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Matt Doherty

harr1984 said:
The thing some people struggle to accept is that this guy was bought in to be rotated with Aurier as Mourinho directly said in a video interview, wheras a lot of people have done nothing but slag off Aurier and assumed this guy was going to be the main man.

Aurier consistently played game after game without much of a break previously, now we have at the very least a decent backup Aurier can now be rotated - and low and behold he is looking better and making less mistakes than when he was played almost every game he was fit. Funny that....
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I've said it before but I'll say it again.... Last season we had a gaping chasm in the centre of our midfield. This allowed the opposition to get on the ball in central areas and have time on the ball in that position to be facing our goal and run with the ball or pick a pass in between our fullbacks and central defenders. It is almost impossible for full backs to look good when faced with this. This season we have Hojbjerg who doesn't allow that to happen as he is very, very good at selecting when to drop off and when to press.
 
Finney Is Back said:
I've said it before but I'll say it again.... Last season we had a gaping chasm in the centre of our midfield. This allowed the opposition to get on the ball in central areas and have time on the ball in that position to be facing our goal and run with the ball or pick a pass in between our fullbacks and central defenders. It is almost impossible for full backs to look good when faced with this. This season we have Hojbjerg who doesn't allow that to happen as he is very, very good at selecting when to drop off and when to press.
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The centre of midfield was indeed the problem and that's why the very first player Jose signed was Hojberg. If you don't quality whether that is offensively or defensively (we didn't have much of either last season) you can't achieve much.

Aurier has never been as bad as many would claim him to be, he's far from perfect but was clearly following instructions and Jose has continued to select him when deemed appropriate.
 
Bishop said:
The centre of midfield was indeed the problem and that's why the very first player Jose signed was Hojberg. If you don't quality whether that is offensively or defensively (we didn't have much of either last season) you can't achieve much.

Aurier has never been as bad as many would claim him to be, he's far from perfect but was clearly following instructions and Jose has continued to select him when deemed appropriate.
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Jose never instructed him to let his man walk past him or to chop him down though
And even Hojbjerg can’t fix that from CM
Aurier has been much improved and maybe that’s because he is fresher in games, and now has competition but he was awful defensively a lot. It’s exactly why teams targeted that side of pitch. Now we have stepped up on that side which be deserves credit for
 
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Bedfordspurs said:
Jose never instructed him to let his man walk past him or to chop him down though
And even Hojbjerg can’t fix that from CM
Aurier has been much improved and maybe that’s because he is fresher in games, and now has competition but he was awful defensively a lot. It’s exactly why teams targeted that side of pitch. Now we have stepped up on that side which be deserves credit for
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I agree. We needed new FB's AND CM's, the CM will help the fullback, especially if they are caught upfield BUT they cant help with 'in the moment' decisions, and its worth noting some of these decisions aren't last ditch they are just rashness or poor decision making. Aurier has improved BUT he will still have a brain fart in his locker. I'm sure Walker still has the odd one for City. Its hard to unwire that.
 
Bedfordspurs said:
Jose never instructed him to let his man walk past him or to chop him down though
And even Hojbjerg can’t fix that from CM
Aurier has been much improved and maybe that’s because he is fresher in games, and now has competition but he was awful defensively a lot. It’s exactly why teams targeted that side of pitch. Now we have stepped up on that side which be deserves credit for
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Well as as I said he's far from perfect but many of the complaints were about how far up field he was positionee which was obviously by design. Hojberg has helped in those particular instances because he's very good at closing the passing lanes.

We see it differently I know, as your priority was RB whereas mine was CM, Jose went for both but with more emphasis on CM I would argue.
 
Bishop said:
Well as as I said he's far from perfect but many of the complaints were about how far up field he was positionee which was obviously by design. Hojberg has helped in those particular instances because he's very good at closing the passing lanes.

We see it differently I know, as your priority was RB whereas mine was CM, Jose went for both but with more emphasis on CM I would argue.
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Well we brought two full backs and one CM
But that’s me being sarcastic
 
Bishop said:
Well as as I said he's far from perfect but many of the complaints were about how far up field he was positionee which was obviously by design
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I dont remember people complaining about that, especially directly about Aurier.

Perhaps they complained the tactic was a bit obvious and appeared our only attacking outlet but most knew that was by design?
 
ricky2tricky4city said:
I dont remember people complaining about that, especially directly about Aurier.

Perhaps they complained the tactic was a bit obvious and appeared our only attacking outlet but most knew that was by design?
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Oh there were definitely people complaining about him being out of position or so far upfield in the match day threads. It's by the by now but it was a reoccurring theme.
 
ricky2tricky4city said:
I dont remember people complaining about that, especially directly about Aurier.

Perhaps they complained the tactic was a bit obvious and appeared our only attacking outlet but most knew that was by design?
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I complained regularly
Not because he was upfield bit because he didn’t track back
And when he did he invariably still got done by his man
It’s why so many goals came down that side
 
parklane1 said:
I agree, he has played a handful of games for us in a totally different system then he is used to and its a shame that some do not understand that.
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I think it's fair to expect him to improve with more time in the team.

I think he's been fine so far given the circumstances at least. A solid upgrade on the Aurier we saw a year ago. If Aurier is currently ahead of him it's more because of the improvement he has shown over the last 6 months or so.

Expect it to be a real competition between the two that will continue and at different times one of them will look the better option.
 
Bishop said:
Oh there were definitely people complaining about him being out of position or so far upfield in the match day threads. It's by the by now but it was a reoccurring theme.
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There were indeed. There were people that didn’t understand that Mourinho had us set up so that Aurier’s direct player to defend was actually the opposition’s left back.
 
Finney Is Back said:
There were indeed. There were people that didn’t understand that Mourinho had us set up so that Aurier’s direct player to defend was actually the opposition’s left back.
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It’s a shame he never really did that and was regularly left foundering when working out what to do defensively
It’s great to see him step up on that front this season. Just need to keep a clean sheet or two with him playing
 
Bedfordspurs said:
It’s a shame he never really did that and was regularly left foundering when working out what to do defensively
It’s great to see him step up on that front this season. Just need to keep a clean sheet or two with him playing
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He did though.... when the opposition’s full back attacked he went with them. People would vent frustration in match threads that he would stay up field or casually jog back and not chase the opposition’s wide forward when clearly he was doing exactly what his manager had instructed.
 
Finney Is Back said:
He did though.... when the opposition’s full back attacked he went with them. People would vent frustration in match threads that he would stay up field or casually jog back and not chase the opposition’s wide forward when clearly he was doing exactly what his manager had instructed.
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He went with them and then let them overlap and create chances. It’s why targeted that side as they knew they could get at him. We saw it last year constantly.
The reinvention of his play is impressive if he gets back to defending. It’s the same when people said his crossing was good when it was average at best
This season he has been more balanced and much better because of it. You even liked my comments when I defended him a few games ago
 
Bedfordspurs said:
He went with them and then let them overlap and create chances. It’s why targeted that side as they knew they could get at him. We saw it last year constantly.
The reinvention of his play is impressive if he gets back to defending. It’s the same when people said his crossing was good when it was average at best
This season he has been more balanced and much better because of it. You even liked my comments when I defended him a few games ago
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This Covid malarkey does strange things to a man's brain :wink:
 
Bedfordspurs said:
He went with them and then let them overlap and create chances. It’s why targeted that side as they knew they could get at him. We saw it last year constantly.
The reinvention of his play is impressive if he gets back to defending. It’s the same when people said his crossing was good when it was average at best
This season he has been more balanced and much better because of it. You even liked my comments when I defended him a few games ago
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Teams targetted that side as we had our full back high up the pitch and they could get their wide forward against one of our centre backs in a wide area. Jose's tactics invited this.

I could be wrong but i think you were one of the ones who didnt understand this and would berate Aurier for not dealing with the opposition's wide forward.
 
Finney Is Back said:
Teams targetted that side as we had our full back high up the pitch and they could get their wide forward against one of our centre backs in a wide area. Jose's tactics invited this.

I could be wrong but i think you were one of the ones who didnt understand this and would berate Aurier for not dealing with the opposition's wide forward.
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I berated him for his defensive errors and his really poor crosses. He let people run past him frequently with the ball and then hatcheted them down. His decision making was poor. So many goals came from his side and his errors last season (arsenals goal at home where he just jumped into a challenge he couldn’t win and then gave it back by being out of place).

It really wasn’t about him dealing with the wide forward, it was about him just doing basic defending and attacking really poorly.

But he has improved but he will still be targeted as a weakness. If he maintains a high level all season then brilliant.
 
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