Mathieu Debuchy

[mrmojorisin75]

Having a player that can overlap and attack effectively will help Ben Arfa.

[Mick]

 

 

imo at times he was putting in crosses when he shouldn't be, ba & cisse on their own with 5 chelsea players around them (or whatever) with the ball being launched from deep, NEVER from the byline of course...strikers are rarely ever gonna get goals from that type of cross

 

this is my problem with simpson in a nutshell

 

I agree with that, if we are to score from a Simpson cross it's going to be by something other than a header as his crosses rarely are hit with pace.

[Shak]

Aye, the problem isn't that Simpson can't cross (he's a poor crosser of the ball, but it's not THAT important for a fullback to be able to cross the ball), that's not what I mean when I say he offers nothing going forward.

 

The problem is that when we're in possession we can't really rely on Simpson to receive the ball and distribute it effectively, even at a fairly basic level. Under any sort of pressure whatsoever he'll generally just hoof the ball forward.

 

He's not a terrible RB by any means. He's defensively alright and is a good athlete. But if we're serious about progressing and challenging for Europe on a consistent basis then we have to do better IMO.

[ATB]

Fine, I can agree with those that think Simpson is an good defender, or what ever. But that´s it.

 

Therefore how anyone can be scarified with not replacing him this summer is just silly

There are no excuses. No excuses whats so ever.

[Dave]

Always makes me laugh to think of the contrast between the amount of speculation that goes on and the actual activity at the club btw. Llambias is probably sat there doing nothing more than smoking a cig, struggling with the Daily Sport crossword and scratching his arse. Occasionally looking up as the fax machine receives yet another of those unsolicited adverts that people who work in offices will know of.

[ATB]

I don´t agree with him being a good crosser. He is a poor crosser, a bad footballer and an ok defender. But to only have one attribute at the top of the professional level isn´t good enough.

[Barnes23]

He's not that good of a defender - a midtable premier league one on a good day, maybe. His positional sense is often terrible, as is his decision making about when and when not to tackle.

[littlelunchbox]

my opinion of simpson has always been, a good defender , rubbish footballer.

 

ala good without the ball (tackling, shot stopping, marking etc)

 

s*** on the ball (control, pass, cross, dribbling etc)

[McCormick]

 

 

Wouldn't say that was an exaggeration myself, his qualities are in the defensive aspect of his game. Speaking in relative terms, i think contributing "absolutely nothing going forward" is a reasonably sound evaluation tbh.

 

I know I can't often make this claim but so far this season he's our only player with an assist from open play and he was putting in crosses against Chelsea that nobody got on the end of, or at least nothing came from them.  I'd have Debuchy in a heartbeat as I think he'll upgrade what we've got.  I just don't think Simpson is as bad as made out, he can defend and has offered more this season going forward than normal, maybe he can learn and move his game on.

 

The problem is when we play a 4-4-2 with Ben Arfa on the right cutting in and Jonas being constrained to neutralizing the opposition wingers we're left depending on the fullbacks for width. As Santon usually cuts in on his stronger foot that leaves most of the crossing to be done by a right-back who, in most cases, struggles to pick out our strikers with a good delivery. The "assist" against Spurs was more of a mistake by their defender (followed by a cracking finish) than a great ball on Simpson's part. Not a bad player by all means but we rely on him to help out in attack and he's quite limited in that respect.

[gbandit]

I don´t agree with him being a good crosser. He is a poor crosser, a bad footballer and an ok defender. But to only have one attribute at the top of the professional level isn´t good enough.

This, he digs his foot in under the ball everytime which means when he crosses it, it just floats around. Every once in a while this might work but overall it's such a poor technique. Other than that, he does this thing where he slows down whenever he has the ball and takes a couple of seconds to set himself before passing. This slows down our general tempo and isn't helped when he backpasses. As for his defending, I don't have any problems with it at all, I think it's fine. But having someone who completely impedes us going forward, especially when Ben Arfa would be amazing with an overlapping FB is just shit

[mrmojorisin75]

i think it's become critical to our chances this season, to have another attacking fullback who is good on the ball to play opposite santon

 

look at where the movement comes from in our team "generally"

 

ba & cisse are always providing movement, granted

hba provides movement but he's on the ball more often than not, or should be, but he also does have good off the ball movement

santon

you might argue jonas but he moves better with the ball than without it most of the time

 

tiote & cabaye aren't the type to get beyond the play and open up teams with their movement, or certainly haven't shown much of that to date, anita we'll see

 

an attacking RB would add so much and make us harder to defend against

[Dyeyzzon]

He's not that good of a defender - a midtable premier league one on a good day, maybe. His positional sense is often terrible, as is his decision making about when and when not to tackle.

 

Panicked for a moment that you were referring to Debuchy.

 

With Simpson though, I agree.

[Mick]

Aye, the problem isn't that Simpson can't cross (he's a poor crosser of the ball, but it's not THAT important for a fullback to be able to cross the ball), that's not what I mean when I say he offers nothing going forward.

 

The problem is that when we're in possession we can't really rely on Simpson to receive the ball and distribute it effectively, even at a fairly basic level. Under any sort of pressure whatsoever he'll generally just hoof the ball forward.

 

He's not a terrible RB by any means. He's defensively alright and is a good athlete. But if we're serious about progressing and challenging for Europe on a consistent basis then we have to do better IMO.

 

I agree with all of that.

[Beren]

People are absolutely ridiculous about Simpson. He's not great, but you'd think he was in a fucking wheelchair the way some go on about him.

 

The minimum a fan can expect is commitment and desire from a player. If they don't demonstrate that, fans are entitled to get on their back.

[Mick]

 

 

The minimum a fan can expect is commitment and desire from a player. If they don't demonstrate that, fans are entitled to get on their back.

 

How do you measure commitment and desire?

[littlelunchbox]

think alot of people here have recently developed a big fascination with attacking fullbacks.

 

i personally don't give a shit how good a fullback attacking abilities are if they cant defend in the first place.

 

do we really know how good this debuchy guy is at defending?

[johnnypd]

it's not his crossing that's the issue anyway, he's not so bad at putting a cross into a decent area imo

 

his problem is his general all round play and ability on the ball when in advanced positions any position, if he's not passing it backwards or crossing it he seems to be fucked for ideas and the opposition know this

 

FYP. Simpson's biggest problem is an almost complete lack of ability on the ball in any position. It's actually even worse when he receives the ball in defence and has opposition players in front of him or closing him down. shits his pants every time. has probably brought the ball out of defence coherently half a dozen times in his entire spell at the club, whereas the likes of enrique or santon do that half a dozen times per match. it really is astonishing how bad he is at this vital aspect of team build up.

 

the nature of modern full-backs means they are always an outlet when building up play from the back meaning they gets loads of touches and Simpson cannot be relied upon to do the basics in this regard. while not classed as howlers, he makes numerous gaffes on the ball every game - just read through the Spurs match thread to see how many times he is lambasted - most of these are when we as a team are on the ball and often in our own half.

 

In the final third he's hardly much better - you rarely, if ever, see him skin a man on the overlap and put in a terrific whipped in cross. the only times he puts in a delivery is when we've had the ball for a while and he's slowly made his way up front, having had his winger or nearest forward cut inside and pull away a defender or push the opposition full-back so far deep that Simpson has acres of space and loads of time in which he can float over a soft, slow cross into a non-specific area. even Ba's goal is an example of that - a floater straight onto the opposition's head.

 

Defending is actually his strongest area, and even here i'd class him as a low-end premiership defensive full-back - he's not got the kind of strength that Assou-Ekotto or Enrique have to shepherd the ball out, his positioning against clever movement is highly suspect and he doesn't have the recovery pace to make up for it (it's actually funny watch him run, i never realised until recently how slow he is).

 

On the plus side he holds his line well, is intelligent enough to be part of a collective defence and is a solid tackler but generally he is very conservative as a defender and backs off and backs off in the hope the problem will sort itself out half the time.

[mrmojorisin75]

agree with most of that johhny

[Mole_Toonfan]

my opinion of simpson has always been, a good defender , rubbish footballer.

 

ala good without the ball (tackling, shot stopping, marking etc)

 

s*** on the ball (control, pass, cross, dribbling etc)

 

Aye, that's my opinion too. As for Debuchy he's a good all round fullback..... he's good in defence and in possession and great and making off the ball runs in the attacking third.

 

Getting someone like him would help Ben Arfa as he would relieve the attacking burden from Hatem. Having Ben Arfa and Debuchy running down the right hand side is a daunting task for any LB.

 

I don't know if i'm alone here but i feel atm that Ben Arfa has too much attacking responsibility, in the first two games it seems like if Ben Arfa didn't do something then no one would.

 

I realise the likes of Cabaye and others are clearly not fit yet but still.

[Beren]

 

 

The minimum a fan can expect is commitment and desire from a player. If they don't demonstrate that, fans are entitled to get on their back.

 

How do you measure commitment and desire?

 

Playing to the whistle instead of whining to the ref while play goes on (and your team is disadvantaged) to save face is a good start

 

This isn't one of the 'Jose Enrique body language speculation' moments.

[Dyeyzzon]

 

 

The minimum a fan can expect is commitment and desire from a player. If they don't demonstrate that, fans are entitled to get on their back.

 

How do you measure commitment and desire?

 

Playing to the whistle instead of whining to the ref while play goes on (and your team is disadvantaged) to save face is a good start

 

This isn't one of the 'Jose Enrique body language speculation' moments.

 

He also seems to let his defensive partners to cover up for his error rather than making the effort to make amends.

[Mick]

 

 

Playing to the whistle instead of whining to the ref while play goes on (and your team is disadvantaged) to save face is a good start

 

This isn't one of the 'Jose Enrique body language speculation' moments.

 

I would have thought that his clearances off the line were a fairly good measure of both and he's quite good at those.

[themanupstairs]

 

 

The minimum a fan can expect is commitment and desire from a player. If they don't demonstrate that, fans are entitled to get on their back.

 

How do you measure commitment and desire?

 

Playing to the whistle instead of whining to the ref while play goes on (and your team is disadvantaged) to save face is a good start

 

This isn't one of the 'Jose Enrique body language speculation' moments.

 

He also seems to let his defensive partners to cover up for his error rather than making the effort to make amends.

 

I've actually noticed him do the opposite, to the detriment of the team. Too often he's out of position "covering" the CB's, completely unaware that he's lost the wide player he's meant to be marking.

[themanupstairs]

Simpson's problem imo is very similar to Obertan's. All the athletic ability in the world, and nee football brain to go with it. Simpson is very reactive, when he should be proactive - reading the game etc..

[ElDiablo]

Fuck sake, 3 pages since midday when I last checked and all hot air. I should know better to get hopeful tbf.