I'm not struggling to understand anything. If he had turned before the ball arrived he would not have been "clear of the defence".
I remember the incident very well too and you are wrong. The entire backline was not between him and the goal, he'd already found himself unmarked between defenders, if he'd turned then he would still be in between the defenders but instead of facing backwards he would have been travelling forward without the ball and able to accelerate. A through ball then would have put him "clear of the defence" because the resulting play he proved that the defence couldn't react in time to stop him even with him being able to turn. If the backline was between him and the defence as you state when he turned he would have turned into a defender.
Their entire back line was between him and the goal, with one defender in particular picking him up.
Nobody had picked him up he'd found himself between defenders in space.
His turn took the defender out of the game and put Lallana in behind their defence.
Completely incorrect, then I would be crediting him with great play.
You are bending over backwards to have a pop at him.
Wrong I thought it was wrong the moment I saw it and still do. I have no problem saying what his assets are and giving credit where it's due as I have many times with Adam already.
Somewhere on tinternet is footage of that moment, but any search for it is likely gonna just turn up his goal. Maybe somebody's got it and can put it up here? Anyway, I remember it clearly enough, it was a good bit of play.
Went through a couple of highlight reels and they seem to ignore the incident, not trawling through to find something I remember well, it was shown better on the replay after the attempt and that's where I picked up on it.
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