Why play El Abd at right back.....

[hans kraay fan club]

Right, shut up the lot of you.

In general; No-one can question his desire or effort. Fair play to him. He ALWAYS gives of his best and for that alone, should be immune from many of the comments he gets. He does make too many mistakes though, but whether he starts or not is down to the management rather than him. Feel free to debate whether or not he is worth his place, but once he's playing get behind the lad.

As for yesterday specifically; not at fault at all for the first goal, but most definitely culpable for the second. He lost his man and drifted inside, but still had a chance to save the situation when the ball was crossed past him. In fairness it was a superb cross and I don't blame El-Abd totally for letting it go, but he DID have the opportunity to put it behind for a corner, rather than watching it. However, there would of course have been the small possibility of him putting it in his own goal, and given the spiteful criticism he gets from some, you can see why he didn't take the chance.

 

[Les Biehn]

However, there would of course have been the small possibility of him putting it in his own goal, and given the spiteful criticism he gets from some, you can see why he didn't take the chance.

Yeah, you better watch out!

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Yeah, you better watch out!

.

 

[TonyW]

ok, he has played well at centre half and Whing was suspended, but what about Reid, Hart or even Lynch?

El Abd will never be a full back - no pace and no passing skills. Was caught out three times today in wrong position = 2 goals and a match saving save by Kuipers.

And I'm an El Abd fan!

Couldn't agree more.
I quite like Adam, but not at full back.

It's a very specialist position, and you can't just ask someone to move across from the centre and expect a faultless performance.

With Lynch there, I'm certain we would have won on Saturday.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Lynch isn't even a very good LB, let alone RB. He will be a great CB, but that is it.

 

[keaton]

I thought the second goal was more the fault of the midfield for not tracking back and Kuipers for doing down to early. The pass and the shot were both brilliant though

 

[TonyW]

The second goal was all about being out of position. Lynch has excellent positional awareness, and he may well have been a good deal tighter on their COMPLETELY unmarked man.

 

[NMH]

I thought the second goal was more the fault of the midfield for not tracking back and Kuipers for doing down to early. The pass and the shot were both brilliant though

True.

If FDM had stood up, he could have simply caught the ball.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

True.

If FDM had stood up, he could have simply caught the ball.

Yes, becuase the guy would still have put it in exactly the same place if the keeper had been stood there, wouldn't he?

 

[Arthritic Toe]

I thought that El Abd did OK today the first goal was as much Butters fault as his and the 2nd was due to him drifting into the middle looking for the ball.

But that is a really amateur mistake - tracking back with the attacker to begin with then jogging aimlessly into the centre whilst gazing at the guy about to cross.

We are conceding too many of these soft goals - the Cheltenham goal in the FA cup game was similar. We seem incapable of marking at the far post be it right or left. If ball-watching was a competition, we'd be top of the league.