He won't keep his place once Silva is back though. Unless he can challenge Rüdiger in that LCB role. He's our best ball playing CB besides Silva so he should be able to handle it. I've never seen him play on the left side though. It was always Zouma, Rüdiger, Cahill, Luiz, Tomori, Silva or whoever he played with, who was moved to the left, although all of these players bar Luiz prefer the RCB role. There's probably a reason for that.

Edited February 23, 20215 yr by True Blue23

I think the biggest compliment I can give to Christensen is that if Silva was playing instead, I don’t think there would have been a huge difference.

That alone is a huge compliment imo because Silva is one of the world’s best defenders.

Fantastic performance.

I am one of this guys biggest critics. In the main I think he is a toothless fairy but credit where credit is due, he's put in some top performances of late.

Still my only concern is that he can only play this well in a back 3. Well that's my concern for the whole team really.  It's not traditional like a back 4 which as a formation has many different variations. I want us to become a great team with a back 4 so that we can utilise our squad better.

Anyways, he did well. Big test in the next 2 games for him.

Over recent seasons Christensen has been my pet hate.  I have now concluded that he is the same as Alonso, only suitable for a wing back system and should never be considered for a back four.  In the middle of a back three, he looks decent, like he did under Conte apart from the Barcelona mistake.....

9 hours ago, charierre said:

He played very well tonight, disciplined and used the ball well

Agreed.

Credit where it is due.

Looked a far better player in 3 men defence, maybe he's a player for system, just like Alonso. I agree with above about we wouldnt have conceded on the weekend if Christensen played. Zouma, who had little recent game time with the system, out of position and  lost track of his man. That's the danger of rotating central defence, it looked pretty easy until someone else has to step in and adjust to a different system. Be interesting to see how he handles United attack this weekend, that's a different challenge.

Credit where credit is due, he's been excellent the last few games.

4 hours ago, KonaKai Blue said:

I am one of this guys biggest critics. In the main I think he is a toothless fairy but credit where credit is due, he's put in some top performances of late.

Still my only concern is that he can only play this well in a back 3. Well that's my concern for the whole team really.  It's not traditional like a back 4 which as a formation has many different variations. I want us to become a great team with a back 4 so that we can utilise our squad better.

Anyways, he did well. Big test in the next 2 games for him.

 Exactly the same for me Konkai. 

Similar situation to Luiz who could look decent in a back 3 but was so often a disaster waiting to happen in a flat back 4.

3 hours ago, icecoolguy22 said:

Zouma, who had little recent game time with the system, out of position and  lost track of his man

I thought it was strange that Zouma started centrally in that game. Of the 7 or so CBs we've had on the team this year, Zouma might be my LAST choice of the guy to put in the middle. (Silva, Christensen, Rudiger, Tomori, James, Azpi, Zouma).

He needs the freedom to roam and attack aerially, not be a sweeper...

I think the thing that irks most of us about Andreas is he has always had the ability. He's gone through spells where he looks like he could be a top defender, aside from being skinny he is very technical for a cb which in the modern game is useful.

If only he could cut out the silly mistakes and credit to him and Tommy so far so good he's looked good every time he's played under Tuchel that I can recall. Is this a renaissance?!

On 24/02/2021 at 14:58, LongtimerLurker said:

I think the thing that irks most of us about Andreas is he has always had the ability. He's gone through spells where he looks like he could be a top defender, aside from being skinny he is very technical for a cb which in the modern game is useful.

If only he could cut out the silly mistakes and credit to him and Tommy so far so good he's looked good every time he's played under Tuchel that I can recall. Is this a renaissance?!

Well after seeing the re-emergence of John Stones at City there is certainly hope.

If he played like this all the time he’d genuinely be a world class centre back.

But I think we all know what’s around the corner, so frustrating. He has the ability he need to stay consistent like this then he’d be a starter for a decade.

2 minutes ago, dansubrosa said:

If he played like this all the time he’d genuinely be a world class centre back.

But I think we all know what’s around the corner, so frustrating. He has the ability he need to stay consistent like this then he’d be a starter for a decade.

Yeah sadly I do have that feeling he's not going to keep this up, we've seen some of his limitations before. Last season he was atrocious imo, but so was every defender. 

Has he been having 1 on 1 coaching lessons with Silva? He's been really really good

Another commanding performance in the middle of a back three. Is it 2017 or something?

3 minutes ago, Slojo said:

Yeah sadly I do have that feeling he's not going to keep this up, we've seen some of his limitations before. Last season he was atrocious imo, but so was every defender. 

I think he will. He has been tested in 2 big games and has looked solid.

I think it’s a good idea to start Silva ahead of Christensen against Liverpool. We’ve seen what low confidence has done to Christensen.

Played excellent today.

53 minutes ago, dansubrosa said:

I think it’s a good idea to start Silva ahead of Christensen against Liverpool. We’ve seen what low confidence has done to Christensen.

Why would you bench him if he has been brilliant? Silva has been out for 2wks, Christensen keeps his place for me.

I've never been a fan, but he has been playing very well. No arguments and the biggest compliment you can pay is that we haven't missed Silva so far. That said I would need to see him have the same level of performance and consistency in a flat four to be totally converted.

Motm for me today. 

Question is, who gets dropped once Silva is back fit? Rudiger or Christensen?

2 hours ago, Amputechture said:

Question is, who gets dropped once Silva is back fit? Rudiger or Christensen?

Perhaps neither, perhaps Azpi...........

2 hours ago, Strider6003 said:

Perhaps neither, perhaps Azpi...........

I felt so sorry for Azpi when he was defending the counter against the young bucks Rashford and Daniel James, he got left in the dust...

2 hours ago, Strider6003 said:

Perhaps neither, perhaps Azpi...........

Nope, probably silva