- Aug 23, 2004
- 15,035
- 126
This is technically off-topic, but...
I thought we were very solid until Cerny unfortunately dropped the ball. Then we seemed to get unnecessarily panicky.
However, I suspect your argument is that Chimbo is a better defender at LB than RB. On the face of it, this is entirely counter-intuitive - Chimbo is a right-footed player who's played at RB for his entire career.
The only two reasons I can think of why we might be weaker defensively with Chimbo at RB rather than LB are:
i) he's less comfortable at LB so he concentrates more;
ii) he doesn't bother trying to join in attacks from LB, whilst he does from RB.
With regard to i), my opinion has always been that Chimbo is a very good defender when he's concentrating. And it's the job of our coaching staff to ensure that he is paying attention - regardless of whether he's playing at RB or LB.
With regard to ii), that is basically an argument about whether the coach wants his FBs to attack, or alternately to do a Santini and not cross the halfway line. I would argue from watching a lot of Sevilla, and from the signings of Hutton and Gilberto, that Ramos likes his FBs to attack.
Now, if your FBs are constantly pushing forward, there will always be defensive gaps. At Sevilla, it is the primary job of Poulsen to cover those gaps. When Dani Alves bombs foward, Navas (the RMer) is usually overlapping or switching inside. It's Poulsen who drops in to cover from his C/DM position. At Spurs, I think we've been most effective when Tainio has been in CM precisely because Teemu has the tactical team intelligence to recognize where and when we're exposed and cover. If nobody's covering for Chimbo's forward forays, as in Prague, we will get exposed - inevitably.
That's the long answer. The short answer is that I think Chimbo is an outstanding FB when he concentrates, and if he's going to get forward, then someone in the team has to be assigned to cover the inevitable holes that will result.
I agree.
You forgot to include the role Malbranque in your equations.