A lot of people are talking about our defensive problems. Some are seeing it as a both a midfield and defensive line problems. I'm more of the opinion that it is more midfield related than it is related to the defensive line.
I also don't think that, when it comes to defending, our biggest problem is winning back the ball. One thing I saw over and over again against Brentford, City, Brighton and West-Ham is an inability to keep the ball long enough. We get dispossessed way too easily and this, against a team that is not afraid of pressing us hard in the middle of the park, leads to these relentless periods of us winning the ball, losing it a few moments later and then everybody has to run back to defend a dangerous counter, rinse and repeat. We saw it this weekend when pretty much everybody in that midfield gave the ball up way too easily. In this regard, I agree that we miss Gini because if there is one thing that very much stood out in his game it was the fact that he almost never lost the ball. While he never was a great passer of the ball, he was not going to lose the ball in the middle of the park with his full-back pushing high up high, creating a situation where the full-back has to bomb back, VVD run back and hopefully pull a world class tackle. Notice how VVD actually did a ton of those on the weekend? We bought him to do this yes, but you're pushing your luck if VVD has to do it over and over again. He's here to mop that up 2 or 3 times a game max (on top of his other defensive duties), if you constantly give the ball up in the middle of the park, with the way we play, then its no surprise that the discussion becomes ''VVD is not up to speed yet'' + ''Trent/Robbo are not playing well''.
Part of the problem will be solved once Thiago is back starting games but another player that gave us calmness and retention on the ball was Eliott. I might be wrong but I remember him being very calm and hard to dispossess with the ball at his feet. He also had the ability of dispatching that simple pass that gets the team past the first line of the opposition's press. I think the vision before the season started was that Eliott and Thiago are pretty good at keeping the ball and moving the team past that first press of the opposition wether through a nice pass or simply by carrying it. It's sad we lost both of them so early in the season but Thiago starting games alongside Fabinho and Henderson should solve a large chunk of that issue after the Intl break.
One thing I'm itching to see us do is matching City for their tactical fouls. That Fornals goal would've never happened against City because with 3 of their players surrounding the ball carrier en route to their box it would've instantly meant that one of them would take the yellow and stop it right there. The refs are not sanctioning them with reds and most teams we come across are not afraid to use it against us so we might as well start doing it too because like we saw on the weekend its the difference between being 1-1 and going down 2-1.
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