Defending = stopping your opponent’s flow towards goal - positioning in the vertical line of the ball forces either a pass diagonally outside away from danger or diagonal pass inside - where the defender should have the head start or be covered by a teammate

@Paulmcg8 Is the RCB out of position here. I’d want him protecting the goal first. So his initial movement would be to take steps back toward goal and nearest opponent. Instead of being attracted to the ball?

@Coachdiary It’s a catalogue of errors 🤕

@Paulmcg8 Was easy to spot this developing. We all make mistakes. Ben is usually more switched on than this, it's not a huge concern.

@AJ46674421 I don’t highlight these interactions to criticise the defenders - mistakes are part of the game & so is how you recover and learn from them - I focus on the key details to help players learn & coaches attune to key coaching points & common errors to look out for 👍🔥⚽️

@Paulmcg8 Lol. What about GX who once again simply ran back into the box and let the ball thru his legs? Some defensive cover 🤦🏽‍♀️!!! Watch what he does in that clip. And he does that alot

@Paulmcg8 @mark_miller27

@Paulmcg8 Interesting little clip. I talk a lot about staying compact defensively with a lot of my youth teams and I think this sums up why it's important. Concede the pass into the wide player initially and delay his approach, that might help get defending teammates into covering position

@Paulmcg8 @nonewthing Yeah. I observed this. It was an unusual poor piece of defending from Ben White

@Paulmcg8 @nonewthing They fixed it up in second half

@Paulmcg8 @nonewthing Why so surprised, he is the weakest defender in the squad along with Holding. The Tomiyasu error ( against City) can be corrected but not this

@Paulmcg8 Do you think White could have been misled by expecting Jorginho to block the inside pass?

@Paulmcg8 Xhaka

@Paulmcg8 @nonewthing roy hodgson always used to say that you should never turn and face the winger until they have the ball at their feet

@Paulmcg8 He is a poor defender in general, like a lot of the defenders in this generation. Comfortable with the ball, slightly clueless without it?

@Paulmcg8 @nonewthing What is so much abt this shit, he just guess wrong thinking the pass was going wide rather than in and it caught him out. Corrected in the 2nd half whats your problem?

@Paulmcg8 Bruh i argued this with a fan for like an hour.. trying to convince him white was at fault

@Paulmcg8 I wasn’t shocked about this cos I knew he was going to mess up.

@Paulmcg8 Couple this with how he turns, losing track of the cutting run in the space left behind and preventing any chance of engaging in physical contact to regain an advantage. Basics in defending 2v1 situations that need to be hammered into players even before graduating to 11-a-side

@Paulmcg8 I’m not the analysts coach, And I don’t have a big knowledge in tactical football. But I know one thing that in modern football you need to defend as a team not just the individual. Yeah, I put the blame on Ben White, because in that moment, he was a naïve to give such a space…