Fabian Schär

[OverThere]

10 hours ago, TBG said:

The runs forward go to show just how good he would be in midfield. 

NO

[r0cafella]

5 hours ago, The Prophet said:

Quite a few of Schar's long balls are played into space down the channels to trigger the counter-press. That will effect the data.

If we are playing long balls into the channel with the aim of triggering a counter press no wonder our players are knackered. 
 

I don’t believe we are giving the ball away with the aim to win it higher up the pitch, that’s extremely energy inefficient. 

[Nobody]

On 12/03/2023 at 23:17, AyeDubbleYoo said:

From not being able to play in a back four (lol) to dominating forwards on his own. Sexy bastard. 

Fucking hell, that was a thing

[Disco]

6 hours ago, 54 said:

I was curious, as I generally agree with you, and think his passing is a great weapon for us, but looking at his passing stats from this season its actually not the greatest:

 

Be hugely skewed from taking the punt up field from a FKs from 40 yards back to where Pope takes them I’d have thought. 
 

You’d have to be a nutter to think he’s not a good passer IMO.

[TBG]

Schar and Botman for 60+passes each, is always a banker in my Ladbroks 5 aside team. 

 

 

[The College Dropout]

16 hours ago, Kanji said:

I said this months ago but part of Schar's game is to play the speculative ball more. 

Must be. Or to gain position for a counter press maybe.

 

At least twice a game. He'll just chip it straight to the opposition fullback. Nowhere near another NUFC player. He looks comfortable on the ball so a lot of people ignore it but it happens a fair few times.

 

For whatever reason I don't like it.  If we are to become a top team we need to learn how to progress through midfield and defence against a compact block.

 

I'd rather Schar only play those balls if he thinks something is genuinely on. Otherwise try to hit a winger or pass it through the lines.

 

You look at other "ball playing" CBs in the league and they nearly all have much better pass completion rate.

 

 

Edited March 14, 2023 by The College Dropout

[The Prophet]

4 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

Must be.

 

At least twice a game. He'll just chip it straifht to the opposition fullback. Nowhere near another NUFC player.

 

I don't like it though.  If we are to become a top team we need to learn how to progress through midfield and defence against a compact block.

 

Aye, you'd think that'll come with the more quality we add.

 

A big part of our game plan now is to force the opposition out wide where we'll attempt to pin them and win the ball back high up the pitch. If Schar has nothing on, he'll ping it down the channel and the team will push up to initiate that. 

 

Obviously it's far less effective against a low block, which we're encountering more and more of these days.

[joeyt]

I feel at least once a game Schar can ping a perfect ball from the right of midfield straight to ASM or whoever is on the left wing to completely open up the game

 

Not many centre backs can do that

[sushimonster85]

29 minutes ago, joeyt said:

I feel at least once a game Schar can ping a perfect ball from the right of midfield straight to ASM or whoever is on the left wing to completely open up the game

 

Not many centre backs can do that

 

There is also the couple times a game he will start a run from just inside our half that takes him right up to the pen area, bringing in the 'shooooooot' cries. Shows amazing restraint 99% of the time and looks for the pass. I'd be open to him attempting more thunderbastards. Certainly has it in him. 

[Kanj]

50 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

Must be. Or to gain position for a counter press maybe.

 

At least twice a game. He'll just chip it straight to the opposition fullback. Nowhere near another NUFC player. He looks comfortable on the ball so a lot of people ignore it but it happens a fair few times.

 

For whatever reason I don't like it.  If we are to become a top team we need to learn how to progress through midfield and defence against a compact block.

 

I'd rather Schar only play those balls if he thinks something is genuinely on. Otherwise try to hit a winger or pass it through the lines.

 

You look at other "ball playing" CBs in the league and they nearly all have much better pass completion rate.

 

 

 

I really don’t care about his speculative passing into those channels, I assume it’s by design and either to trigger the press / pin into corner, relieve some pressure or someone in attack didn’t go and read the pass up there. Absolutely least of our concerns his pass completion % at the moment. He’s absolutely brilliant. 

[Kid Icarus]

The amount of 'best XIs' and 'underrated XIs' of the season I've seen that include every player in our defence except for Schar is unreal like. Botman is an absolute class act, Burn has performed admirably at left back, and Trippier's undoubtedly been the best RB in the league this season, but none of them have been as consistently a 7, 8, or 9 in the way Schar has. Him and Willock are seemingly our invisible cogs, the players that supporters know are absolutely crucial to our success, while fans of other clubs only see everyone else. 

[The College Dropout]

The best teams don't do that. It's very.... Big Sam esque.

 

TBh... Schar has always done that. I think some of it is tactical but some of it is just his style and something that you think could easily be improved upon considering his talent.

 

I'd like to see him carry it more often. He's good at it. Joel Matip does it over 2x as much, he's the benchmark in the league for it.

[The College Dropout]

1 minute ago, Kid Icarus said:

The amount of 'best XIs' and 'underrated XIs' of the season I've seen that include every player in our defence except for Schar is unreal like. Botman is an absolute class act, Burn has performed admirably at left back, and Trippier's undoubtedly been the best RB in the league this season, but none of them have been as consistently a 7, 8, or 9 in the way Schar has. Him and Willock are seemingly our invisible cogs, the players that supporters know are absolutely crucial to our success, while fans of other clubs only see everyone else. 

Aye. And Schar is more exposed than Botman too. There's space in behind Trippier that Schar has to deal with. Burn is usually close to Botman which gives him some protection. 

[Lush Vlad]

1 minute ago, Kid Icarus said:

The amount of 'best XIs' and 'underrated XIs' of the season I've seen that include every player in our defence except for Schar is unreal like. Botman is an absolute class act, Burn has performed admirably at left back, and Trippier's undoubtedly been the best RB in the league this season, but none of them have been as consistently a 7, 8, or 9 in the way Schar has. Him and Willock are seemingly our invisible cogs, the players that supporters know are absolutely crucial to our success, while fans of other clubs only see everyone else. 

You do wonder how much pundits and so called experts actually watch teams regularly outside of the Sky 6. 
 

It is the same for fans. Outside of highlights and the odd game where they might be on Sky or BT. How much of say, James Ward Prowse, for example. Do people see outside of his worldy free kicks?

 

Schar has been our best defender this season. 100%. 

[Kid Icarus]

Liverpool play it long all the time and have been doing it for years. Chelsea did it all the time under Mourinho. A lot of the best teams do it

[The Prophet]

12 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

The amount of 'best XIs' and 'underrated XIs' of the season I've seen that include every player in our defence except for Schar is unreal like. Botman is an absolute class act, Burn has performed admirably at left back, and Trippier's undoubtedly been the best RB in the league this season, but none of them have been as consistently a 7, 8, or 9 in the way Schar has. Him and Willock are seemingly our invisible cogs, the players that supporters know are absolutely crucial to our success, while fans of other clubs only see everyone else. 

 

I totally agree with you, but I wouldn't say our support appreciate Willock at all. There was absolutely loads getting stuck into him on a regular basis up until recently, despite him being largely very good this season. 

[The College Dropout]

12 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

Liverpool play it long all the time and have been doing it for years. Chelsea did it all the time under Mourinho. A lot of the best teams do it

The Liverpool CB's pass completion rate is considerably higher than Schar's.

 

They're not doing the speculative ball thing or gain territory thing that Schar seems to do. Botman doesn't seem to do it nearly as much either.

 

The game has come a long way from the Mourinho era.

[GeordieDazzler]

The knocking it long into space was highlighted in quite a few analysis’ of our play earlier in the season. You sacrifice possession for winning it again further up the pitch. Feel we do it less now.

[Lenny]

17 hours ago, Kanji said:

I said this months ago but part of Schar's game is to play the speculative ball more. 

Yep, I read similar that both he and Botman are instructed to actively seek the switch as part of our game plan. If he's doing it less it'll likely be due to us trying to adapt our strategy.

[Kid Icarus]

47 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

The Liverpool CB's pass completion rate is considerably higher than Schar's.

 

They're not doing the speculative ball thing or gain territory thing that Schar seems to do. Botman doesn't seem to do it nearly as much either.

 

The game has come a long way from the Mourinho era.

 

I've been watching Henderson and TAA play it speculatively into the channels for Salah for years now. Likewise VVD, Robertson and others. It doesn't really matter who does it, the point is that they play those speculative channel balls regularly. 

[Kanj]

The obssession over Schar's pass completion % when he's generally playing aggressive passes more than anyone else in our team by Dropout is hilarious to me. That's not too far off people getting mad at Ben Arfa losing the ball when he dribbles and attacks. 

[Kid Icarus]

Just now, Kanji said:

The obssession over Schar's pass completion % when he's generally playing aggressive passes more than anyone else in our team by Dropout is hilarious to me. That's not too far off people getting mad at Ben Arfa losing the ball when he dribbles and attacks. 

 

I always cite the same stat for things like that, Messi had the lowest through ball success rate in La Liga for years.

[magvicar]

To think we only paid around 3 million for Schar.

Deal of the century.

[Kanj]

2 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

 

I always cite the same stat for things like that, Messi had the lowest through ball success rate in La Liga for years.

 

I actually want Schar to hit more balls into space/channels and carry it far more too. I don't fault anything in his game tbh. The speculative balls to nobody in the channels are probably tactical (rugby style, move everyone up the pitch). The carrying ability he has is underated too, would love for him to do that more. And finally, his cross field diagnoals are immense as others point out. 

 

The least of our concerns are the potential 5-10 pts of % completion he could get if he was "more careful" 

[Kid Icarus]

1 hour ago, The Prophet said:

 

I totally agree with you, but I wouldn't say our support appreciate Willock at all. There was absolutely loads getting stuck into him on a regular basis up until recently, despite him being largely very good this season. 

 

Yeah you're right there like. I guess at least we do have people who appreciate him, whereas outside of our fanbase those people are nigh on non-existent.