First goal yesterday - playing out from the back / Greenwood

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BoroPhil

Well-known member
All starts with a pretty risky ball out from Glover after Greenwood cleverly drops deep to receive (he does this quite often) - he then makes a great run off Jones to receive the ball and set up the goal.

Firstly, it's a great example of why we play out from the back and a direct example of a goal resulting from it.

Secondly, it's a great example of the work Greenwood puts in. Plenty of threads about him when he missed chances but not a single thread about him today.
 
I can’t deny it was a good run and ball to Engel, makes you wonder why he just strolled around losing possession for the other 100 minutes he was on the pitch as he obviously has the ability
 
He was always the spare man yesterday. Glover was constantly looking for a spare man but Millwall had 4 players pressed onto our back line stopping us playing at all. Eventually he realised, dropped deep, and Glover played him it. We’d broken the press and played in Jones who gladly gave it back (if I remember) and set up Engel.
I think Carrick just let the lads figure it out themselves yesterday. Millwall came at us with some good tactics but that was where the game was won for us.
Once we scored it and figured that out, the game was up. The second half was only ever going to be a Boro win I thought
 
Greenwood is 21 and this is by far the most games he's played in a season in his whole career. Because of injuries he'll have played much more than anyone would have expected, he'll have played when low on confidence form and energy at times. Despite that he's produced more match changing and match winning moments than anyone in our team this season.
I don't know why people feel the need to constantly criticise him, it says more about their ignorance than anything else.
 
Carrick entire philosophy seems to based around the risk reward model, personally I love it as it does give us that edge.

Look on Tuesday night 1-0 up v Chelsea and did we play it in the corner flag… or waste time… nope we went for the second.
 
For all the talk of Greenwood being wasteful as well he is outperforming his xG, 5 goals v an xG of 4.0, though the Leicester goal will have helped.
 
If i was the millwall manager i would be going crackers over that goal no one tracked Greenwoods simple one two and he was in.
 
He's young and he has ability, but in my opinion - perhaps because of our dearth of options at times - he's started too often; he's a bench player for me. He is too wasteful in possession, gives away needless petulant fouls and doesn't have that bit of magic of, say, Rodgers. He certainly shouldn't be starting ahead of McGree, for instance.

He does some good things. You'd expect him to, right? He's a professional footballer. Is he the level of automatic pick in a boss Championship team? For me, no.
 
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equaliser said:
He's young and he has ability, but in my opinion - perhaps because of our dearth of options at times - he's started too often; he's a bench player for me. He is too wasteful in possession, gives away needless petulant fouls and doesn't have that bit of magic of, say, Rodgers. He certainly shouldn't be starting ahead of McGree, for instance.

He does some good things. You'd expect him too, right? He's a professional footballer. Is he the level of automatic pick in a boss Championship team? For me, no.
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Yet his expected goal involvement is pretty much identical to Rogers (0.53 v 0.54 per 90) and higher than McGree (0.45) but obviously a much smaller sample size for him (though it was 0.27 for McGree last season)
 
He has superb movement. He's always picking up great positions which is why he's got a bunch of goals and assists and chances. The downside of this is that the left side can get exposed if we have lost the ball and he has moved out of position. He puts a shift in though and you'll often see him sprinting back to try and help out. I wonder how much of this is down to being coached by bielsa.
 
Sheriff_John_Bunnell_ret said:
He has superb movement. He's always picking up great positions which is why he's got a bunch of goals and assists and chances. The downside of this is that the left side can get exposed if we have lost the ball and he has moved out of position. He puts a shift in though and you'll often see him sprinting back to try and help out. I wonder how much of this is down to being coached by bielsa.
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This I agree with
 
I actually think Greenwood is arguably our most consistently dangerous player in the final third ( I say this as someone who loves Rogers). I think where he struggles is more involvement in the general play. When Mcgree is in the same position he is involved in every 2 or 3 passes.

It is where Jones is so good.

He is constantly stretching the opposition and involved, even when he is not fully on it.

It is the next step for both Rogers and Greenwood, watch Akpom and McGree at their best last year - how do you keep the team ticking over while still being I good final third positions.
 
equaliser said:
I'm sure statistics can make an important contribution when judging a player's overall effectiveness.
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I agree, but some savviness in interpretation of them is needed.

Sample size is important, for example.

Coburn scored 4 league goals for us at an average of 1 every 120 minutes in the 21/22 season
This season he's scored 5, but at a rate of only 1 every 194 minutes.

Should we read in to that that he's regressed as a player, or that the 480 minutes he played in 21/22 wasn't a big enough sample to give an accurate reflection of his ability?
 
Apologies if this has been discussed elsewhere, but having watched the highlights of yesterday's match I wondered why Greenwood's reaction was so muted after the first goal? Engel came straight over to him but he didn't look at all happy. Having said that the team's reaction to taking the lead looked fairly low key as well?
 
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