Options at right-back

[rurikbird]

We have won 5 games in Premier League this season. In 2 and a half of them Szoboszlai played at right-back and was voted MOTM or close to it. Bradley and Frimpong's record is more mixed - unconvincing wins against Everton and Burnley and this utter shambles today.

The issue with Bradley for me is that he thrives in a specific type of game - a mad back-and-forth like that coming-of-age performance against Chelsea. He will not lock down his flank against a dangerous attacker and he doesn't quite have the finesse to open up the deep-seated defences. Unfortunately for him that combination of defending deep and catching us with speed on the counter is probably the most frequent type of tactic we will encounter this season, especially now that Palace showed everyone how it's done. And Slot is not likely to go back to Klopp-ball just to accommodate him.

Frimpong is even more of a mystery. To his credit, he has shown desire to get back and defend, but on the ball his quality has been surprisingly poor. It's early days and sometimes players look like they can't pass a ball to save their life when they are low on confidence - but I'm starting to have some doubts about his underlying quality. We have not seen his ceiling yet, but the floor is worryingly low.

I don't want to sound like sky is falling here. The combination of Bradley and Frimpong should still be enough to get by against most weaker opponents, which includes many CL teams (I have no concerns about playing Frimpong against Galatasarai or Frankfurt, for example), but anyone seriously looking to challenge us will immediately identify the right wing as a weakness to exploit. And this means poor old Szoboszlai will have to plug this hole until a real solution emerges.

 

[mom]

Dom has been the best RB at the club this season.

When wirtz plays as a 10, I’d love Dom at RB with gravy and mac in the middle

 

[Modo]

Maybe it's too early to write off Frimpong, but I wasn't really a big fan of signing him

 

[Farkmaster]

We are always going to have a vulnerability at RB. Szobo was the solution at 8 last year, and is the solution at RB this year. What's the problem? Why do we need so many legs? I could speak but there would be fire.

 

[Squiggles]

I just don't think Szobo is any sort of an answer. Hes also been one of the best players at CM and we lose something when he's not there, especially with Wirtz not cutting it. Slot needs to improve Bradley and Frimpong into delivering what he needs. It's one for the training ground.

 

[Modo]

I just don't think Szobo is any sort of an answer. Hes also been one of the best players at CM and we lose something when he's not there, especially with Wirtz not cutting it. Slot needs to improve Bradley and Frimpong into delivering what he needs. It's one for the training ground.

He's not THE answer, but he was the answer against Palace. He should have started at RB.
Look at how much better we looked in the second half.

 

[Gerry_A_Trick]

If Szobo is the answer at right back, it doesn't say much for our two fit RBs, we should be going back in the market in January if that's the case

 

[rurikbird]

I just don't think Szobo is any sort of an answer. Hes also been one of the best players at CM and we lose something when he's not there, especially with Wirtz not cutting it. Slot needs to improve Bradley and Frimpong into delivering what he needs. It's one for the training ground.

You can also argue that dropping one of our better attackers/midfielders to play one of Frimpong or Bradley decreses our average squad quality. At least with Szobo at RB it frees up another spot in the middle for one of our better players.

 

[keniget]

There were loads of quotes from Leverkusen fans saying that Frimpong's final ball drove them mad so frusrations in that respect kinda check out. More than anything he just seems a bit of a non-entity on the pitch. He's not particularly great in defence or offence. Pace aside, what is he actually supposed to be good at? That's a genuine question.

I've said this before but I don't think Bradley is good enough to start for a team aspiring to be the best. Like Jones, he's fine as a squad player, but not as a starter.

Szobo is clearly our best RB right now and that's a concern.

 

[Farkmaster]

. Pace aside, what is he actually supposed to be good at? That's a genuine question.

Vibes.

 

[Modo]

Cheerleading

 

[rurikbird]

There were loads of quotes from Leverkusen fans saying that Frimpong's final ball drove them mad so frusrations in that respect kinda check out. More than anything he just seems a bit of a non-entity on the pitch. He's not particularly great in defence or offence. Pace aside, what is he actually supposed to be good at? That's a genuine question.

I've said this before but I don't think Bradley is good enough to start for a team aspiring to be the best. Like Jones, he's fine as a squad player, but not as a starter.

Szobo is clearly our best RB right now and that's a concern.

Well, today it was just routine passing that was going awry for Frimpong - he actually looked better higher up the pitch where his crossing and pace looked at least potentially dangerous. But in simple things like combining with his teammates to get us up the pitch he gave the ball away about half the time, literally. Bradley has been better at that, but he has other weaknesses.

Neither of them looks good enough for a title-winning team at present. Oh, and I hope nobody brings up Gomez as an option at RB - if there was ever a surefire way to leave us with maximum 2 healthy CBs until the next transfer window that would be giving Gomez any minutes whatsoever at full-back. Forget that idea.

 

[Modo]

Well, today it was just routine passing that was going awry for Frimpong - he actually looked better higher up the pitch where his crossing and pace looked at least potentially dangerous. But in simple things like combining with his teammates to get us up the pitch he gave the ball away about half the time, literally. Bradley has been better at that, but he has other weaknesses.

Neither of them looks good enough for a title-winning team at present. Oh, and I hope nobody brings up Gomez as a RB - if there was a surefire way to leave us with 2 healthy CBs that would be playing Gomez at full-back.

He looks clumsy too.

 

[rurikbird]

If I'm Slot and looking at the fixtures for the next month or so, I would be thinking:

Galatasarai away - likely a back-and-forth game at least initially, hence Bradley
Chelsea home - Szoboszlai
United - Szoboszlai (need to give Wirtz a chance for a big moment against United)
Frankfurt away - Frimpong should be fine against a Bundesliga team
Brentford - can make a case for Bradley
Villa, Madrid, City - all Szoboszlai

Basically any time there is a decent attacker on the LW for the opponent, our only option is Szobo. If a team is playing direct football with lots of transition moments and not a lot of quality, Bradley should be fine. Frimpong I would keep for cups and late in games when we need an auxiliary forward/winger.

 

[MomoWASright]

We have won 5 games in Premier League this season. In 2 and a half of them Szoboszlai played at right-back and was voted MOTM or close to it. Bradley and Frimpong's record is more mixed - unconvincing wins against Everton and Burnley and this utter shambles today.

The issue with Bradley for me is that he thrives in a specific type of game - a mad back-and-forth like that coming-of-age performance against Chelsea. He will not lock down his flank against a dangerous attacker and he doesn't quite have the finesse to open up the deep-seated defences. Unfortunately for him that combination of defending deep and catching us with speed on the counter is probably the most frequent type of tactic we will encounter this season, especially now that Palace showed everyone how it's done. And Slot is not likely to go back to Klopp-ball just to accommodate him.

Frimpong is even more of a mystery. To his credit, he has shown desire to get back and defend, but on the ball his quality has been surprisingly poor. It's early days and sometimes players look like they can't pass a ball to save their life when they are low on confidence - but I'm starting to have some doubts about his underlying quality. We have not seen his ceiling yet, but the floor is worryingly low.

I don't want to sound like sky is falling here. The combination of Bradley and Frimpong should still be enough to get by against most weaker opponents, which includes many CL teams (I have no concerns about playing Frimpong against Galatasarai or Frankfurt, for example), but anyone seriously looking to challenge us will immediately identify the right wing as a weakness to exploit. And this means poor old Szoboszlai will have to plug this hole until a real solution emerges.

The games you talk about playing Szoboszlai there will also be the games we need him in midfield. We are at a point where we need to think about where our best centre mids (Slobs and Gravy) will be asked to do too much and when to take them out of the side for the greater good.

Part of the issue with Bradley is his lack of game time up to now because he has suffered injuries and was behind Trent. He’s still learning his trade at an elite level. Another issue is he’s expected to be a solid tackling right back whilst offering our attack on the right. He doesn’t have the 40 yard pass to get an attack going so he can have a breather, he has to bomb up and down like the energiser/duracell bunny whilst the black hole in front of him does nothing. Bradley also underlaps rather than overlaps which makes the pitch tighter.

Frimpong I think will be that one used against the Burnley type performance. Get him pushed right up where possible. Overlapping and making the pitch wide. For this to work we need a solid CB next to Virgil and Konate is just too Jekyll and Hyde. Had he been on his game today, Palace wouldn’t have got anywhere near as much joy down that wing.

It’s the same problem we’ve had for best part of a decade. Teams don’t try that down our left hand side because Virgil is there. Players don’t go near him so they switch over to the weaker parts.

 

[Modo]

Get Bajcetic back in shape and bench the two flunkies

 

[Fabio]

I just want threat on the right side ffs.

 

[MomoWASright]

I just want threat on the right side ffs.

From anyone on the right?

 

[Fabio]

From anyone on the right?

whoever wants to take the fucking mantle, from right back or right wing. Just some cunt being useful on the right

 

[dogboy]

Get Bajcetic back in shape and bench the two flunkies

Ffs

 

[peekay]

Posted this about Frimpong in the summer.

For Leverkusen under Alonso, Frimpong usually played as RWB in the midfield four, with three central defenders covering for him at the back. We don't play that way.

 

[StevieM]

I don’t think it was Dom moving to RBBthat fixed us for the 2nd yesterdays- there was something definitely off and unbalanced about our formation in the first half - we seemed to go with a 4-2-2-2 and it just didn’t work and it felt like there was no-one on the left.

We looked more balanced when Gakkers came on so we at least had some width.

I think, what we’re seeing is the problem of integrating 4 new starters (Frim/Tayto, Kerk, Wirts, Ekitike/Isak, losing one of our best attacking and chance creation assets (Trent) and some really poor form from other key players (Mac & Mo).

There’s no rhythm at the minute and we’re getting absolutely fucked on transition.

 

[rurikbird]

I don’t think it was Dom moving to RBBthat fixed us for the 2nd yesterdays- there was something definitely off and unbalanced about our formation in the first half - we seemed to go with a 4-2-2-2 and it just didn’t work and it felt like there was no-one on the left.

We looked more balanced when Gakkers came on so we at least had some width.

I think, what we’re seeing is the problem of integrating 4 new starters (Frim/Tayto, Kerk, Wirts, Ekitike/Isak, losing one of our best attacking and chance creation assets (Trent) and some really poor form from other key players (Mac & Mo).

There’s no rhythm at the minute and we’re getting absolutely fucked on transition.

I think it was both - 4-2-2-2 definitely was the wrong choice against Palace’s system; Slot tried to solve too many problems at once and the as a result nothing worked. In the 2nd half going back to our normal system helped, but Szobo also closed down all attacking avenues on the right, which partly reopened once he was moved back to midfield.

 

[ibromurph]

There were loads of quotes from Leverkusen fans saying that Frimpong's final ball drove them mad so frusrations in that respect kinda check out. More than anything he just seems a bit of a non-entity on the pitch. He's not particularly great in defence or offence. Pace aside, what is he actually supposed to be good at? That's a genuine question.

I've said this before but I don't think Bradley is good enough to start for a team aspiring to be the best. Like Jones, he's fine as a squad player, but not as a starter.

Szobo is clearly our best RB right now and that's a concern.

His best attribute seems to be off the ball running, into open space.

He's also decent at 1 v 1s when attacking. He's got excellent kick-and-run acceleration on the outside of a full back. His crossing, without pressure, on his right foot is decent too.

But his short passing looks awful and his first touch looks inconsistent at best. He really needs to sharpen up these 2 things, to make it at this level.

 

[rurikbird]

Get Bajcetic back in shape and bench the two flunkies

I know it’s silly, but thinking of Bajcetic suddenly fulfilling his world-class potential in whatever position we need at the moment always fills me with hope. I know it’s irrational, but I can’t help it. It’s like waiting for Father Christmas.

So thanks, @Modo 🙂

 

[Farkmaster]

His best attribute seems to be off the ball running, into open space.

He's also decent at 1 v 1s when attacking. He's got excellent kick-and-run acceleration on the outside of a full back. His crossing, without pressure, on his right foot is decent too.

But his short passing looks awful and his first touch looks inconsistent at best. He really needs to sharpen up these 2 things, to make it at this level.

I know this is a stupid thing to obsess over, but his reaction to his fifa score thing made me worried. He got like a 74 for passing, which is high from what I've seen, and seemed fine with it, but was excited about 94 pace. One of those you can work on.

 

[rurikbird]

With Frimpong it looks like Alonso has simplified his game, as good managers often do, to mostly use his 2 world-class attributes - pace and timing of forward runs, while minimizing his contact with the ball in the build-up phase. Now with change of system and position Frimpong is forced to perform a role of a well-rounded full-back, which he is… not.

Slot will need to adjust how he is used (i.e. late in games when we’re on front foot) to get maximum value out of him this season. And if there are no signs of him developing a more complete game, we’ll probably need to go back in the market next summer.

 

[darkstarexodus]

Dom has been the best RB at the club this season.

When wirtz plays as a 10, I’d love Dom at RB with gravy and mac in the middle

This is how I'd be setting up at least for the bigger matches at this point.

 

[StevieM]

With Frimpong it looks like Alonso has simplified his game, as good managers often do, to mostly use his 2 world-class attributes - pace and timing of forward runs, while minimizing his contact with the ball in the build-up phase. Now with change of system and position Frimpong is forced to perform a role of a well-rounded full-back, which he is… not.

Slot will need to adjust how he is used (i.e. late in games when we’re on front foot) to get maximum value out of him this season. And if there are no signs of developing a more complete game, we’ll probably need to go in the market next summer.

There a RB that might be available from Real Madrid next season - might cost a bit though.

 

[rurikbird]

There a RB that might be available from Real Madrid next season - might cost a bit though.

I always liked Dani Carvajal 😉