This is meant to be kind of an echo of the “Liverpool attack analyzed” thread. Our defence has been criticized a lot earlier in the season; some pundits insisted this was our big weakness that will prevent us from challenging City. You don’t hear it brought up so much any more; since the 2:2 game at Chelsea, we have conceded a total of 3 goals in 8 games, Van Dijk is very close to his best again and a more stable situation in midfield (I think that was the real weakness!) means the defensive line now has more protection.
The Burnley game also brought our offside trap into focus. As exemplified by Fabinho’s hilarious interview, the perception doesn’t match reality here - in fact the offside trap and the high line have been super effective for us this season. Here are a couple of screenshots from the last game and relevant stats collected by Neil Mellor (he is now working for LFCTV and IMO is an excellent analyst):
Again, this is about perception vs reality. A successfully executed offside trap is not celebrated like a tackle, block or interception, let alone an attacking element of play, but maybe it should be - it’s the cleanest way to stop an opposition attack cold in its tracks and to win the ball back without any risk of counter-press. The difference is it’s a collective rather than individual type of action that requires a great deal of game understanding and trust in your teammates and it’s not especially aesthetically pleasing (unless you enjoy watching opposition strikers curse). But please let’s stop calling it “risky” - it’s brave, just like passing the ball from the back under pressure, which used to give fans palpitations and attract scorn from old-timey pundits and is now accepted as perfectly normal. And we happen to be the best team in the country at this by some distance - every one of these 101 offside traps we made this season is a prevented potential goal-scoring chance.
After the horror-show of last season, I actually enjoy watching us defend again.
The Burnley game also brought our offside trap into focus. As exemplified by Fabinho’s hilarious interview, the perception doesn’t match reality here - in fact the offside trap and the high line have been super effective for us this season. Here are a couple of screenshots from the last game and relevant stats collected by Neil Mellor (he is now working for LFCTV and IMO is an excellent analyst):
Again, this is about perception vs reality. A successfully executed offside trap is not celebrated like a tackle, block or interception, let alone an attacking element of play, but maybe it should be - it’s the cleanest way to stop an opposition attack cold in its tracks and to win the ball back without any risk of counter-press. The difference is it’s a collective rather than individual type of action that requires a great deal of game understanding and trust in your teammates and it’s not especially aesthetically pleasing (unless you enjoy watching opposition strikers curse). But please let’s stop calling it “risky” - it’s brave, just like passing the ball from the back under pressure, which used to give fans palpitations and attract scorn from old-timey pundits and is now accepted as perfectly normal. And we happen to be the best team in the country at this by some distance - every one of these 101 offside traps we made this season is a prevented potential goal-scoring chance.
After the horror-show of last season, I actually enjoy watching us defend again.
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