Analysis of the goals conceded against Manchester United (1/12)

I took a break from analysing goals conceded last week. I’m sure you won’t hold it against me.

Rooney’s first goal – Dembele loses the ball in midfield and Jones whips in a cross, which Walker fails to clear. It falls perfectly for Rooney to finish.

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Unfortunately I’m relying on highlights to create these stills, as I didn’t record the match. Just before this, Mousa Dembele – otherwise much-improved today – dallied on the ball and lost possession. Here we see Jones with the ball on the right shortly after United had won the ball back.

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Vertonghen is taken away by Valencia’s dummy run, meaning Jones has a bit of room to put a cross in, with Dembele struggling to get close.

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The cross is relatively harmless, but Walker gets into a real pickle. His body shape is all wrong to clear; he should be striking this upfield first time with his left foot, or even getting side on and putting it out for a corner or throw-in if he’s determined to use his right, but instead he is taken by surprise and awkwardly prods it into the six-yard box.

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Rooney is on hand to finish from close range – he doesn’t pass up opportunities like this.

 

Rooney’s second goal – Lloris comes to meet a through-ball from Rooney, but fails to get a hand to the ball, instead catching Welbeck’s trailing leg. Rooney smashes the resultant penalty right down the middle.

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Rooney cuts inside and is aware of Welbeck’s movement ahead of him.

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He plays a slide-rule pass for Welbeck to chase into the channel – he’s going away from goal, but Lloris has a decision to make: does he stay on his line, or try to sweep up.

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It soon becomes clear that Welbeck will meet the ball first, but Lloris is committed.

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He misses Welbeck’s front foot, but the forward’s back foot clips Lloris’ hand – whether he leaves it hanging deliberately to make contact or not, it’s difficult to tell – either way, there’s contact, and Lloris has missed the ball, so the referee has little choice but to award a penalty.

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Rooney waits for Lloris to dive and slams the penalty down the middle of the goal.

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  1. Much much improved performance all round, I notice Chadli is getting the finger pointed at him as not having done much by spurs sites and quite a lot of praise from utd sites, personally I dont think he did anything wrong but wouldn't say much more, he did pretty much ensure Valencia had to do all his own running though as smalling (?) couldn't risk leaving him for long. Was good to see more people in the box too, mostly Lennon which is telling. Anyway, first goal was a howler but, we've all been there, you have to get something on the ball and seeing it late you have to take whatever contact you can, once in a while it falls as it did. Probably part of a larger problem that remains unsorted, sometimes the ball falls for you sometimes it doesn't, today LLoris could kick it up and you could guarantee a utd player would head it, and you could guarantee a utd player would be the one that got the stretched and barely controlled ball first, and you could guarantee that when the ball squirmed out after the following challenge it would be a utd player it fell to then too, we don't have the first to the ball bite and we don't seem to get the luck that sometimes makes up for it. This time it was in front of goal, it could only happen to spurs. Second one was a penalty, yes the guy left his leg out, yes he was looking for it, but sadly that's the game now. A little later Townsend ran into Evra - commentators decided that Evra hadn't deliberately contacted him it was just that he hadn't deliberately got out the way, and therefore it was fine, the same could be said for lloris, but like I say, that's not the game anymore. He should have retreated when he saw Vlad head him off, hard to complain that he's off his line too fast when we lambast Brad for the opposite, as for the penalty, the previous attempts chart suggested staying upright was your best bet, and it probably was, though its a brave keeper that walks in to the dressing room after not diving for a pen. Summary: keep playing like that and there will be more goals and hopefully fewer losses.
    1. I thought Chadli was solid if not spectacular - his physique and upper body strength mean that he does keep the ball very well in tight areas. I agree with your last sentence although wouldn't it be nice to score a goal from open play, from inside the box?
      1. Sadly we wont see many of those while there's only one guy in there and surrounded by defender's. As it stands though, pushing both Paulinho and Dembele in to what i guess is more a 4141 variant has seemed to pay off, although, our problems are against 10 man defences, which Utd weren't by any stretch of the imagination. Fulham could do anything, i dont think many of their fans know what to expect. Why do clubs wait to sack a manager till the week before they play us btw?
  2. I was aghast at the sight of Lloris coming out to Welbeck when Chiriches had him covered. I hope that AVB now drops Dawson, because it is affecting the behaviour of our goalkeeper: if he knows he has speedy defenders then he doesn't need to commit like he did. Other than that, I thought it was in the circumstances a magnificent performance by the team and that includes AVB. I can't put into words what I think of the scum who booed him.
    1. Yeah - it was an uncharacteristic error of judgement from Lloris. I think Dawson was hugely improved on Sunday but it was almost impossible for him not to be, mind. I'd love to see Chiriches and Kaboul paired up... As for the booing - ludicrous.
  3. Looking at the replay Lloris was definitely to blame for their penalty. Chiriches had it easily covered. We gifted them both goals. Frustrating. Spurs will get so much better as they get used to the new team/system. Almost there. We are badly missing a left back. Having loaned BAE and kept Fryers as a reserve then he has to use Fryers. Loaning BAE will cost us 4th spot as loaning Townsend did last season. Far from being immune to criticism AVB is very affected by it.
    1. Tend to agree. I was told that BAE was loaned because he acted up (badly) and AVB had to assert his authority. He would have been sold if an offer had been received.
  4. Adebayor could be among the best strikers in the world. He's 28, at his peak. Why doesn't AVB do whatever it takes to get him playing at his best. Adebayor destroyed Spurs in the Champions League for Real Madrid. Why won't they play him???????????? (and wtf is BAE doing on loan?)
    1. I think we will play Ade when he's fit...

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