So, Beeky, what do we think.

We didn't see much of a positive difference in that position at all to be honest. Almost all of Bruno's forward balls were blocked with the exception of the pass to Cavani. Scoring a free kick doesn't mean you've had a good game, no matter how grateful we are for the goal.

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We became more assertive the moment Bruno came on. Not everything came off for him but he added more dynamism to our play and gave us more of an edge up front.

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For our first goal, after Pogba tackled one of the forwards on the edge of our box, it was VDB's quick thinking which put Rashford through wide on the left before he assisting.

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I think you're making more of his contribution here than you should be. Yes he released the ball quickly fair enough but he had no other option and I don't think a pass which was played behind Rashford can be construed as a pass which put him 'through'. The funny thing is the goal probably doesn't happen if VdB plays the pass into Rashford's path.

comment by The Red Side™ (U11275)
posted 8 minutes ago

The funny thing is the goal probably doesn't happen if VdB plays the pass into Rashford's path.
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That was the genius of Beeker's pass. To slow Rashers down

Also, as the club gets to know his characteristics as a player and if he grows in importance in the squad, it's not beyond possibility that our style evolves subtly to harness what he can give us. Sometimes there are games where a more patient possession-based attack would be useful but we haven't had the players to execute it.

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I think in order for this side to really evolve and develop there needs to be more of an emphasis on ball retention, how we use it and our movement off the ball in training. At the moment if we're not managing to sustain attacks, we're just inviting pressure and we're not good enough to do that.

If we can bring in more players who are better equipped at handling, passing and carrying the ball it'll certainly help but there's a difference to be made at Carrington too.

I think Van de Beek is a good player and if we keep giving him chances we'll see that. Our midfield is strange in that I think we have really good options there - better than any other department and comparable with City and Liverpool - but we can't necessarily get them all working. Players are problematic in terms of where to fit them or how to get the best out of them. Fernandes is the only straightforward one in that respect. As such, it's not surprising that the newest player is struggling to make an impact at the moment.

comment by The Red Side™ (U11275)
posted 1 hour, 23 minutes ago
We didn't see much of a positive difference in that position at all to be honest. Almost all of Bruno's forward balls were blocked with the exception of the pass to Cavani. Scoring a free kick doesn't mean you've had a good game, no matter how grateful we are for the goal.

-----------------------------------------------------

We became more assertive the moment Bruno came on. Not everything came off for him but he added more dynamism to our play and gave us more of an edge up front.

------------------------------------------------------

For our first goal, after Pogba tackled one of the forwards on the edge of our box, it was VDB's quick thinking which put Rashford through wide on the left before he assisting.

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I think you're making more of his contribution here than you should be. Yes he released the ball quickly fair enough but he had no other option and I don't think a pass which was played behind Rashford can be construed as a pass which put him 'through'. The funny thing is the goal probably doesn't happen if VdB plays the pass into Rashford's path.
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Oh he did have another choice.

Like some of the lesser players in our squad, he could have just panicked, turned into danger and conceded possession to Liverpool for another wave of attack.

Passing into space, quickly and accurately is a massive problem for us. Out of all of the big teams in Europe, we are one of the worst when it comes down to keeping possession.

This isn't just a personnel issue but also a coaching issue. We have novices leading our coaching sessions (Ole and Phelan only observe)

Oh he did have another choice.

Like some of the lesser players in our squad, he could have just panicked, turned into danger and conceded possession to Liverpool for another wave of attack.

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So he didn't have another choice.

Like I said, I think you're overstating his involvement in this goal. He played a first time pass inaccurately to a player who was in space directly in front of him. 🤷‍♂️

comment by The Red Side™ (U11275)
posted 6 minutes ago
Oh he did have another choice.

Like some of the lesser players in our squad, he could have just panicked, turned into danger and conceded possession to Liverpool for another wave of attack.

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So he didn't have another choice.

Like I said, I think you're overstating his involvement in this goal. He played a first time pass inaccurately to a player who was in space directly in front of him. 🤷‍♂️
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eh? It is a choice for somebody totally unaware of their surroundings as we have witnessed time and time again with some of our player.

Yes they actually CHOOSE an action which loses the ball. Believe it or not they're not controlled via bluetooth by Ole.

You say "inaccurately" but the result was Rashford maintaining possession and being able to progress the ball, something we're usually really bad at when playing out of tight spaces.

eh? It is a choice for somebody totally unaware of their surroundings as we have witnessed time and time again with some of our player.

Yes they actually CHOOSE an action which loses the ball. Believe it or not they're not controlled via bluetooth by Ole.

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There's still only one correct and obvious decision to make in that situation and if any of our other players did anything different it would say more about them than it would do VdB in this particular instance because it wasn't a difficult decision to make at all, which is why I think you're making more of VdB's role in that goal than you ought to be. It's not as if those same players haven't made first time passes like that before either.

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You say "inaccurately" but the result was Rashford maintaining possession and being able to progress the ball, something we're usually really bad at when playing out of tight spaces.

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If he'd played the ball directly into the path of Rashford which I'm sure is what he intended to do, the end result of that passage would likely have been different to what actually happened i.e. no goal.

It's such a piece of cake filling in for Bruno, isn't it?