- Jan 28, 2004
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bale (6) is he as good as we think?
I think he is as good as we think he is, just not as good as he does!
bale (6) is he as good as we think?
king has ramires, king gets attracted to the ball after modric makes no effort to follow mata, benny tried to make up for king leaving his position and forgetting about his man but couldn't cover in time.
king has ramires, king gets attracted to the ball after modric makes no effort to follow mata, benny tried to make up for king leaving his position and forgetting about his man but couldn't cover in time.
I couldnt believe some of the grief benny got for this goal. The blame lies with Modric and Walker.
Modric - bypassed in midfield easily (not for the first time in the match)
Walker - didnt look across the back line.
Modric wasn't poor. defensively/offensively. The fact that he had submitted for transfer clouded people's view/judgement.
Whilst Walker plays them both onside.
Don't want to particularly defend any of them, but you've all got this one wrong . Lampard starts with the ball in Blake's first screen-shot, Modric closes him down, but Mata's drifted into a little pocket and get's picked out with a simple ball. Simultaneous to this Walker's tracked Drogba's run which is just as well because Lampard was clearly considering playing that diagonal to him (see first pic) of course Walker had to get goal-side because otherwise Drogba takes it down and bang it's another goal. In the end, as I said, Lampard chooses the simple ball to Mata, Modric is taken out of the game, and so King gets drawn out of defence to close Mata down leaving Ramires free to make the run which BAE tries to and fails to track properly (not his fault as it wasn't his man), Ramires is picked out, and it's a simple goal.
The thing that's glaringly obvious to me there is that Chelsea had an extra man in CM, it was piss easy for Mata to find space in that dangerous area of the pitch. If there's any individual fault to be apportioned it's that Gallas wasn't marking anyone, but King had Ramires, but King is the one that left his man while Gallas marked space. It should have been Gallas closing Mata down in other words.
And before everyone absolves BAE completely, part of being a good defender is reading the way the game moves and covering those moves.
There was also an incident in the second half where Ekotto dived in and sold himself allowing Chelsea to advance in space, and it wasn't until Kalou (I think) slowed down that Ekotto decided to sprint to try and retrieve the situation instead of jog. Sprinting should have been the default mode when you have just sold your colleagues down the swany.
Don't want to particularly defend any of them, but you've all got this one wrong . Lampard starts with the ball in Blake's first screen-shot, Modric closes him down, but Mata's drifted into a little pocket and get's picked out with a simple ball. Simultaneous to this Walker's tracked Drogba's run which is just as well because Lampard was clearly considering playing that diagonal to him (see first pic) of course Walker had to get goal-side because otherwise Drogba takes it down and bang it's another goal. In the end, as I said, Lampard chooses the simple ball to Mata, Modric is taken out of the game, and so King gets drawn out of defence to close Mata down leaving Ramires free to make the run which BAE tries to and fails to track properly (not his fault as it wasn't his man), Ramires is picked out, and it's a simple goal.
The thing that's glaringly obvious to me there is that Chelsea had an extra man in CM, it was piss easy for Mata to find space in that dangerous area of the pitch. If there's any individual fault to be apportioned it's that Gallas wasn't marking anyone, but King had Ramires, but King is the one that left his man while Gallas marked space. It should have been Gallas closing Mata down in other words.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
I have to say-I think this is a bizarre interpretation, sloth. How you manage to come to the conclusion that holding the defensive line in that passage of play is a mug's game and that Walker was actually doing the right thing is beyond me.
In the first pic you can see Drogba's onside, looking along the line and about to angle that little run he likes to make, Gallas and King have their eye on the ball. Lampard's looked up seen Drogba and is thinking about the angled through-ball/cross. Walker's got a split second decision, is Drogba onside or offside? Is Lampard going to play the ball? If Drogba's onside and Lampard plays the ball can anyone get back? Walker does the sensible thing and tracks a run which could very well be onside. Lampard doesn't play the ball to Drogba, but to Mata who immediately picks out Ramires' run, and that move of Walker's to cover the threat of Drogba a moment before, suddenly looks ill-advised, and everyone on here, examining in minute detail three frozen moments in time and comparing to an ideal line of four in their minds, groans and blames each person who's not in that rigid line.
But this is what we mean when we talk about attackers having clever movement, when we talk about playing in the hole and pulling defenders out of position through the positions we take up. It tends to happen more however, when you're under-manned, when you haven't the spare man, then someone's got to take responsibility for the man on the ball and this is what leads to defenders getting pulled out of position. Stick Sandro or Livermore in that midfield and immediately you've got someone patrolling that area which Mata's just waltzed into. King doesn't step out, Ramires is covered. BAE's correct because he's got an eye on the over-lapping full-back. Walker's covered Drogba's aborted run and steps out smartly again. Parker's arriving fast from the blind-side of Mata, nicks the ball of his toes, and Bale's nicely advanced with Modric not far behind to launch the counter.
That's it in a nut-shell. Simple as.