- Jan 17, 2008
- 10,328
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Yeah I've noticed this too. Dier gave him a massive bollocking after he tried to be clever with his back to goal and got done by 2 Boro players which led to them getting a chance.Didn’t realise his goal return was that good, but in my opinion the problem seems to be that when he comes back he struggles to receive the ball with his back to their goal. He gives up possession far too often. whether that’s because of a lack of awareness or a lack of control or a combination of both
Maybe the answer is not giving him the ball unless he’s running forward?
It's a definite area of weakness, but I think it's something he can work on and at times his flicks in midfield with his back to goal have led to us scoring some nice goals, so it's not like he never gets right. I think the problem is he often wants to take touches when he would be better of just laying off the ball first time. Lacazette has been doing this extremely well for Arsenal recently (the prick) - just simple one touch passes back to the midfielders as he doesn't have the skill or strength to hold the ball up like a conventional target man - and he's got a ton of assists as a result.
Either way, I don't think dropping Son is the solution so fingers crossed Conte works on this area of his game closely in training and he is able to improve it.