolated against both Gordon and Murphy unless he helps his FB. Instead of doing this, he steps up (without shouting to his line to do the same), and ignores the fact that Murphy is now unmarked as Udogie was torn between the two (Romero doesn't indicate to him to pick up Murphy as he steps out). Dragusin plays them onside, but Romero creates the space for Joelinton to pass into. He opens the channel and basically invites the pass. Criminally poor defending which could have been redeemed with better communication, but Romero seems to lack that skill entirely. I'm rapidly losing patience with him. When Micky doesn't play, his shortcomings are bared for all to see.
I think we can almost eradicate these issues by not playing such a suicidal high line. One ball over the top or through the middle and the opposition almost certainly have a goal scoring opportunity. The way we’re playing at the moment it wouldn’t matter if you have Nesta and Maldini or Sanchez and Dier, you’re likely gonna concede a lot of goals from it.
Mickey appears to be the glue that is binding it all together. Definitely miss him when he is not playing. I would agree though that the line is far too high for me. One slip and it is inviting disaster as was proved on Sunday.That or they need to be drilled over and over again to hold it constant, and that is quite hard to do for 90 minutes....
I'm not sure that switching Romero to LCB helped things, but I also don't think that our defence played badly overall. Maddison made a mistake by overdoing the press on the 2nd goal and he was on a yellow, so he couldn't take out Joelinton. Somebody should've picked up Barnes for the first goal too, but I suspect it should probably have been a midfielder. Switching off for a couple of seconds throughout the game should be avoidable, but it's not a disaster. Our high line is risky and our finishing wasn't up to it on the day. The communication throughout the side needs work, too. We had plenty of chances to make clinical last passes and didn't take them, either through bad balls or crossed wires. The Johnson cross near the end when Son dropped deep was both. Son should've kept going, but Johnson should have his head up. I still think that we've played well in all three games and could easily have won them all comfortably. It's been far more encouraging than a lot of our performances towards the end of the last campaign.
The thing is the way we lined up on Sunday effectively had Romero in the Mickey Van role and Dragusin in the Romero role And that might have caused an issue due to Romero's muscle memory telling him he was playing a different role to the one he was assigned for the match
Every penny made has been reinvested in the club but that has not yet proved enough to catch up Arsenal, Liverpool and Man Utd who have been stronger than us for decades nor to match the dodgy money at Chelsea and Man City. We have had our second best run of League finishes ever and got to a Champions League final but we only won the League Cup.
Between 1985 and 2001 we made 3 finals (winning 2). Since Levy and Enic took over in 2002 we have made 6 finals (winning 1). We lost to Blackburn, Man Utd (league Champions) Chelsea (League Champions) Liverpool (Yr before they were league champions) and City (league Champions). Fine lines where we failed against the best in the finals
We won a league cup in 2008 I wont expand on this incase I get accused of being entitled to silverware
The amount we spend isn't as important as who we spend it on though. That's why us spending more hasn't been enough to catch the bigger and better clubs. Despite a marked improvement in the Paratici era, where we've gone really wrong is spending big on players that haven't improved us one iota. The club record/ close to record buys of £50m-£60m+ signings need to be great, they're the ones who should both help separate us from any of the chasing pack and also bridge the gap between our bigger rivals, not keep us where we are or even set us backwards. We've made four signings in that bracket; one's no longer here having been released, one is a poor (and injury prone) striker, one is an inconsistent winger and the jury's out on the newest addition. If we start getting these types of deals right, we have every chance of going up a level.
It's always baffled me how so many of our record signings have failed to pan out While some have legitimate reasons for not doing so, most obviously Rebrov when Bloke in a Coat had us using Wimbledon's tactics, when only Modric and to a (much) lesser degree Lamela delivered on what was promised it makes it look like the club only understand transfers up to a certain price point - which isn't a bad thing, as some of our very best signings have been mid-priced players or canny bargains, but it does have to be said that there is a mental block not just with us but so many clubs only understand transfers up to a certain price point and it goes off the rails afterwards, as Arsenal have habitually demonstrated with some overpriced duds like Pepe, Jeffers, Lacazette et al
Maybe players with heart instead of hairstyles might be a start.Perhaps a full time scout in the Balkans if not in Britain.Hungary players that will die for their club.I guess I'm desperate to see the old Spurs raise the flag again!........and not keep dropping it!
