Nick-TopSpursMan
Well-Known Member
- Aug 4, 2005
- 4,131
- 19,825
We really, really have to deal with how bad we are against teams who press us.
It showed up badly last night and I'm afraid a large part of it will only be fixed with personnel changes. Conte has done some great coaching work so far and in little patches we do beat pressure with very set patterns of play but it's not enough. We need more suitable personnel.
The biggest issue we have is too many players who lack technical ability, athleticism, awareness on the ball and composure to play under a high press. All of these traits are needed to play in a top side.
We have: Sanchez, Emerson/Doherty, Davies, Winks and Hojbjerg all who lack these abilities. When the ball comes to them, their touch is poor under pressure, they lack dynamism and agility and they lack the composure to spin away from players or really importantly, to create a yard of space or beat a man.
So for example, the ball goes out to Emerson, he gets pressed. Unless we unleash a set pattern of play, Emerson has zero ability to get out of this situation. He can't dribble and his touch is poor. So his only option is to play backwards. The ball then goes to Sanchez, he has the same issues. He can't deal with pressure and lacks passing ability and composure. So he either hacks it away, gives it away cheaply, gets robbed or inevitably goes backwards or passes sideways. Davies has similar issues but he is at least a little bit better at finding a pass (still not good enough though and lacks agility and mobility).
Hojbjerg and Winks. Neither of them have any awareness of what's around them and lack technical ability and athleticism. They get pressed and 90% of the time they are forced in to a poor, rushed pass, they get robbed in possession or they go backwards. Compare this to players like Bissouma or even Bentancur when he has come on so far. Far more secure with their touch, far more dynamic and agile on the ball, capable of turning quickly away from someone pressing them. This then gets them beyond the pressure and allows the team to kill the pressing opponents by getting beyond the press in to space. You do that a few times and the opposition then become hesistant in their pressing because they start to fear you and this allows you to assert control over the opponent again.
All of the players mentioned above need upgrading for this reason. They simply lack the traits needed to play in a top side. Realistically we can't sell all of them but at the very least 1/2 should be sold and the others should be back ups.
As an aside, we also have an issue with Son and Lucas in the shape we play. Neither Son or Lucas are particularly good at dealing with the ball in very tight spaces. They both do better with space. They lack the touch to retain the ball in tight spaces. So when they drop in to pockets to receive under pressure, they lose the ball a lot, which helps the opposition pen us in. If you contrast this to when Conte played 3-4-3 at Chelsea, he had Hazard, Pedro and Willian as the WF options off the striker. All 3 of them were much better at receiving the ball in tight spaces and retaining it.
So we desperately need at least 1 of our WFs to excel at this. Which means trying Bergwijn or Kulu instead of Lucas. Bergwijn would probably be the best candidate currently but we 100% need to buy an attacking player for this position if we intend to stick with 3-4-3.
The alternative would be going 3-5-2 which could help us a bit but we will still lack the personnel to deal with high pressing. The return of Dier and Skipp could help us quite a bit, along with getting Bentancur in to the starting 11. But even with those 3 in the team, Davies, the RWB and Lucas/Son dilemma will still cause us issues with high pressing teams.
It can only be dealt with by buying players who have press resistant qualities and composure for CB, RWB, CM and RWF. It needs to be fixed in the summer because until we fix it we will struggle to become a consistent team.
It showed up badly last night and I'm afraid a large part of it will only be fixed with personnel changes. Conte has done some great coaching work so far and in little patches we do beat pressure with very set patterns of play but it's not enough. We need more suitable personnel.
The biggest issue we have is too many players who lack technical ability, athleticism, awareness on the ball and composure to play under a high press. All of these traits are needed to play in a top side.
We have: Sanchez, Emerson/Doherty, Davies, Winks and Hojbjerg all who lack these abilities. When the ball comes to them, their touch is poor under pressure, they lack dynamism and agility and they lack the composure to spin away from players or really importantly, to create a yard of space or beat a man.
So for example, the ball goes out to Emerson, he gets pressed. Unless we unleash a set pattern of play, Emerson has zero ability to get out of this situation. He can't dribble and his touch is poor. So his only option is to play backwards. The ball then goes to Sanchez, he has the same issues. He can't deal with pressure and lacks passing ability and composure. So he either hacks it away, gives it away cheaply, gets robbed or inevitably goes backwards or passes sideways. Davies has similar issues but he is at least a little bit better at finding a pass (still not good enough though and lacks agility and mobility).
Hojbjerg and Winks. Neither of them have any awareness of what's around them and lack technical ability and athleticism. They get pressed and 90% of the time they are forced in to a poor, rushed pass, they get robbed in possession or they go backwards. Compare this to players like Bissouma or even Bentancur when he has come on so far. Far more secure with their touch, far more dynamic and agile on the ball, capable of turning quickly away from someone pressing them. This then gets them beyond the pressure and allows the team to kill the pressing opponents by getting beyond the press in to space. You do that a few times and the opposition then become hesistant in their pressing because they start to fear you and this allows you to assert control over the opponent again.
All of the players mentioned above need upgrading for this reason. They simply lack the traits needed to play in a top side. Realistically we can't sell all of them but at the very least 1/2 should be sold and the others should be back ups.
As an aside, we also have an issue with Son and Lucas in the shape we play. Neither Son or Lucas are particularly good at dealing with the ball in very tight spaces. They both do better with space. They lack the touch to retain the ball in tight spaces. So when they drop in to pockets to receive under pressure, they lose the ball a lot, which helps the opposition pen us in. If you contrast this to when Conte played 3-4-3 at Chelsea, he had Hazard, Pedro and Willian as the WF options off the striker. All 3 of them were much better at receiving the ball in tight spaces and retaining it.
So we desperately need at least 1 of our WFs to excel at this. Which means trying Bergwijn or Kulu instead of Lucas. Bergwijn would probably be the best candidate currently but we 100% need to buy an attacking player for this position if we intend to stick with 3-4-3.
The alternative would be going 3-5-2 which could help us a bit but we will still lack the personnel to deal with high pressing. The return of Dier and Skipp could help us quite a bit, along with getting Bentancur in to the starting 11. But even with those 3 in the team, Davies, the RWB and Lucas/Son dilemma will still cause us issues with high pressing teams.
It can only be dealt with by buying players who have press resistant qualities and composure for CB, RWB, CM and RWF. It needs to be fixed in the summer because until we fix it we will struggle to become a consistent team.
