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Proactive vs. Reactive Defending
From kickoff, Kadioğlu pressed Mount in a man-2-man manner:
And I get the idea here.
You’re effectively taking out one of United’s most energetic/creative players simply by giving him no room to breathe, with Diego Gómez sitting deep, enabling Brighton to double up on Mount if needed.
But given the aggressive nature of Brighton’s press, it became pretty easy to hoof the ball through Brighton’s left side.
High defensive line with minimal (no) central pressure; Kadioğlu tracking toward Mount:
Kadioğlu anticipates the long ball; gets onto his toes → light, nimble, easy to change direction
Finds himself so square on that he has to turn the long (wrong) way round, making it harder to track his runner
So, while Kadioğlu’s anticipation of the long ball was pretty quick, he was:
Caught in no man’s land (confused in the press)
Too square-on, making it hard to change direction
And these were common themes throughout the game:
Defending an island (🏝️):
BUT Kadioğlu bends his run and decelerates very efficiently, meaning he’s pretty good at covering off passing lanes:
Arm flailing in the direction his body intends to follow, helping with balance and the feeling of covering more ground (making oneself bigger)
Bit reactive here; left ball-watching (mitigated by being light on his toes):
And again, slightly overcommittal, but he reacts well to track back
I like to [broadly] categorise defenders as proactive and reactive.
Being proactive means you solve problems before they occur. Being reactive means, well, you react to problems and fix them then.
Proactivity is naturally better, as you have more room for error.
In this match, I feel like Kadioğlu’s defending is fairly reactive. However, I think it’s largely systematic, given how aggressively he was expected to press. If you’re told to attach yourself to your marker (don’t let the ball reach them → intercept → counter-press), you can’t exactly anticipate a pass and block off a passing lane early.
That said, Kadioğlu’s reactions and [defensive] runs are pretty great once he realises he can’t cover the ground to get to the ball. That’s ultimately very sensible, and it bodes well for improvements when defending 1v1.
Spaces (In Possession)
His reactions are pretty good offensively too:
Immediately makes himself available as a passing option after playing into a dangerous area:
Set-Pieces and Two Footedness
I think Kadioğlu’s set-pieces are pretty great. But if he’s not taking your set-pieces because Pascal Groß exists, and for that we should all be thankful, it makes sense to use him as the spare man on corners:
Basically, Kadioğlu’s so good with either foot that he’s wholly comfortable crossing from either side.
This means that if Brighton win the second ball, Kadioğlu can run wide to either flank and cross it in. Furthermore, Brighton have been prioritising late runs into the box during set-pieces, so this is a nice way to reset and achieve that same goal.
This was a common theme through dead-ball plays. For instance, in the second half:
Similarly, Kadioğlu’s two-footedness means he’s at liberty to go on gallivanting (🐎) runs like this:
And being as two-footed as he is means that even if the ball does bobble, he’s still likely to get it under control.
It also leads to some really funny moments because imagine being Sennes Lammens, getting ready to clear the ball, only to see Brighton’s LEFT BACK (!!!) pressing you:
Rotations and Maximising Skillsets
What I like about Hürzeler is that he gets his players into their preferred zones on a regular basis:
— Pascal Groß drops into LB, from where he can facilitate build-up play
— Kadioğlu runs into winger-y crossing positions
— Diego Gómez goes from LW → CM; he can make [late] runs into the box
— The distance between Georginio and Gruda reduces, taking some pressure off Gruda
Furthermore, a big part of Hürzeler’s football involves overloading the centre to get his wingers isolated:
Disguise; Deception
He also plays a large part in creating this goal. For his initial ball to Welbeck:
He stays [completely] square on and hides the ball well enough that he could:
a) hold the ball up
b) pass it through Dalot’s legs
c) take on Dalot himself
d) play a ball across Dalot and hope it reaches Welbeck’s run
Effectively, that makes it ~ impossible for Dalot to block off a passing lane. Good disguise.
And I do think Kadioğlu did well to get into [open] crossing positions. The final ball was slightly… meh, though:
Overrunning a crossing opportunity → hitting the ball too "early" on your foot → the cross ends up going backwards
That said, this was likely exacerbated by the fact that Brighton’s central runners were a slight bit delayed (sigh).
Attacking Play
Find yourself someone who can bend their runs AND accelerate like this:
Kadioğlu’s also become sneakily good at making darting runs to the back post:
A good first touch + layoff (one motion) → Kadioğlu literally being one step ahead of his markers (early run):
Additionally, and further in the toolkit of basic attacking play, shooting off a bent run is always a good skill to have, especially for a wide player coming inside:
Momentum-Based Defending
Using your opponent’s momentum against him:
Purposefully [quickly] cuts across, running into Dalot’s foot and drawing a foul
That said, while Kadioğlu receives well here, I’d like to see him use a stronger arm, because it’s otherwise pretty easy for Dalot to invade his personal space:
Love your work! I have a quick FPL Q for you if you wouldn’t mind answering :)) - Is Mitoma a good pick on my current WC?? I had Ayari but switched him out …