Alonso has always looked alright going forward but defensively he's always looked a bit suspect and his lack of pace makes him really vulnerable against any winger with even a hint of pace.

Doesn't feel me with confidence that he's likely to be picked for an extended run of games if I'm honest.

2 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Alonso has always looked alright going forward but defensively he's always looked a bit suspect and his lack of pace makes him really vulnerable against any winger with even a hint of pace.

Doesn't feel me with confidence that he's likely to be picked for an extended run of games if I'm honest.

Yes, we very much saw the classic duality of Alonso last night.

On the one hand he was skinned repeatedly by Tom Cleverley (had to pull him down and eat a yellow card at one point), on the other hand he was a key part of both our goals.

When we have Alonso and Azpilicueta as the two wing-backs, and we don't have Kanté in midfield, the entire centre of the pitch becomes a bit one-paced and stodgy. Alonso has good attacking instincts but none of the dynamism of Chilwell on the left, and Azpilicueta simply doesn't arrive in the box as often or with the power of Reece.

This could be a long, tedious winter...

17 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Alonso has always looked alright going forward but defensively he's always looked a bit suspect and his lack of pace makes him really vulnerable against any winger with even a hint of pace.

Doesn't feel me with confidence that he's likely to be picked for an extended run of games if I'm honest.

I personally have no problem with Alonso. We play with 5 atb, being exposed on the wing is not the end of the world.

1 hour ago, Bob stark said:

being exposed on the wing is not the end of the world.

It is when your 3 preferred picks for midfield are all injured. 

RLC and Saul aren't defensively sound in the way that Jorginho, Kante and to a slightly lesser extent Kovacic give you a defensive sheild. 

Watford targeted our left hand side and you can bet that it's because they felt confident that Dennis could get some joy out of Alonso.

So you're then asking Rudiger to do a lot of defending which means he might get dragged further towards the touchline. Which in turn means that either your central defender has to shift left to cover Rudiger (potentially creating space in the middle) or your left sided midfielder has to drop deeper to cover giving you less out balls should you turn over possession. 

In other words, one player in defensive phases is meaning you're having to compensate elsewhere because of their defensive short comings, despite being a player that is expected to do a lot of defending. 

Do Alonso's weaknesses outweigh his strengths? Honestly, I'm not sure. But in my mind Chilwell is has shown us just how good a player can be in that LWB role and Alonso playing feels a massive step backwards. 

34 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

It is when your 3 preferred picks for midfield are all injured. 

It is in general as well.

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link and Alonso is our weakest link.

I don't even think he's a particularly good attacking player. Now, he can be dangerous in and around the box but he's sticking out like a sore thumb in our build-up play. Slow and labored, no ability to beat a man and run into the spaces that the inside forwards open up and it's obvious that he's a pressing trigger for our opponents. They want Alonso to have the ball and then they start their intense pressure like Watford did, like City did earlier in the season.

In terms of defending I think both Pulisic and Hudson Odoi could defend better for us from wingback than Alonso can. So I expect one of them to displace him rather quick. They at least have pace and intensity and will in my view give us much more then Alonso will from wingback.

Edited December 3, 20214 yr by Sindre

55 minutes ago, Sindre said:

It is in general as well.

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link and Alonso is our weakest link.

I don't even think he's a particularly good attacking player. Now, he can be dangerous in and around the box but he's sticking out like a sore thumb in our build-up play. Slow and labored, no ability to beat a man and run into the spaces that the inside forwards open up and it's obvious that he's a pressing trigger for our opponents. They want Alonso to have the ball and then they start their intense pressure like Watford did, like City did earlier in the season.

In terms of defending I think both Pulisic and Hudson Odoi could defend better for us from wingback than Alonso can. So I expect one of them to displace him rather quick. They at least have pace and intensity and will in my view give us much more then Alonso will from wingback.

We are always going to have a weakest link at one time it was seen to be Jorginho and now he is recognised as one of our better defenders.

It is up to Tuchel to manage this and he has a squad to do so.

14 hours ago, strider6004 said:

We are always going to have a weakest link at one time it was seen to be Jorginho and now he is recognised as one of our better defenders.

It is up to Tuchel to manage this and he has a squad to do so.

It is a bit harder to target Jorginho due to nature of the game. As team pack the midfield more, team tend to put their skillful attacker on the flanks. But some teams still play a 10 for example Arsenal played esr and I remembered esr and Tierney combined multiple times and ran circle around Jorgi. In alonso case, it is more difficult but it is not the end of the worlds because we play with 3 at the back. 

 

 

 

I reckon Alonso does get flustered when things aren't going well, and sometime he stopped trying ( or appears to be), no wonder Lampard dropped him after that disastrous game against WBA and never came back. He's still the best option we have with Chiwell out, I don't think put another player out of position at LWB is the solution either. We may sign another LWB, provided we have a way out for Alonso, can't do the 3 LBs thing again like last season.

18 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

It is when your 3 preferred picks for midfield are all injured. 

RLC and Saul aren't defensively sound in the way that Jorginho, Kante and to a slightly lesser extent Kovacic give you a defensive sheild. 

Watford targeted our left hand side and you can bet that it's because they felt confident that Dennis could get some joy out of Alonso.

So you're then asking Rudiger to do a lot of defending which means he might get dragged further towards the touchline. Which in turn means that either your central defender has to shift left to cover Rudiger (potentially creating space in the middle) or your left sided midfielder has to drop deeper to cover giving you less out balls should you turn over possession. 

In other words, one player in defensive phases is meaning you're having to compensate elsewhere because of their defensive short comings, despite being a player that is expected to do a lot of defending. 

Do Alonso's weaknesses outweigh his strengths? Honestly, I'm not sure. But in my mind Chilwell is has shown us just how good a player can be in that LWB role and Alonso playing feels a massive step backwards. 

Every team compensate, we have been playing back 3 because other than Kante, none of our midfielder can be trusted defensively. 

Of course Alonso is a step backwards to Chilwell otherwise Alonso should start over Chilwell. It is the same story with  james and azpi in rwb. 

The biggest problem with Alonso right now is not Alonso himself it is the fact that we lose kante, chilwell, james and to lesser degree Kovacic. We lose dynamism that those player bring. Of course you can try playing puli as wb or Mount as dm but it will be patchworks on top of patchworks, it usually will lead to disaster. 

 

 

 

Unfortunately sounds like he has picked up an injury, as I feared would happen if we made him play 3 games in a week.

Recall Ian Maatsen back in January anyone?.

8 hours ago, jack_super_class said:

Recall Ian Maatsen back in January anyone?.

I still cringe at the memory when we recalled Aké, only to let him sit on the bench. Tuchel will probably prefer to shuffle around more senior (well, relatively senior ) players from our present squad than to play a youngster whom he doesn't know and hasn't played with our squad. Also, my guess is that it's more beneficial to Maatsen to finish the season at Coventry.

With his injury i think CHO will end up playing wingback or Azpri/Reece. doesnt look like we will recall Maatsen. Any academy lads at LB  doing well?

6 hours ago, Jangz said:

With his injury i think CHO will end up playing wingback or Azpri/Reece. doesnt look like we will recall Maatsen. Any academy lads at LB  doing well?

Dave is an option if we can promote a youth CB to cover when Silva needs a rest. How has Mbuyamba been doing anyone?

Been terrible since getting back into the team following Chilwell's injury. 

Could anyone be even remotely surprised? 1 decent season in Conte's first year and then absolutely atrocious since.

Useless player and as I said weeks ago, we will never win the league if Alonso is supposed to be our LWB for the rest of the season. Top 4 would be a fight in that case.

He's showing a lot of fight, his technical ability is proving useful up the pitch as well. He'll always be a double edged sword, don't be too short sighted.

Convert him into our 3rd left forward already. 

He just isn't up to it at wingback anymore

I was hoping he would continue his good early season form, but it's gone the other way. Alonso only seems to play well these days when his place is under threat.

2 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

I was hoping he would continue his good early season form, but it's gone the other way. Alonso only seems to play well these days when his place is under threat.

Despite an awful game he did all the hard work for the first goal and cleared off the line at 2-1.

This is exactly why Emerson never got ahead of him all this time as people were calling for because for all his faults he does have an upside of some substance.

Edited December 11, 20214 yr by Argo

Typical Alonso really. Looked useful attacking but ask him to defend and yikes...

Need an alternative for Wolves and Villa or they will smash him with pace.

2 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Typical Alonso really. Looked useful attacking but ask him to defend and yikes...

Need an alternative for Wolves and Villa or they will smash him with pace.

4 hours ago, Argo said:

Despite an awful game he did all the hard work for the first goal and cleared off the line at 2-1.

This is exactly why Emerson never got ahead of him all this time as people were calling for because for all his faults he does have an upside of some substance.

The trouble is since our midfield has been shot to pieces, we no longer control the games, we end up defending more in our last third, just the place you don't want Alonso.

18 minutes ago, Munkworth said:

9 hours ago, coco said:

The trouble is since our midfield has been shot to pieces, we no longer control the games, we end up defending more in our last third, just the place you don't want Alonso.

Kante might be back for Everton hopefully.