Allan Saint-Maximin (now playing for Fenerbahce, on loan from Al-Ahli)

[Thiago]

4 hours ago, KaKa said:

 

It's so easy man ... just crowd him when he gets the ball, because he never looks up to release the ball early, ever. He just tries to dribble past them all, and they can then just bully him off the ball and go the other way on an instant counter attack.

It's on us too. If were not switching the point of attack quickly for him to get those 1v1s it's chicken and egg.

[Smal]

They wouldn’t be able to put 3 men on him if we offered any other threat at all to be honest. Wood and Fraser did absolutely nothing, Joelinton didn’t get involved and Targett never looked to overlap. It’s not something you can criticise ASM for. 

[Outremont]

15 minutes ago, Smal said:

They wouldn’t be able to put 3 men on him if we offered any other threat at all to be honest. Wood and Fraser did absolutely nothing, Joelinton didn’t get involved and Targett never looked to overlap. It’s not something you can criticise ASM for. 

Great call this. It’s very true - no goal threat from an awful Wood and Fraser means Maxi can get ganged up on.

[Lush Vlad]

He got crowded out second half.  But I thought he had plenty of chances to run at Royal, who looks shite defensively, to me.  I think it was also Romero a few times, as well, but no change out of him and he is a quality player.  He just lacked his usual conviction running at players and was really wasteful. 

 

If Howe wants to play a high press and is all about work rate with this current lot.  Which is how it has seemed most of the time.  I'm not sure where ASM and Shelvey fit in.  As I didn't see much of it from them yesterday.  

 

Hope he starts and gets more of a chance to impress on Friday. 

 

 

[Newcastle Fan]

If you have a player that requires three men to be on him that's more than enough to be honest, it means the rest will have more space to do something but likes its been pointed out Wood is useless and Fraser is on and off so all the attention is on ASM.

[Lush Vlad]

20 minutes ago, Newcastle Fan said:

If you have a player that requires three men to be on him that's more than enough to be honest, it means the rest will have more space to do something but likes its been pointed out Wood is useless and Fraser is on and off so all the attention is on ASM.

 

I do agree with this.  We don't take advantage of gaps where players have been pulled away from to cover ASM.  However, he is also partly responsible.  As his passing and decision making is often absolutely woeful. 

 

I get that if his end product and passing were better.  He wouldn't be playing for us.  But it is still really frustrating to watch.  As he gets in such good positions and invariably wastes the opportunity. 

 

A quick couple of touches, releasing it and looking to spin off would work wonders for ASM and Fraser.  Spurs did it with their attacking players time and again.  But we just don't seem capable of building attacks properly, regardless of the opposition.    

[jackyboy]

When the ball goes to ASM the ball sticks to his feet and the game stops giving the opposition the time to regroup. If he could just pass it and move until he's in better positions to run with it he could be a world beater. Whenever he gets the ball he tries to just go for goal from positions where he's more likely than not to lose possession

[Conjo]

I've been critical of his recent performances, but yesterday he was the least of our problems. Passed the ball nicely at times and was the only outlet to make something happen. He tracked back a few times and was ok in his pressing. Didn't see any complaining to the ref that affected him not being where he should have been. 

[Guest]

It was his dribbling that seemed off yesterday. Maybe just not matchfit. I know they had 2/3 on him at times but we’ve seen him skip past those for fun the last 3 years. Didn’t seem to have that initial burst.

[HaydnNUFC]

It was his first start since 13 February tbf. His appearances have seen him in and out of the team for 7 games and he's only appeared in 3 of those, so he probably isn't fully up to sharpness and he needs minutes. 

 

Also nice to see the NUFC fathas are still against him and have quasi blamed him for yesterday when he contributed far more than any of the other attacking players on the pitch.

[Pata]

14 hours ago, KaKa said:

 

It's so easy man ... just crowd him when he gets the ball, because he never looks up to release the ball early, ever. He just tries to dribble past them all, and they can then just bully him off the ball and go the other way on an instant counter attack.

 

He released the ball early numerous times yesterday. Too easy man.

[Cookie1892]

and some people wonder why none of the top half of the table were in to sign him

 

great against poor sides, useless against anyone with half a footballing brain

 

as someone else has mentioned, doesn't look up, stick 2-3 on him and he loses the ball and rolls on the floor, hobbles about for a bit, then goes into a typical french huff

 

he needs dropping and we need to play with a proper team player

[Awaymag]

I would look to integrate Gayle into the attack.  Wood is not mobile enough and is not the person to run onto through balls.  Gayle just might be.  Wilson I dont think we will see again this season.

 

When Maxi looks up, there is no one in the box 9 times out of 10

 

 

Edited April 4, 2022 by Awaymag

[Guest HTT II]

He is easy to defend against in numbers, we however don’t take advantage of the other team doubling up on him and him basically taking players away from other areas, we need to address both issues with ASM on and off the ball and away from him. We are quite pitiful down our right and his better games under Howe was when we had Trippier on the right…

[Guest]

For someone who can dribble so well, his first touch to control the ball is kinda terrible. 

[Jaqen]

27 minutes ago, Cookie1892 said:

and some people wonder why none of the top half of the table were in to sign him

 

great against poor sides, useless against anyone with half a footballing brain

 

as someone else has mentioned, doesn't look up, stick 2-3 on him and he loses the ball and rolls on the floor, hobbles about for a bit, then goes into a typical french huff

 

he needs dropping and we need to play with a proper team player

 

Sticking two or three on him shows how dangerous he is to be fair. If he was playing for a top side with other quality around him teams couldn't afford to do that. 

 

People should remind themselves of our points per game with and without him in the side since he got here before they rush to want him dropped for Murphy. 

[Pata]

’Only stick 2-3 players on him and he loses the ball’ as a proof of how shite he is. This thread is gold. Fucking French huff too.

[Pata]

There's a reason why teams can put 3 players on him. Ryan Fraser is behind most goalkeepers in dribbles per game and has 4 total this season. ASM is leading the league with 190 followed by Raphinha with 131. But on true PFM style, let's blame the player who tries to do something and praise the one who runs around a lot. Bunch of Pardew's.

[WillingtonMag]

9 minutes ago, Pata said:

There's a reason why teams can put 3 players on him. Ryan Fraser is behind most goalkeepers in dribbles per game and has 4 total this season. ASM is leading the league with 190 followed by Raphinha with 131. But on true PFM style, let's blame the player who tries to do something and praise the one who runs around a lot. Bunch of Pardew's.

Exactly this if we had some one on the opposite side to him just half as good teams wouldn't be able to constantly stick 2 and 3 players a time on him.

[Hanshithispantz]

Both Fraser and ASM have contributed to us getting out of the drop zone like. Fraser arguably more so.

 

I'm still unsure on ASM going into next season, I really love watching him and hope it works out but there's a reason why 'overly' skillful players tend to be overshadowed eventually. There's only really Ronaldinho in recent years I can think of who actually benefited from it, and that was probably debateable in the end.

 

We've seen plenty of top managers simplify the game of players like ASM, or just flat out prefer 'grafters' in the side.

[relámpago blanco]

11 hours ago, Pata said:

There's a reason why teams can put 3 players on him. Ryan Fraser is behind most goalkeepers in dribbles per game and has 4 total this season. ASM is leading the league with 190 followed by Raphinha with 131. But on true PFM style, let's blame the player who tries to do something and praise the one who runs around a lot. Bunch of Pardew's.

This is it. If we had raphinha on the other side both of them would be unplayable as they couldn't put 2 or 3 on each. 

[Hanshithispantz]

Teams will only put 2-3 men on ASM when he's in possession, or we're set up to get it to him. They don't literally have 3 men man marking him.

 

And we'd still need to work the ball to Raphinha.

 

 

Edited April 5, 2022 by Hanshithispantz

[The College Dropout]

You can double up on ASM because he’s not going to pass.  He attempts the most take-ons in the league by a distance.  

[HawK]

11 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

You can double up on ASM because he’s not going to pass.  He attempts the most take-ons in the league by a distance.  

 

I think the perceived lack of passing is due to a lack of movement off the ball on the rest of the team's part, and that he's normally the furthest player up the pitch apart from the invisible man (Wood).

 

When Guimaraes came on, there was a couple of passages of play almost straight away where they were passing between each other outside the box when ASM was on the right. Our other players are just so bad off the ball, reminds me of HBA having to do everything himself as well.

[thomas]

Yeah it's a night and day difference to how ASM can play when Wilson is the other threat up top and not Wood. Highlights both how much we need him back and how much we need to strengthen there* in the summer regardless.

 

 

* - I mean we need quality everywhere but good god almighty Wood was nothing against Spurs and even that was enough to keep Gayle out.

 

 

Edited April 5, 2022 by thomas