Ekotto @ right back....

[BorisTM]

Ekotto was terrible in the 1st half v Everton, at fault for the 1st goal at Arsenal, gave away a penalty at Stoke. What excuses do you have for those? He has moments like today. It was a bad game for Ekotto, regardless of where he played.

Harry changed the tactics because away games at Old Trafford are different to home games to Arsenal and Chelsea. We were in the game for the most part, but gave away 2 silly penalties. The tactics weren't at fault, just individual errors.

So you say that he has MOMENTS in this and that game, yet you bash his entire performance in this game when he clearly played his usual good game when moved back to his natural position. Any single mistake that a defender does will cost dearly as the team can hardly recover from those and not getting scored gets down to luck and poor play from the opposition. If Man U players weren't so sloppy in the first half alone we could have been easily 2 down due to Palacios mistakes.

He had a bad first half against Neverton but they scored their goals after he was subbed, didn't they? Big F deal he gave a penalty away at Stoke, on that pitch that looked more suited for ice skating than playing football.

Just leave him alone, even if he does the "once in a blue moon" mistake, he makes up for it by hundreds.

 

[guy]

bad move by harry, not because BAE was at RB but because he changed our left hand side which had been working so well with bale at LM

 

[ginol@14]

harry should not of changed the side at all
BAE should of been LB ( he cant play RB, too 1 footed) with Bale LW modric and hudd CM and Kaboul RB
Worked against both ar2ena1 and chelski , would of worked yesterday as well
we didnt really offer anything at old trafford , very dissapointing considering a win would of given us breathing space in 4th
harry messed up , end of
we need 3 points against bolton and hope villa get something at city

 

[guy]

we only looked good (and scored) when bae and bale were moved. No coincidence

 

[EastLondonYid]

bae at RB was a mistake
not only did he look uncomfortable..more importantly,it meant our most threating player bale, was pushed back to LB!

cant really understand why harry did that?
the main reason we won last 2 games,was our pace, mainly bale's.
utd must have got a huge lift when they saw bale at LB.

 

[JJetset]

In answer to Stoof's comment about scoring away from home I think we should stick Peter up on his own as he played well away at Blackburn and to me away from the Lane Pav is an imposter ! He goes missing.

 

[onthetwo]

praying that Charlie is fit for City - Bellamy would eat BAe for breakfast

 

[DC_Boy]

well surely harry won't make the same mistake again if corluka isn't fit

admittedly because of loaning out naughton we have problems at this position

but BAE isn't the answer for sure

guess a lot of work on the training ground is needed to see who can cover at RB the best

maybe JJ could do the job

 

[worcestersauce]

Ekotto was terrible in the 1st half v Everton, at fault for the 1st goal at Arsenal, gave away a penalty at Stoke. What excuses do you have for those? He has moments like today. It was a bad game for Ekotto, regardless of where he played.

Harry changed the tactics because away games at Old Trafford are different to home games to Arsenal and Chelsea. We were in the game for the most part, but gave away 2 silly penalties. The tactics weren't at fault, just individual errors.

As I posted on page 2 it wasn't playing BAE at RB it was moving him from LB which was a bad tactical change.
I hadn't seen the game until this morning on football first and from that it seemed pretty clear that Bale did nothing much down the left until he was moved forward and pretty soon got to the line forcing a corner from which we scored then within minutes they even sub'd their right back because he couldn't handle Bale, that was always my point, by moving him back we let Utd off the hook and only really pressured them after the change.
Our mistakes let them in for the goal and penalties but that makes the point even more relevant, if you don't attack them then when you let in soft goals you lose. We effectively gave their defence a 75 minute easy ride.
It was a mistake plain and simple but we are still fourth and I'm sure we've learned from it and we will get fourth now.

 

[double0]

Agreed on JJ

I to believe Jenas is vital and can cover three positions. RB RW CM and IMO cover right wing mid better than Bentley

 

[guy]

what did kaboul do so wrong???? I thought he was more than solid in his last 2 appearances, esp considering he's not a RB

 

[Stoof]

Just another cheeky point: if Harry didn't occasionally play the odd player on his wrong side then we wouldn't be watching a certain goal over and over again. The commentary goes like this:

OHHHHHHHHH WHAT A GOAL!! IT'S DANNY ROSE ON HIS PREMIER LEAGUE DEBUT!!

:wink:

 

[Krafty]

Just another cheeky point: if Harry didn't occasionally play the odd player on his wrong side then we wouldn't be watching a certain goal over and over again. The commentary goes like this:

OHHHHHHHHH WHAT A GOAL!! IT'S DANNY ROSE ON HIS PREMIER LEAGUE DEBUT!!

:wink:

Yeah, but he did sod all in the second half :razz:

 

[BorisTM]

Just another cheeky point: if Harry didn't occasionally play the odd player on his wrong side then we wouldn't be watching a certain goal over and over again. The commentary goes like this:

OHHHHHHHHH WHAT A GOAL!! IT'S DANNY ROSE ON HIS PREMIER LEAGUE DEBUT!!

:wink:

Danny Rose scored that goal from a position where he was going to be anyway even if he had played on the left in that game.

And when Bents came for him our game became more fluent on that side.

There was nobody else to play there anyway, it is not that he had any choice as it was against Man U.

 

[mil1lion]

As I posted on page 2 it wasn't playing BAE at RB it was moving him from LB which was a bad tactical change.
I hadn't seen the game until this morning on football first and from that it seemed pretty clear that Bale did nothing much down the left until he was moved forward and pretty soon got to the line forcing a corner from which we scored then within minutes they even sub'd their right back because he couldn't handle Bale, that was always my point, by moving him back we let Utd off the hook and only really pressured them after the change.
Our mistakes let them in for the goal and penalties but that makes the point even more relevant, if you don't attack them then when you let in soft goals you lose. We effectively gave their defence a 75 minute easy ride.
It was a mistake plain and simple but we are still fourth and I'm sure we've learned from it and we will get fourth now.

I thought the gameplan Harry set out was the right one. He used Bale at left back to counter the pace of Valencia down that side. We kept it tight in the first half, Gomes didn't have much to do all game long. It was a stupid penalty given away about an hour in, and we went 1-0 down. But the response was good. Harry made the right changes, and we started to threaten. We started to make chances, we got the equaliser and looked good for it. Everything was going to plan.

Where was Ekotto for the Nani goal though? He was at left back for that goal, yet it was Bale who was blamed for letting the runner go. Ekotto was nowhere to be seen though. Like I said, it was a shit performance from Ekotto both at right back and when he went to left back. Then another poor penalty given away by Palacios and it was game over.

Everthing was set up well by Harry, Gomes didn't have much to do aside from save 2 penalties and a 1 on 1 with Nani, he was kept relatively quiete (especially as it was at Old Trafford). We kept it even for an hour, then started to come out and attack more, and we looked good for it at 1-1. Individual errors cost us the game though, simple as.

You suggest we should have attacked sooner, but that would play into United hands. The plan would've been to keep it tight, frustrate the Uniterd fans, and nick a win. Had it not been for individual errors, not tactical ones, it would've come off and we'd all be praising Harry.

 

[Stoof]

Danny Rose scored that goal from a position where he was going to be anyway even if he had played on the left in that game.

And when Bents came for him our game became more fluent on that side.

There was nobody else to play there anyway, it is not that he had any choice as it was against Man U.

That's not the point at all though. He wouldn't have been there in the first place if Harry hadn't put him in on the wrong side. :wink:

 

[ginol@14]

kaboul has to play RB if corluka is not fit
any other choice would be just plain stupid
he player really well against arsenal and chelsea and is our best option whilst corluka is out

 

[Bonjour]

Bit silly blaming Harry Redknapp so heavily for the defeat yesterday.

We very nearly came away with a draw, but were undone by what was truly a match-winning goal by Nani.

 

[14/04/91]

we only looked good (and scored) when bae and bale were moved. No coincidence

I think we looked the better side after we equalised with Lennon & Eidur on but don't forget their crucial 2nd goal - BAE got hopelessly out of position & Bale didn't cover Nani.

 

[michaelden]

And steve, no offence because I love you 'n' all, these are Premier League professional footballers. I'm not sure what level you've played at - and please correct me if I'm wrong as this is not an attack on you - but simply, these guys are professional athletes and should be able to cope. More to the point that he's been training for it all week too.

Stoof, I think that more professional you become the more specialised you become too. Being a pro doesn't make you infallible in all positions it just means you're very very good in one. Much easier to swap a position on your strong side than move across the pitch and play on your weaker, especially when that leg was previously only used for standing.