3 - Alejandro Balde

Nope, he should not go anywhere until a real manager comes in so full backs don't have to be exposed to this shit show

Imo he's actually played better last couple of weeks (not against Atletico, but we collapsed as a team). But bringing in for example Lisandro Martínez for competition/rotation would be great for us. But we have more pressing needs, CB and ST - Gerard might take another step and we'll be alright on RB.

He was an incredible flop vs Atletico. We played poor as a team, but this guy was just diabolical. Teams can just target him defensively and they will reap the benefits very often.

I don't know what happened this season, but his development under Flick has stopped completely. First season you definitely saw improvement, but now he's just another liability. He's mediocre in attack, still can't give a proper last pass into the box and defensively he's simply bad. This shows especially if Rapha isn't there to close his gaps.

I had hopes he'll make a big jump under Flick, but it feels like he isn't smart enough for it. His physical form is good enough to be one of the best LB in the world, but he's too often out of position or chooses the wrong option. Looks like another Araujo with a gifted body, but a slow mind sadly.

He's still young enough to keep learning, but I start to lose my hope as well. He's lucky, that the club has no money and other priorities, so he'll keep his starting spot for next season, despite bad performances most likely.

Both fullbacks were targeted with long diagonals behind and overloading. Not sure a single player can counter this. it's a systemic liability.

JohnN said:

Both fullbacks were targeted with long diagonals behind and overloading. Not sure a single player can counter this. it's a systemic liability.

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It is a fair point but does not explain many mistakes they do.

I do agree we need to be more charitable when rating defenders and apply more scrutiny with forwards.

JohnN said:

Both fullbacks were targeted with long diagonals behind and overloading. Not sure a single player can counter this. it's a systemic liability.

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I don't know about that. Kounde had little issues during the game with this. It was all on Balde's side as the video shows. In this game at least, the goal that was taken from our right side was when the left was breached, Kounde had to go narrow to stop the immediate danger, and then Lookman was left open and he scored.

In other games we had issues where we were breached on our right also, but in this one, Balde and Garcia operated side cooked us. They targeted Balde's side over and over again.

Atelti targetted Baldes side big time and got numbers forward with Molina etc as no LW threat. No pace and half the time both Fermin and Olmo were standing together centrally anyway it felt like.

They were never going to take risks and leave Yamal like that from LB.

It worked for them and his positioning was terrible.

Kounde was caught a lot having to decide between lesser of two evils of who to try and pick up most of the time and near impossible task at that stage.

JamDav1982 said:

Kounde was caught a lot having to decide between lesser of two evils of who to try and pick up most of the time and near impossible task at that stage.

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There's not much deciding to do here, you don't stick to Lookman when opponents break through the left coming inside. He has to leave Lookman and go narrow to block the biggest threat 10 times out of 10.

serghei said:

There's not much deciding to do here, you don't stick to Lookman when opponents break through the left coming inside. He has to leave Lookman and go narrow to block the biggest threat 10 times out of 10.

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You are not adding anything by saying that.. it is the point.