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Player Watch: Serge Aurier

$hoguN

Well-Known Member
Jul 25, 2005
26,626
34,700
Madness to go back to a midfield 2 or drop one of Son Bale or Kane. Hate back 5 setups personally.
The worst thing about a back 5 is that it leaves you horrendously exposed out wide as you don’t have a wide forward/winger covering and also you don’t have a DM who can provide cover either
 

carpediem991

Well-Known Member
May 31, 2011
8,836
20,308
Usually i was more than happy to see him leave. But not so sure i want to rely on Doherty a whole season now. So probably just keep him.

Personally i would be up to bring in a HG RB to shift Serge, but i think it would start to be mixed up too much in the squad.

Lets see what happens. Expect him to play tmrw.
 

kendoddsdadsdogsdead

Well-Known Member
Aug 29, 2011
2,140
3,574
He isn’t robust though; he is rash and a liability. He isn’t decent on the ball though; he picks it up in space but is really wasteful and can’t cross.

Giving him a new contract would be setting ourselves up for further difficulty moving deadwood on. He is a good lad, worked hard and played through personal tragedy. Fair fucks for that. However he needs to move on for both his own good and ours

He is a physical full back, quick enough and he’s actually quite solid. I think the liability thing is wide of the mark personally. I don’t remember a lot of wide players getting the better of him too often. Hes made a couple of rash mistakes defensively, the Augero penalty and maybe a couple more that I can think of but he’s nowhere near as rash as Sanchez, less error prone than Dier.

He’s good enough on the ball in defensive areas he’s fairly composed in tight spaces back there, agree about final ball but a great final ball In a full back is not easy to find.
 

brendanb50

Well-Known Member
Jul 21, 2005
4,483
3,890
Agree with some of the points regarding his ability, he has absolutely improved in his time with us and he does offer something. I don't think he's bad cover by any means and perhaps competition will help him further.

The bigger issues as far as i can tell at this stage are:

- That he's not first choice anymore, how does he react to that? His time at PSG ended badly after falling down the pecking order.
- He's not homegrown and he may be/was earmarked to go, so how do we square our numbers if we have other non-homegrown targets?

For me, if he's not first choice, we could afford to shift him and get a HG prospect to replace, i think that was the strategy before interest in him waned a bit.
 

Neon_Knight_

Well-Known Member
Jul 20, 2011
3,975
6,607
Did anyone else note that Aurier wasn't on the bench for our Europa game last week? Were we avoiding him being cup-tied? ?
 

Bulletspur

The Reasonable Advocate
Match Thread Admin
Oct 17, 2006
10,690
25,246
I still think he is a better RB than Doherty. But the majority of supporters will always buy into the idea that because a player is new, he is automatically better. This is not always the case and in my opinion, this is one of them.
 

PrettyColors

Rosie47 Fan
Aug 13, 2011
3,866
10,074
I still think he is a better RB than Doherty. But the majority of supporters will always buy into the idea that because a player is new, he is automatically better. This is not always the case and in my opinion, this is one of them.
I think they're both very different RBs in player profile that oddly have similar deficiencies, though they manifest in different ways.

Doherty, while I'm not going to write him off too soon, has played in the PL for a while now and it's fair to say he's not going to become much better at 1:1 defending than he is. His pace and quickness just leave so much to be desired, you saw it with Richarlison and Djenepo, both made him look amateur with their pace and trickery in 1:1 defending. He's a RWB not accustomed to this, yes, but he dives in too early and does not have great timing on his tackles, Additionally, one-twos and combinations make him look really lost due to his ploddiness (imagine him vs. a Mane-Firmino linkup) and I get heart attacks seeing him defending in and around the box with no cover.

Aurier gives the same heart attacks, but it's not due to pace or quickness, it's due to a rashness of diving in and really poor clearance instincts. He also consistently struggles to track more than one runner at once: this is a big flaw of Aurier's I've never really seen discussed here but if you watch enough it's a defining trait. He is actually pretty adept at following a winger's run infield or even sprinting back to catch a striker, and he makes some really impressive plays in this instance. It's the 2v1 situations that separate top defenders from average and he is often a step slow when making that decision. It's something that a defender in all top level sports -football, basketball, even American football and rugby sees dozens of times a game, that split second decision of which player deserves more attention and it's something Aurier never really mastered. So, I do get the concern with him defensively but he has that recovery pace and a fearlessness that has brought him to the top that Doherty just inherently lacks.

Going forward, again they both love gallivanting up the right flank and are prone to being caught out tracking back, but this is again done much differently. Doherty fancies himself almost an inverted winger and seems to want to head every cross from the left wing. He assisted Kane's first goal on Sunday (disallowed) doing this, and loves cutting in to join the build up - however he finds himself in the box quite often and jogs back. Aurier, also finding himself high up the pitch, is more reminiscent of Moyes era Tony Valencia just becoming a cross bot (mostly because teams give him the space out wide) and he also fancies himself a winger. It's very contrasting styles that interestingly come with similar limitations.

But overall I do agree: I think Aurier's sheer pace and experience in our system actually will prove to be more effective because wingers can't guarantee to just outpace him every time. as more film develops on our side, I think isolating Doherty with one-twos will become commonplace and you just cannot teach pace. Especially with a budding star it seems in Reguilon on the left, opponents will target our right flank all match long: and I think the physically gifted player most likely wins out in that situation.
 

Bulletspur

The Reasonable Advocate
Match Thread Admin
Oct 17, 2006
10,690
25,246
I think they're both very different RBs in player profile that oddly have similar deficiencies, though they manifest in different ways.

Doherty, while I'm not going to write him off too soon, has played in the PL for a while now and it's fair to say he's not going to become much better at 1:1 defending than he is. His pace and quickness just leave so much to be desired, you saw it with Richarlison and Djenepo, both made him look amateur with their pace and trickery in 1:1 defending. He's a RWB not accustomed to this, yes, but he dives in too early and does not have great timing on his tackles, Additionally, one-twos and combinations make him look really lost due to his ploddiness (imagine him vs. a Mane-Firmino linkup) and I get heart attacks seeing him defending in and around the box with no cover.

Aurier gives the same heart attacks, but it's not due to pace or quickness, it's due to a rashness of diving in and really poor clearance instincts. He also consistently struggles to track more than one runner at once: this is a big flaw of Aurier's I've never really seen discussed here but if you watch enough it's a defining trait. He is actually pretty adept at following a winger's run infield or even sprinting back to catch a striker, and he makes some really impressive plays in this instance. It's the 2v1 situations that separate top defenders from average and he is often a step slow when making that decision. It's something that a defender in all top level sports -football, basketball, even American football and rugby sees dozens of times a game, that split second decision of which player deserves more attention and it's something Aurier never really mastered. So, I do get the concern with him defensively but he has that recovery pace and a fearlessness that has brought him to the top that Doherty just inherently lacks.

Going forward, again they both love gallivanting up the right flank and are prone to being caught out tracking back, but this is again done much differently. Doherty fancies himself almost an inverted winger and seems to want to head every cross from the left wing. He assisted Kane's first goal on Sunday (disallowed) doing this, and loves cutting in to join the build up - however he finds himself in the box quite often and jogs back. Aurier, also finding himself high up the pitch, is more reminiscent of Moyes era Ashley Young just becoming a cross bot (mostly because teams give him the space out wide) and he also fancies himself a winger. It's very contrasting styles that interestingly come with similar limitations.

But overall I do agree: I think Aurier's sheer pace and experience in our system actually will prove to be more effective because wingers can't guarantee to just outpace him every time. as more film develops on our side, I think isolating Doherty with one-twos will become commonplace and you just cannot teach pace. Especially with a budding star it seems in Reguilon on the left, opponents will target our right flank all match long: and I think the physically gifted player most likely wins out in that situation.
Good post!
 

THFCSPURS19

The Speaker of the Transfer Rumours Forum
Jan 6, 2013
37,886
130,485
But overall I do agree: I think Aurier's sheer pace and experience in our system actually will prove to be more effective because wingers can't guarantee to just outpace him every time. as more film develops on our side, I think isolating Doherty with one-twos will become commonplace and you just cannot teach pace. Especially with a budding star it seems in Reguilon on the left, opponents will target our right flank all match long: and I think the physically gifted player most likely wins out in that situation.
Aurier's sheer pace? He's definitely quicker than Doherty but he's no Walker. Aurier has been rinsed loads of times by a quick winger.
 

Japhet

Well-Known Member
Aug 30, 2010
19,232
57,385
I'd sell Aurier and trust Tanganga with the back up role if it meant room for another quality non HG signing like Dias or Edouard. I think he'd be a good foil for Reguilon's attacking flair down the left. Doherty is a greater threat going forward than Aurier but still not great defensively and there'll be times when we get pinned back and need that.
 

Buster18

Well-Known Member
Sep 27, 2005
1,079
2,288
Madness to go back to a midfield 2 or drop one of Son Bale or Kane. Hate back 5 setups personally.

You rarely get a successful side that plays with a 3-5-2. Far too much reliance on the wing-backs. Other than the fact you need the rare skillset of a fullback that has the skills of a winger, you can't expect them to maintain performance level over the season with the physical demands placed on players in that position.

The only team I can think of that's ever won anything playing that way is Juventus under Conte but their success was largely down to the then crumbling financial state of the Milan clubs.
 

fishhhandaricecake

Well-Known Member
Nov 15, 2018
18,702
46,941
I still think he is a better RB than Doherty. But the majority of supporters will always buy into the idea that because a player is new, he is automatically better. This is not always the case and in my opinion, this is one of them.
Aurier is mabye a little stronger and more tenacious and has a good jump on him but Doherty is better in the final 3rd and is more solid defensively. Both good options, Aurier has massively cut out his big errors since Jose came in.
 

WiganSpur

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
15,974
32,682
Aurier's sheer pace? He's definitely quicker than Doherty but he's no Walker. Aurier has been rinsed loads of times by a quick winger.
It's mad how many times people get Aurier's strengths and weaknesses so very wrong. I always see that he's a poor crosser and that just isn't true imo.

Imo his attacking movement, crossing and stamina are his greatest strengths and his concentration, ability to beat a man and individual errors are his biggest weaknesses. Like you say, his pace is neither a strength nor a weakness. Not a slouch but not particularly rapid either.
 

WiganSpur

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
15,974
32,682
I'd sell Aurier and trust Tanganga with the back up role if it meant room for another quality non HG signing like Dias or Edouard. I think he'd be a good foil for Reguilon's attacking flair down the left. Doherty is a greater threat going forward than Aurier but still not great defensively and there'll be times when we get pinned back and need that.
The thing is, Tanganga has played about two games at RB. Although he was decent the jury is still very much out. I think we need to play him there in more lower key games before we can be sure he's proper injury cover.
 
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