Lukas Engel

I noticed McGree coaching Engel too through the first half.

What I mean by that is obviously getting Engel in the right positions to suit our system, he was drifting inside for instance and McGree pulled him up and you could see him pointing to the touchline and gesturing width with his hands etc.

Thats good to see, players aware of other during the game and helping them on.
 
MichaelDebeve said:
I noticed McGree coaching Engel too through the first half.

What I mean by that is obviously getting Engel in the right positions to suit our system, he was drifting inside for instance and McGree pulled him up and you could see him pointing to the touchline and gesturing width with his hands etc.

Thats good to see, players aware of other during the game and helping them on.
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I have no doubt players were told to protect him. I don't think it's because Carrick thinks he is rubbish, but another night like sheffield would be difficult to come back from for a young lad.

That he showed for the ball and never tried to hide speaks volumes of his character and will to succeed.

He isn't the most nimble when getting turned and that showed again last night so he has to work on that, but then he is still quite young, 24 I think.
 
did anyone see how our players reacted to him after the assist and when he was going off?

It was noticeable that they weren't giving him the ball in the first half, but I'm not sure if that was to protect him or because they don't trust him
 
JM14 said:
Solid performance but still questions to be asked defensively. I would still rather see VDB LB if fit for Sunderland, Clarke v Engel won’t end well for us
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Yeah I didn't want to be negative last night because obviously it was a great comeback for him considering what we all thought of him after Sheff Wed but he still frightens the life out of me defensively.

Got turned inside out by Tanner when he hit the post and by I think it was Perry Ng of all players later on in the game, it's like he gets his body position/weight all wrong and is constantly chasing a misstep. He actually doesn't look that slow when he's going forward, I thought it was a pace issue but it might be an anticipation/body position thing.

Certainly loved seeing the comeback last night, how the fans reacted to him and Maddo giving him PotM but I think I'll have kittens if he's up against Clarke/Roberts/Ba on Saturday.
 
Good point about being up against Clarke on Saturday. Arguably the best winger in the league. Will be a completely different task compared to last night.
 
TheYorkshireTerrier said:
Good point about being up against Clarke on Saturday. Arguably the best winger in the league. Will be a completely different task compared to last night.
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I think Clarke usually plays on the left, will be Roberts on the right I imagine. Although wouldn’t be shocked if they targeted him.
 
Definitely seems better going forward than defending but that's not really surprising considering he started off as a winger. Was he at fault for the Grant chance? He seemed to be a lot deeper than anyone else and played him on.
 
Great game last night. We suddenly have defensive cover available too.

It’s a squad game though and I’d have Van Der Berg in for the weekend as we’ll need to defend more than we’ll be attacking.
 
TheYorkshireTerrier said:
Buzzing for him tonight as I was fearing the worst when the crowd started to ironically cheer whenever the ball was passed to him.

I wonder if Carrick had words with some of the players, specifically McNair, at half time for ignoring him so much.

I criticised him after Sheff Wed which was rightfully deserved. Still think he has a lot to improve on defensively but I’m glad he got through tonight with plenty of positives.
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Yes there was a big cheer when McNair finally passed it to him. I thought that was actually more of a criticism of McNair for not doing so earlier than of Engel
As you say it was great for him to put in a solid performance - not great but certainly played a full part in the victory (including an assist for the breakthrough goal)
 
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Norman_Conquest said:
Sunderland will attack us but when doing so will leave space in behind for us to exploit. We will certainly get chances and will need to take them.
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They tend to sit in and counter attack I think, they'll let us have the ball and we'll be the team with space in behind. It's how they played us at their place last season and how they played Southampton the other week who play similarly to us. That seems to be their game plan against teams like us who like to have the ball.
 
Chappy112 said:
They tend to sit in and counter attack I think, they'll let us have the ball and we'll be the team with space in behind. It's how they played us at their place last season and how they played Southampton the other week who play similarly to us. That seems to be their game plan against teams like us who like to have the ball.
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I must admit, I haven't seen anything of Sunderland and due to their lofty position and goals scored, I thought they must be going at teams.
 
AytonMews said:
You could see his reaction after he set up the first goal, he has clearly gone through the mill psychologically. Showed a great attitude
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Seems to be his own worst critic. As Carrick said was really keen to do well when he arrived but the mistake at WBA really knocked him (he has his head in his hands and seemed in a daze for the rest of the game) and he continued to deteriorate over the next few games as he lost all confidence resulting in the Sheffield Wednesday debacle. Got better as the game went on yesterday and once he'd set up the goal he seemed to exorcise his demons and he looked a different player. Hopefully that will continue but he needs to be more robust as all players make mistakes but the mentally strong ones don't let it affect them.
 
Norman_Conquest said:
I must admit, I haven't seen anything of Sunderland and due to their lofty position and goals scored, I thought they must be going at teams.
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They do if they're playing against a side where the onus is on them, so Cardiff, QPR(10 men), Sheff Wed, Rotherham etc, they'll dominate the ball in those games and have wave after wave of attack but against Southampton, Blackburn and I'm guessing us on Saturday who like to play, they won't be bothered about knocking the ball around, they'll press us when we're trying to play out and if they do nick it off us they won't mess around exploiting the space.

I was at their game against Southampton, they had 30% possession and honestly they could have scored 8, Southampton barely had a chance.
 
Was slightly puzzled that Maddo gave him his MOTM award. But he did have a very good game and I'm really pleased for the guy. Like quite a few I was worried when I saw his name on the team sheet. I needn't have been. Perhaps the guys who do our scouting and recruitment aren't the clueless eejits that some believe?

For what it's worth I had Barlaser as my MOTM though Hackney was probably more influential (we just expect it from Hayden) I thought that Barlaser had a great game and the pair of them worked really well together.

Johnny who? (joke)
 
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