Balham Blade
S24SU Seer
Wolves (H)
0-1 Jiménez: quick break from Wolves, Lundstram lunges in unnecessarily on halfway and with Baldock and Basham still up the pitch that leaves Egan and O'Connell to try and cover three Wolves attackers. Egan is drawn to the ball carrier, O'Connell has to fill an enormous gap leaving Jiménez free 8 yards out to tap past Ramsdale who has no chance.
0-2 Saiss: from an outswinging corner, O'Connell bumps Stevens under the flight of the ball leaving Saiss with a free header. Ramsdale is caught flat-footed as the ball goes in at an arguably saveable height.
Villa (A)
0-1 Konsa: another outswinging corner, flicked on at the near post by Mings who's drawn two of our defenders. Stevens is caught in nomansland giving Konsa an unchallenged header back across goal. Ramsdale could have stopped it but it would have required a world class save.
Leeds (H)
0-1 Bamford: defensive positioning nightmare. Berge is fouled but nothing is givne. Baldock gives his man far too much time to get a cross in, Bamford has peeled off Robinson at the back post and is able to head home unchallenged.
Arsenal (A):
0-1 Sako: some slick one touch football opens us up and Sako is left alone at the back post to head home
0-2 Pepé: a quick one two took out four United players and got Pépé the wrong side of Stevens. If ever there was a time for a tactical foul this was it but as it was, Pépé could drive into the box unchallenged before he produced a great finish across Ramsdale and in off the far post.
Fulham (H)
0-1 Lookman: there should be little danger as Lookman picks the ball up outside our area with the defence relatively well set. However, he turns past Berge too easily then gets a lucky bounce back from Basham's attempted tackle before blasting past Ramsdale from 8 yards out.
Liverpool (A)
1-1 Firmino: Ramsdale pulls off a decent stop from Mané's close range header but no United player reacts leaving Firmino with a tap-in
1-2 Diogo Jota: a simple back post cross, headed goal with Stevens caught under the flight of the ball
Man City (H)
0-1 Walker: long range shot through a crowd into the bottom corner. A harsh criticism could be that Ramsdale's starting position means that he can't see the ball until it's past both Osborn and Stevens, both of whom turn their backs on the shot.
Chelsea (A)
1-1 Abraham: scuffed shot down into the ground, over Basham and into the corner. No chance for the keeper; big question marks over how Chelsea's #9 has so much space in our area.
1-2 Chilwell: brilliant ball in from Ziyech; Chilwell has got goalside on Lowe. Ramsdale should claim the ball but hesitates, the ball hits Chilwell and goes in (sorry about the image quality). Ramsdale is too far forward and the ball is curving in too quickly but all Lowe needs to do is lean on Chilwell and usher him out of play. Should our left back have been picking up Chelsea's left back on the right side of the defence though?
1-3 Thiago Silva: freekick from the touchline, glanced home by Silva with Ramsdale making the erroneous decision to come for the ball. Silva is left unmarked with Zouma having blocked off Stevens.
1-4 Werner: lucky break sees the ball reach Werner unopposed on the edge of our area, he blasts past Ramsdale, disguising the shot well.
In short:
What do we need to do?
0-1 Jiménez: quick break from Wolves, Lundstram lunges in unnecessarily on halfway and with Baldock and Basham still up the pitch that leaves Egan and O'Connell to try and cover three Wolves attackers. Egan is drawn to the ball carrier, O'Connell has to fill an enormous gap leaving Jiménez free 8 yards out to tap past Ramsdale who has no chance.
0-2 Saiss: from an outswinging corner, O'Connell bumps Stevens under the flight of the ball leaving Saiss with a free header. Ramsdale is caught flat-footed as the ball goes in at an arguably saveable height.
Villa (A)
0-1 Konsa: another outswinging corner, flicked on at the near post by Mings who's drawn two of our defenders. Stevens is caught in nomansland giving Konsa an unchallenged header back across goal. Ramsdale could have stopped it but it would have required a world class save.
Leeds (H)
0-1 Bamford: defensive positioning nightmare. Berge is fouled but nothing is givne. Baldock gives his man far too much time to get a cross in, Bamford has peeled off Robinson at the back post and is able to head home unchallenged.
Arsenal (A):
0-1 Sako: some slick one touch football opens us up and Sako is left alone at the back post to head home
0-2 Pepé: a quick one two took out four United players and got Pépé the wrong side of Stevens. If ever there was a time for a tactical foul this was it but as it was, Pépé could drive into the box unchallenged before he produced a great finish across Ramsdale and in off the far post.
Fulham (H)
0-1 Lookman: there should be little danger as Lookman picks the ball up outside our area with the defence relatively well set. However, he turns past Berge too easily then gets a lucky bounce back from Basham's attempted tackle before blasting past Ramsdale from 8 yards out.
Liverpool (A)
1-1 Firmino: Ramsdale pulls off a decent stop from Mané's close range header but no United player reacts leaving Firmino with a tap-in
1-2 Diogo Jota: a simple back post cross, headed goal with Stevens caught under the flight of the ball
Man City (H)
0-1 Walker: long range shot through a crowd into the bottom corner. A harsh criticism could be that Ramsdale's starting position means that he can't see the ball until it's past both Osborn and Stevens, both of whom turn their backs on the shot.
Chelsea (A)
1-1 Abraham: scuffed shot down into the ground, over Basham and into the corner. No chance for the keeper; big question marks over how Chelsea's #9 has so much space in our area.
1-2 Chilwell: brilliant ball in from Ziyech; Chilwell has got goalside on Lowe. Ramsdale should claim the ball but hesitates, the ball hits Chilwell and goes in (sorry about the image quality). Ramsdale is too far forward and the ball is curving in too quickly but all Lowe needs to do is lean on Chilwell and usher him out of play. Should our left back have been picking up Chelsea's left back on the right side of the defence though?
1-3 Thiago Silva: freekick from the touchline, glanced home by Silva with Ramsdale making the erroneous decision to come for the ball. Silva is left unmarked with Zouma having blocked off Stevens.
1-4 Werner: lucky break sees the ball reach Werner unopposed on the edge of our area, he blasts past Ramsdale, disguising the shot well.
In short:
- only two goals (14%; Saiss & Thiago Silva; possibly Chilwell but that's second phase) have come from set pieces so either we're lucky or we're still defending those well
- we've conceded a lot of goals from crosses (9 goals, 64%: Jiménez, Saiss*, Konsa*, Bamford*, Sako*, Firmino, Jota*, Chilwell, Thiago Silva*) with real issues on both sides but particularly the left backs getting caught under the ball. None of the headers (*) have been properly challenged.
- two goals (14%) have come after United players turned their backs on shots or the opposition player got a break from a tackle (Walker, Lookman); three (21%) have had a bounce go the way of the opposition (Lookman, Abraham, Werner)
- Ramsdale is only really at fault for Chelsea's second. There's a couple more where on another day he might make a decent or brilliant save to keep the shot out (Saiss, Konsa, Bamford) but there's an underlying question about his footwork - he gets his centre of gravity wrong when moving across his line and can't change direction quickly enough
What do we need to do?
- tighten up on crosses coming into the area. This starts with the wide midfielders.
- improve communication in the back line. There's a theme that a lot of goals have been conceded between the goalline and the penalty spot; only Walker's is from outside the area
- improve aerial ability at LCB. If Stevens or Robinson are incapable of doing this then we'll have to look deeper within the squad at either Bryan or one of the U23s.
- work on quick switches of defending side
- employ a bit more gamesmanship - cynical fouls (Lookman, Pépé), leaning on attackers under crosses (Chilwell)
- get closer to opposition wingers who are having too much time to pick a cross at the moment
