Jadon Sancho

comment by Roy's Keane (U11635)
posted 1 hour, 1 minute ago
We will never know about the injuries, but I would add that we were 11 games unbeaten before the break. And that was with Rashford and Pogba both out.

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Rashford hasnt hit the ground running since the restart
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1 goal and 2 assists says otherwise.

One of the worries with the defence is only have two cb’s that can stay fit. Hopefully we can pick up a cheap depth option.

Our attack has been a problem for a while. But if we add Grealish and Sancho to what we already have, all of a sudden we’ve got probably the best attacking options in the league after City.

We have got joint 3rd best defence in the league this season. That is largely down to the improvement we have seen since bringing in Bruno. There is much less stress put on the defence because we are actually making the ball stick further up the field. If not for De Gea's form it would be looking even better. So I don't think that there is dire need for a CDM or CB.

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That's sort of damning with faint praise. You're saying the main reason why we've got the joint 3rd best defence is because our defenders have less defending to do.

I'm not disagreeing btw, it's true and improving the attack is obviously a good way of masking defensive issues and it's why a few of us wanted the midfield and attack improving last summer instead of the defence.

However, despite having conceded very few goals of late, I'm still not convinced that our defence is actually as good as some are making out. After the Burnley game we'd conceded 29 goals in 24 league games and kept just 4 clean sheets and it didn't look like our defence had improved from last season.

Now don't get me wrong, we're on an impressive run at the moment but I don't completely trust this defence to defend well and keep clean sheets when it really matters, in tighter games when we do struggle to break teams down and we need to win 1-0 or 2-1 and when we're under more pressure. We've played 52 games this season and we haven't got into double figures yet in terms of winning games by a single goal.

De Gea letting in some easy goals hasn’t helped, in fairness.

I do kind of agree, I’m not completely convinced by the defence yet. But I think for where we’ll be aiming to be next season, it’s good enough.

We should concede fewer goals if we can maintain attacking pressure and kill teams off earlier as well.

Lingard, Andreas, Fred, McTominay, Mata and Dan James have played a lot of times this season in the prem, often together, and they just lack the quality to retain possession, push teams back by sustaining attacking pressure and killing them off when we’ve been in the position to do so.

Rashford and Martial have obviously played a lot with these players also, but next season we could be talking about having them alongside Matic (not playing like a cuuuunt), Grealish, Bruno, Pogba, Sancho and stronger and more confident Greenwood.

All of a sudden the ball retention, sustained pressure and ability to kill teams off is vastly improved. We’ve already seen this happen just with a few of those things in the team since January.

But I think for where we’ll be aiming to be next season, it’s good enough.

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I think with that attack we could have Jones and Rojo in defence and still make the top 4-3.

I’m not sure a lot of it has to do with ball retention necessarily, Daz.

Fred, Lingard and Mata have amongst the highest pass completion rates in the squad - all way up above Pogba.

And Pogba and Martial, for example, are dispossessed in possession three times as often as Lingard, and Bruno twice as often.

It’s more what they’re able to do - and are doing - with the ball in trying to force the issue. Moving it on early, moving it on quickly, passing between the lines, and not having to fall back on possession for possession’s sake because they don’t see or try the progressive and decisive passes.

But that’s what I’m alluding to. It’s a combination of all those things I mentioned, and I think the ball retention is also in issue due to the areas in which they often lose it and how we concede after the turnover.

Losing the ball higher up the pitch, in congested areas, where we’re putting teams under pressure is a different matter.

I’m not a fan of crossing for crossing’s sake, and always looking to force a pass that isn’t on, but sometimes when these players are on the pitch it probably would have been better if we had rather than keeping the ball and losing it in dangerous areas.

At least a shiiiit cross to their keeper gives us more time to get back into shape defensively.

Either way, the difference in class between Pogba, Bruno, Grealish, Sancho and Greenwood - over a full season - is so much better than those other players that it’s not even funny.

comment by ShamelessObserver (U22372)
posted 10 hours, 42 minutes ago
comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by ShamelessObserver (U22372)
posted 1 minute ago
Imagine

Bruno
Pogba
Rashford
Martial
Sancho

Title winning material.
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In a couple of seasons perhaps. We have lack depth in defence and midfield.
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Maguire still needs time. People are quick to jump on his back, the same people who forget that VVD was at a similar level to Harry during his first 6 months at Anfield.
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What? No.
Also vvd can run and turn. Maguires top speed is walking to the normal man and he turns slower than a limousine.

Yeah, agreed.

I think the decisiveness and ability with the longer options of Pogba and Matic make a big difference. We've seen Matic launch two attacks with beautiful early balls that have led to goals in the last few games.

I think there's probably also the experience (again ) that those two players have over the likes of McT and James that says when to try the higher risk pass given the current configuration of the players and when to hold on to the ball because the risk-reward isn't worth it. It's a game intelligence that is in part inherent, and in part comes with age.

Bruno is like a combination of the energy and movement of Lingard, the intelligence of Mata, and the invention of Martial. I think he's going to score a lot of goals for us. A lot.

rosso

Sancho will boost him even more. He’s one of the best around at driving into the box and looking for the cut back. We still don’t have anyone that excels at that on the right.