I wonder if this was Taki or coaching instruction.
In this game where Arsenal set up compact in the middle, we struggled to use width at all, one of our strongest assets.
Further bizarrely, Hendo and Trent kept switching in the final third, whereby Hendo was wider than Trent pretty much at all times, why is that? Maybe cause for once since I can remember, Trent wasn't able to cross a decent ball, the whole lack of width until Curtis Jones and Neco came on was very bizzare to me.
We have tweaked our system so that Mo hugs the touchline, the rhs midfield player goes wide and Trent tucks in as the playmaker. It worked brilliantly with Elliot a natural wide player as the rhs midfield player. On the other side Mane starts wide and makes out to in runs to drag the full back in, which allows Robbo to overlap.
Hendo isn't a natural wide player so instead of creating space for Trent when he goes inside he just cramps Trent for space. On the other side Taki instead of starting wide and using his movement to create overloads just basically hovered on the 'D' on the edge of the area. Mane starts wide ducks inside for a pass but if the pass doesn't come looks to create a passing angle for Robbo. The thing is Mane has taken the full back with him so we have an overload.
Taki basically stood on Ben White's toes and left Robbo 1v1 against the full back. So instead of creating width we ended up with Robbo just recylcling possesion infield. Taki just isn't quick enough to play out wide, so he does what slow players do when asked to play out wide he drifted inside. So we ended up bringing Jones on to do the job Taki should have done.
To compound the issue Taki simply isn't strong enough to receive the ball when playing up against a centre back. So we tried playing it in to him initially and then he was just ignored because his team mates simply cannot trust him in those areas. I have got all kinds of grief for saying that his team mates don't trust him but for me it is as clear as day.
Look at the number of times players knock the ball in to Bobby and then commit and look for a 1-2. With Taki playere play it in to him and then hold, so even if he does hold it up it is a return pass. One of the few times players looked for a return pass or a 3rd man run off Taki was the last round when he played Jota in.
That Leicester game summed Taki up though. He is at his best in free flowing attacking games in which the opposition vacate space. He looked a quality player against us for Salzburg but that was a stupidly open game. He looked good in the 7-0 v Palace another end to end game that could have finished 9-3.
Put him in a tight battle and sadly he simply doesn't have the required tools in this League at this level.
