33 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Agree with Scott, think Caicedo's all round game has picked up massively since the start of the season, certainly one of our better players most weeks.

I don't get the current tactics of our CB's giving him the ball with his back to their goal when he has two men stood right next to him though. Must happen at least once a game with Disasi passing to him when he's marked and the ball being nicked off his toes. Has to be a tactical issue, i see no other reason the CB's would do it so often when he clearly can't make anything of it and sells him short. 

This infuriates me every match and makes him look back. They can clearly see he’s under pressure don’t pass to him.

11 hours ago, Backbiter said:

Agree on both. Caicedo is doing ok as a DM. Working hard and doing some vital aggressive defensive stuff. Not great in possession, though.

Enzo is either massively underperforming or just not very good. He lacks sharpness, struggles with the defensive side of the game, is not a great shooter, hasn't yet found his position in midfield, and is not currently showing any creativity. The fact that he's having to play virtually every minute has left him looking burnt out.

Good we're not in Europe!

It's mad to think that Enzo looked better under Potter than under his own countryman. 

He's been well poor since Wembley. No consistency. 

6 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Agree with Scott, think Caicedo's all round game has picked up massively since the start of the season, certainly one of our better players most weeks.

I don't get the current tactics of our CB's giving him the ball with his back to their goal when he has two men stood right next to him though. Must happen at least once a game with Disasi passing to him when he's marked and the ball being nicked off his toes. Has to be a tactical issue, i see no other reason the CB's would do it so often when he clearly can't make anything of it and sells him short. 

Its all about this stupid idea of how to beat the press, pull defenders in to the ball with risky passes, then release as late as possible and play round them. Its only ever going to work with a consistent team on top of its game playing with confidence, so not us.

Moises' been pretty good for us this season. Had some bad games as well but he is playing the most responsible role of the midfielders and he is only a young man. Rodri is clearly the best in the role in the world but he is 27. Our man is only 22. He has time to learn the ropes as we go on. 

This role is also down to smart coaching. Having good support around you is a must. 

 

2 hours ago, evissy said:

Moises' been pretty good for us this season. Had some bad games as well but he is playing the most responsible role of the midfielders and he is only a young man. Rodri is clearly the best in the role in the world but he is 27. Our man is only 22. He has time to learn the ropes as we go on. 

This role is also down to smart coaching. Having good support around you is a must. 

 

I just don't agree. He has been pretty good lately and if he had been playing like this since the start I would be more inclined to agree. 

Either way, I'm looking forward to next season as he seems to be getting better and better. 

1 hour ago, Remodez said:

I just don't agree. He has been pretty good lately and if he had been playing like this since the start I would be more inclined to agree. 

Either way, I'm looking forward to next season as he seems to be getting better and better. 

Absolutely spot on. 

He's had some bad games but for the most part he's played well I think, he's definitely getting better from what I've seen. It's Enzo I'm getting worried about, he's having a difficult time finding his feet at the minute. 

36 minutes ago, Victor90 said:

It's Enzo I'm getting worried about, he's having a difficult time finding his feet at the minute. 

Terrible fit for Pochettino-ball.

With someone else (like Alonso or De Zerbi) he'd probably be a good fit but under Pochettino he's honestly a bit of a liability as he can't do the job defensively and doesn't produce all that much offensively despite getting all the freedom in the world to join in, in attack.

Edited March 18, 20242 yr by OriginalS

36 minutes ago, OriginalS said:

Terrible fit for Pochettino-ball.

With someone else (like Alonso or De Zerbi) he'd probably be a good fit but under Pochettino he's honestly a bit of a liability as he can't do the job defensively and doesn't produce all that much offensively despite getting all the freedom in the world to join in, in attack.

Maybe, but I say we give it some more time for the players to gel. We've seen some top quality performances every now and then from both of them. City games, Arsenal, Villa. Usually in games where the opposition isn't camping in their box. 

I think Enzo has some brilliant qualities to his game, I don't want to write him off just yet. 

On 12/03/2024 at 13:19, Sconnie Blue said:

It's mad to think that Enzo looked better under Potter than under his own countryman. 

He's been well poor since Wembley. No consistency. 

Poch made a certain countryman, known to many as the greatest player of all time, also look quite average for a lot of games for PSG.

He's just not a good manager for this level

11 hours ago, SHrIT said:

Poch made a certain countryman, known to many as the greatest player of all time, also look quite average for a lot of games for PSG.

He's just not a good manager for this level

This isn't true though. Poch got he best out of the Messi/Neymar/Mbappe trio that was so poorly balanced. 

I don't even like Poch but what you're saying is bollocks. 

7 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

This isn't true though. Poch got he best out of the Messi/Neymar/Mbappe trio that was so poorly balanced. 

I don't even like Poch but what you're saying is bollocks. 

Poch got the best out of Messi, Neymar and Mbappe? Messi and Neymar looked like they were almost finished playing under him.

If you didn't watch PSG, say you didnt watch PSG. Saying he got the best out of them is laughable

16 hours ago, SHrIT said:

Poch got the best out of Messi, Neymar and Mbappe? Messi and Neymar looked like they were almost finished playing under him.

If you didn't watch PSG, say you didnt watch PSG. Saying he got the best out of them is laughable

He got the best out of an incredibly unbalanced and egotistical attack and squad, yes. 

Neymar very clearly is finished. Messi never wanted to play for PSG. As said, made the best of a bad situation.

On 12/03/2024 at 15:03, dkw said:

Its all about this stupid idea of how to beat the press, pull defenders in to the ball with risky passes, then release as late as possible and play round them. Its only ever going to work with a consistent team on top of its game playing with confidence, so not us.

It's a high risk no reward strategy.  We look like nervous wrecks trying to play this way, no one looks confident , and my blood pressure rockets up !

 

United were always in the game last night. Even at 2-0 and nearly 3-0 from Disasi header, you just knew the game could turn if we let them back in. And boy did Caicedo let them back in. I just don't rate him. At least he had the good grace to look horrified at his mistake, but just another sloppy mistake to add to the growing list.

 

Mistake from Caicedo but just look at the defensive positioning - all over the place and opposition players left unmarked.

Didn't help Caicedo that Badiashile stopped running - I guess he thought Moises would pass back to the keeper. What he needed was someone to shout an instruction to him - John Terry would have been bellowing at him.

What this shows me is that we lack defensive coaching and lacked any kind of leadership in that defensive unit last night. 

I still rate Caicedo highly, but yesterday that mistake almost cost us the game and he never really recovered after that. I think him and a lot of our players have a tendency to get overly comfortable when we're winning and they switch off, that's unacceptable. Hopefully it's something that can be coached out of them but Caicedo is only 22 so I don't doubt he will improve.

Of course people will compare him and MacAllister but to be honest we would be having the same discussions if Caicedo went to Liverpool and MacAllister was here, Klopp would have Caicedo playing like a beast and we'd have MacAllister struggling to live up to his potential.

16 minutes ago, Nibs said:

United were always in the game last night. Even at 2-0 and nearly 3-0 from Disasi header, you just knew the game could turn if we let them back in. And boy did Caicedo let them back in. I just don't rate him. At least he had the good grace to look horrified at his mistake, but just another sloppy mistake to add to the growing list.

 

To be quite honest, I put the fault at Badi more than I do Caicedo.

Worse part was Badi just stops running backwards which eliminates any chances of him getting the ball. I would love to know what he planned on doing even if he did get the ball seeing as he was surrounded by United players anyway. 

Edit: Correction it was Badiashile, thought it was Disasi. In that case it's equal blame.

Edited April 5, 20242 yr by Remodez

8 minutes ago, Remodez said:

To be quite honest, I put the fault at Badi more than I do Caicedo.

Worse part was Badi just stops running backwards which eliminates any chances of him getting the ball. I would love to know what he planned on doing even if he did get the ball seeing as he was surrounded by United players anyway. 

Edit: Correction it was Badiashile, thought it was Disasi. In that case it's equal blame.

I just watched this back with the kids, and although I dont agree Badiashille is more at fault than Caicedo, I think Badiashille actually calls and signals to Caicedo that he wants the ball. Why he did this I have no clue, as he is facing his own goal. He should be signalling back to the goal keeper. Both of them read the situation completely wrong, but I think the buck stops with Caicedo, as it was suck strange pass choice, even if it went to Badiashilles feet, all he couldve done is played it back the keeper anyway.

Horrible goal to concede, and then you have Disasi making a similar mistake 2nd half, and then has the audacity to celebrate fixing his own error like he just made a goal line clearance, instead of sheepishly putting his hand up and apologising to his teammates.

4 minutes ago, big blue said:

I just watched this back with the kids, and although I dont agree Badiashille is more at fault than Caicedo, I think Badiashille actually calls and signals to Caicedo that he wants the ball. Why he did this I have no clue, as he is facing his own goal. He should be signalling back to the goal keeper. Both of them read the situation completely wrong, but I think the buck stops with Caicedo, as it was suck strange pass choice, even if it went to Badiashilles feet, all he couldve done is played it back the keeper anyway.

Horrible goal to concede, and then you have Disasi making a similar mistake 2nd half, and then has the audacity to celebrate fixing his own error like he just made a goal line clearance, instead of sheepishly putting his hand up and apologising to his teammates.

Badiashille definitely asks for the ball to be played to him and then just completely shuts down once the pass is made.

I can't be too critical of Caicedo cause if you are going to be playing this building from the back style to beat the press then that pass is okay and you have to trust in you teammates, all Badiashille would have to do is a flick over the top for Caicedo to run onto to beat 3/4 United players that were pressing OR as you stated just pass it back to the keeper. 

For me the pass was not the problem and if our CB's had any hint of composure it would play out as described above but I do agree it was an unnecessary risk when 2-0 up. I guess Caicedo knows now that our CB's are not to be trusted and will pass back to GK from now on. 

Badiashile can't be blamed for Caicedo's error. He clearly wants to ball to his feet and play it on to Cucurella but Caicedo somehow manages to miss him by two yards.

Not the best pass from Caicedo for Utd's first but the blame lies more with Badiashile for me.

In hindsight the pass should go back to the keeper, and Caicedo will learn from this, but the pass isn't even far from Badiashile and he just switches off completely. 

1 minute ago, OriginalS said:

Badiashile can't be blamed for Caicedo's error. He clearly wants to ball to his feet and play it on to Cucurella but Caicedo somehow manages to miss him by two yards.

Look how Badiashile completely stops moving, what player do you know that's ever this flat footed when asking to receive a pass? 

Definitely a mistake sufficient enough to have him dropped for the next game, whether Poch has the balls to do it is another story. Just like that Arsenal game, the opposition was offering very little, then individuals gifted a goal and all the sudden they are back despite being sh1t until that moment.