It was very poor from Colo but I fully understand why he was picking him up. He moved into his defensive area. The problem was not that, it was Colo dropping deep into the box. Nobody should kid themselves. MYM was awful in the air and awful postionally. Crouch would make mincemeat of him. Crouch makes mince meat of any defender if you allow him into certain areas. You have ensure you do not drit back and get deep. The 18 yard line is key. You also need Daryl Janmaat to stop Moses getting the cross in. Pardew or the coaches had obviously had a word at half time and Moses was no where as effective. Why? We closed him down and got tight, even rough housed him a little. I even heard Mark Bowen shout "right they are getting tight Victor, look for the nudge and spin". They knew we'd changed tack.
The goal was poor defending on those two elements. We just weren't tight enough wide, and drifted back stupidly into a "Crouch" area. Colo just isn't on his game.
To me its just way too simple to say "Willo should be marking Crouch". if Crouch got the run of Willo like that, into that area, the result is exactly the same. Mbiwa was never gonna cut it here, he admitted as much himself. Some players are just not suited.