Watch Dunk at the far post on their first penalty. Clearly pulls Son's shirt before the other shirt pull. Moves him out of the way by doing it, then plays the ball towards Welbeck. What Kulusevski did was stupid, but that should be a free-kick the other way.
I think there is some truth to this. We used to suffer regular injuries to multiple players in Poch's system too. Some might argue it ended the careers of Dembele and Rose prematurely. But unlike the other teams you've mentioned, we don't have European football to juggle so I wouldn't have thought it would be that demanding to cope playing this way once a week. The more important issue is that we went into the season with a squad that was wafer thin in certain areas. We have 5 (FIVE) goalkeepers in the senior squad FFS. There's the problem.
The first goal came from poor positioning, Emerson forgot he was playing CB and was caught chasing Pedro from a RB position. That forces other players to then drop into an area where they likely wouldn’t be. So some of it is definitely on Emerson. Our attacks in this system largely stem from defenders capable of playing crisp passes, Emerson can’t do that. Davies isn’t great at it either but does have some technical ability. When you’re trying to play a system and pick players that can’t play that system it’s going to cost you in multiple ways. We can criticise Ange because his selection and subs today were poor. De Zerbi also had around 6, arguably 7, of his first XI out. A lot of clubs are suffering injuries this season, it’s no longer a unique situation for us as a club. Son, Johnson, Kulu, Richarlison et al have all been criticised too. The difference though with the likes of Son and Kulu is that they’re often very good for us. So the criticism doesn’t draw as much attention as it would as someone who is regularly bad - and what’s worse is that a good number of people knew before a ball was kicked that Emerson would be bad. You need to have higher standards of certain players otherwise you’re allowing mediocrity to set in.
Think we've been unlucky ... Liverpool, Arsenal and City do a high press game and haven't had the same level of injuries...they also have a deeper squads than us. Maddison got an ankle injury from falling awkwardly, Bentencur got his from a piss poor tackle by Villa's Cash, Solomon twisted his knee and Peresic got a foot injury. Skipp got a knock on the ankle. Romero and VD Ven had muscle injuries. To have all that at the same time is unlucky imo. We are at the beginning of our journey with Ange so the squad issue will hopefully be sorted.
I was going to mention similar to this. It’s the downside to playing high intensity systems. We had similar issues under Poch, albeit the cluster of injuries we’ve had in a space of time is probably one of the worst we’ve had in a while. Pressure certainly focuses down on Levy to give Ange a squad of players where a good 20+ can play his system. That way if someone gets injured we can bring another in without too much of a drop in quality.
Two of the GKs are freebies in the squad as we don't have any other HG players to take their place. We've got plenty of players as cover in all positions other than CB where we sold Sanchez with no replacement.
Watching the opener back again. Pedro just runs past Royal, Porro and Hojbjerg like they're not there. Ironically, Richarlison makes the best effort to tackle him. On the far side, Udogie is marking three players because Son is ball watching and hasn't tracked back. He literally doesn't look at his defenders once to see if they need cover. This sort of thing needs to be analysed and worked on in training. Catastrophic defending from half the outfield team.
Your first point is wrong. Emerson had to cover RB because Porro was caught upfield as sometimes happens in the system. He did it passably well but Porro and Højbjerg gave no help and no-one picked up the opposition RB in the area. Neither CB did anything wrong for any of the goals
It’s not, as Porro was behind Emerson in the box, not upfield. Emerson (and then Hojbjerg) then just allowed Pedro to go by him with ease. As CK mentioned, Richarlison was the only player that actually tried winning the ball from him.
The onfield decision was no penalty. If they're looking at the penalty, then they have to look at what lead up to it. They check offsides and the Saka dive tonight checked a foul on Ogbonna, to use an example.
Offsides yes, because that's a line call. And Ogbonna was pushed into Saka...but I don't think they can check unrelated incidents.
Sorry but that's nonsensical imo. I don't think Royal is good enough but he weren't the reason we lost. By your logic he was responsible for 1 goal. Yet your major criticism of tonight was we lost cos of the centre back partnership. I ain't settling for mediocrity by pointing out that the reason we lost was cos lo celso and Kuluchevski gave away stupid penalties and cos Richarlison is not a good striker. I think we need a better squad and think that January will improve things in that department. The players are producing better performances than they ever did under JM/Nuno/Conte. That's on the manager. He is coping with a squad full of players from Pochettino's, JM's, Nuno's and Conte's eras....many of who should have been sold years ago but were instead given contract on good money. He quite rightly doesn't pick Lloris (no one he found acceptable came in for him), he put Reguilon and Ndombele out on loan (no one came in for them), no one came in for Lo Celso, Hoejberg refused to go to Palace, Dier is refusing to leave, no one came in for Royal, Sessengon has been injured since 1842, no one offered money for Gil and obviously no one was going to give us money for Richarlison. Yet with all the injuries he has deliver the best football we've seen since 2018. Tonight is a huge over reaction imho
It's related. It's literally the last thing that happens before Kulusevski's foul. If Dunk doesn't pull Son out of the way by his shirt, then he doesn't play the ball to Welbeck.
Yes, you are right. Offences by the attacking team in the build up to the penalty are mentioned in the VAR protocol.
We’re gonna have games like this even with all the players fit, especially with the Christmas schedule. Decisions go against you, you hit the woodwork twice and have a couple of offside goals to boot. With a deeper squad and/or more starters fit the best teams still play well enough to overcome that but we’re half a season under Ange and the squad is still a bit of a mess, our injury list has been mental and the fact they’ve been all at the same time along with the suspensions has cost us. Even with how ****e we were for most of the game, a few fine margins here and there and we score more goals and come away with a point or more. Scant positives to take from tonight but I’ve seen enough that Ange will learn from his and his players’ mistakes. Big game Sunday now to see the year out at home and an impactful January, ins and outs, needed for the transfer team.
I didn’t say we lost solely because of Emerson. I’ve said Emerson was partly to blame for one of the goals. Which he was. I’ve also said that before a ball was kicked we knew Emerson wouldn’t be good. Which he wasn’t. The centre back partnership isn’t good enough in general, both as a defensive unit and to play the system Ange wants. You wouldn’t put a square peg in a round hole yet that’s what’s being done with this particular partnership. If it makes you feel better, here: Son was ****. Kulu was ****. Hojbjerg was ****. Johnson was dogshit. Richarlison was dogshit. Lo Celso was ****. The manager was ****. Veliz however was great - what’s the betting he’s benched again though. You’re now generalising half a season’s football over a game’s criticism. I’m well aware the football has largely been great so far. I haven’t criticised 5 months of football, I’ve criticised tonight’s game and the preference of selecting a dog awful footballer out of position again. When you know something’s going to be bad, and is then indeed bad, it’s annoying that nothing was done to prevent it. We couldn’t have known so many others would’ve dropped stinkers but we almost certainly knew Emerson was going to drop one.
Postecoglou's post-match comments have been virtually all positive. I'm fine with that. That's what he should be saying to the press. What he says behind closed doors should probably be more balanced, though. I hope it is.
I absolutely still believe Johnson will come good and it’s harsh making him the fall guy in the tweet but the general point is very valid. We’ve wasted lots of money on signings in previous years, both domestic and foreign, that we could’ve saved fortunes on had we just looked closer to home at developing by providing a pathway to the first team.
Emerson didn't though. He shepherded the Brighton player into a non dangerous position only to find Porro, Højbjerg, Kulu and Son ball watching while Udogie had 3 players to mark. Your hatred of Emerson is OTT...he is a perfectly good squad player and was much better than Porro today.
