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Sven Botman: targeting January return (Howe)


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7 hours ago, Super Duper Branko Strupar said:

Shocking decision to go out and cover Haaland for Bernardo's goal from De Bruynes pass. Now he'll know, though, good learning experience that so not too mad. Got a little deflection too but still doesmt get a pass for stepping out. He did do well generally though, great to see him looking up and forward for passes. Got high hopes already.

Only seen it once, but heard the same criticism on TV. Strikes me as a damned if you do, damned if you don’t kind of situation. If he’s stayed in the space (which Bernardo later occupied/drifted into) and didn’t follow  Haaland, let him have the unmarked space he darted into between the six yard box and penalty spot, then no doubt the TV pundits would have slaughtered him for that too. But only with the 20-20 hindsight of Haaland scoring. Just as it is the wondrous pass from KdB and great movement and finish (who was meant to be tracking him?) from Bernardo that leads to similar certainty that Botman should have stayed in the space/not followed Haaland.
You make snapshot choices in defence and elsewhere, sometimes it is only the outcome which makes them ‘wrong or right’, not the decision itself. 

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6 hours ago, Optimistic Nut said:

Aye just watched MOTD2 there. Can't blame him for stepping out with Haaland. Burn switched off for a second while tracking Silva and it gave him that couple of yards.

 

 

This. Burn's fault all day. Just stopped tracking Silva. 

Shit happens. 

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54 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

Harsh to 'blame' anyone tbf. Very niggly and picky things. World class players will always find a way.

 

Find it hard to see this any other way like. Was great vision and technique

 

 

Edited by OpenC

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3 minutes ago, OpenC said:

 

Find it hard to see this any other way like. Was great vision and technique

 

 

 

 

At the time I just thought City's 3rd goal was downright unfair. He had no right whatsoever to play that through ball. Was ridiculous. 

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i'm unconvinced by him and have been since the little i saw in preseason, but i'm also not declaring him a bust or writing him off

 

he seems decent on the ball which is an asset but i've yet to seem him influence a game the way burn or schar do for us defensively

 

this is not specific to yesterday before anyone starts and i know he's young/new to the league so hopefully he grows into it

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Guest HTT II

Physically and positionally I thought he did really well, but he seemed panicky in terms of passing and receiving the ball. Let’s face it, he’s up against a monster of a striker, a monster of an attacking team, and he come out of it looking decent I thought. As did our whole team. He’ll be fine. It’s his second game for us!

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I agree that he's looked shaky to start with, but it's quite common for defenders. You don't get that extra few seconds in the PL, that you do in other European leagues and it makes all the difference.

 

He couldn't have asked for two tougher games either. One where we up against it in blistering conditions and another against City. I actually thought defensively Burn was far more culpable than Botman yesterday, but he did play some sloppy passes and have a couple of nervous moments clearing his lines.

 

I know no one is saying otherwise, but it's very early days yet. He'll be much better for the last couple of encounters as they've been brutal.

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Baptism of fire for him this week and last. He's handled it very well imo, the best defenders in the world are shit scared of Haaland, so it's no reflection on Botman that he struggled in some moments. The pace of the game will have been a good learning experience for him.

 

Thought he was excellent whenever the ball was played into Haaland to hold up.

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He's looked a bit nervous and is trying to adjust his game to the pace of the Premiership. We'll need to wait a few games before we judge him. 

 

And I'd like to see how it goes with a Burn-Bottman partnership. Burn adds leadership to our defending and I like to see him in the centre.

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2 hours ago, OpenC said:

 

Find it hard to see this any other way like. Was great vision and technique

 

 

 

I said somewhere else, we all know Man City have the quality to destroy teams in a 15 minute spell, we lost our concentration for a brief period, after our third goal, but they equalised in the 64th minute [I think], we held them for 30 minutes after that. Not bad for his home debut, all in all.

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Guest HTT II

I’ve said it a few times, he seems very calm, very business like and like a robot, he was under immense pressure yesterday, but never seemed flustered. Ice cold veins is what they say? He will be fine for us, absolutely, we do need pace in that back line, however!

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For me so far we may not have seen how good he is defensively, but we have seen how he can impact our playstyle with his calmness and passing out from the back.

 

He also hasn't exactly had much chance to form a partnership with Schar yet.

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3 minutes ago, BonesJones said:

For me so far we may not have seen how good he is defensively, but we have seen how he can impact our playstyle with his calmness and passing out from the back.

 

He also hasn't exactly had much chance to form a partnership with Schar yet.

 

That was more obvious yesterday and perhaps this is the reason that he wasn't getting in ahead of Burn.

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20 hours ago, OverThere said:

He will be a fantastic player for us. Since we have a squad we should use it and rotate the CHs whenever possible. Against the elite teams it's still Burn and Schar for me until Botman matures.

 

He's one of very few players we have with Champions League experience even if he is young. I don't think we've paid £30m plus for that. 

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