Watch the sequence for the second goal against Forest.
Steps out. Leaves space. Doesn’t recover.
We’ve seen this all season and the ones before, but for some reason, people don’t want to call it out. This isn’t just a single mistake. This is how Romero defends, and it keeps costing us.
We are WORSE with Romero on the side, and he should be dropped.
by tante06
27 Comments
Both Romero and VDV have been shit individually and as a duo since Ange left, sorry to say but it’s true.
How do you guys not see that the issue here is Tudor’s man marking system
Look at Gray, look at Bergvall. They man mark and they get dragged out of position which leaves a huge gap in the middle. Romero steps in to close the gap because MGW has acres of spaces
Its everyones fault not just his
Lets look at 4 well liked players in this situation
Danso, loses his man forcing sarr to pick his man up, instead of looking for someone else to mark he does… nothing
Gray is firstly way to deep when MGW originally recieves the ball allowing him to pick it up in acres of space, and then sees porro get beat 1 on 1 and doesnt try to block the cross
Tel, the closest player to MGW doesnt attempt to try mark him instead waits there
Bergvall doesnt attempt to block the passing lane to the LW or apply any preasure to the man on the ball
Is romero at fault? Yes. Is it dumb to single him out and say its only his fault? Yes.
It’s communication on the pitch, Romero should be telling Gray to press the ball as he’s behind him he doesn’t have to match Williams run because Romero was there.
Tel also literally doesnt do anything in that whole sequence.
I don’t think Romero’s or VdVs strength is defending. That’s a pretty big issue for us.
I love Romero but I’ve always thought he’s better suited to La Liga than the Premier League.
If Romero doesnt rush out in the first place than the shape doesnt get broken but even after that I see about 5 errors. This is diabolical defending all round.
The glaring error to me when I watched it live was Gray dropping off and following the runner. That seemed to create a cascading effect. But, everyone involved is at fault
I have always tried to support Romero but yesterday did me in. Him jogging around and dilly dallying like he’s done all season pissed me right off
The decision to go out isn’t the issue, it’s the total failure to even try to recover with any urgency that baffles me. With even a modicum of effort, he’d have recovered and got into the space to easily defend the cross. It almost looks like he’s frightened of sprinting, in case he gets injured and misses the world cup. I just don’t understand how a player with his ability is capable of such a staggeringly poor piece of defending.
A couple of things here which make the situation more complicated: Sarr and Bergvall are too far apart, leaving huge empty space for MGW to run. Even when they try to come, they are coming from the sides and aren’t fast enough to really stop MGW from running straight ahead. Gray for some reason, is hanging out at the back like a CB. He should be the one making the run that Romero makes but he doesn’t. Porro isn’t staying wide enough to close his man (which he should be when you know you are against a player who relies on his pace and you yourself are a sloth) both he and Gray are just hanging around the same man. This situation compels Romero to make the run and this happens quite often.
Once this happens I agree it’s Romero’s fault for not coming back fast enough and picking up the right position. But to think the real reason is Romero is just wrong. The main reason for me is the incompetent midfield of Sarr, Bergvall, and Gray, who don’t properly coordinate with each other and are often just standing or running around like headless chickens. This brings complete chaos to the backline and makes the job of the CBs extremely complicated. Because of which you can see Romero making those pressing runs and leaving space behind and we concede some goals because of that. Or the other times where for example Danso decides to stay back with his man and then no one is pressing their player and both Gray and Sarr are usually hanging around close to the CBs, which invites easy shots from right outside the box and we have conceded several goals this season from that. So no matter what different decisions the CBs take we get punished. So the real problem is the midfield.
I love Romero and VdV, but the more I watch the more I see 2 players who’ve checked out from the club.
Seems to me in a WC year, they don’t care how the season ends as long as they’re not injured.
He doesn’t trust the players infront of him, so he feels like he has to do it all. Similar to when he pushes forward with the ball, or stays up to attack. I genuinely believe if we just told him to concentrate on defending and playing the ball forward we’d be a lot more solid.
It’s ironic that we spent so much time waiting for Romero and VdV to return from injury last season when everything would then be ‘great’ .. and since they returned we’ve been shit. Actually think Danso and Dragusin were a better centre back pair than those two.
Absolute mess but what the fuck is Vicario doing also? The shot is directly at him
Would this kind of video for all the goals we conceded this season, even though the video would be hours long. Maybe do a compilation of romeros ‘defending’, that’d really make the fans turn on him.
Romero tries a lot of things that make people say “he’s great because he’s willing to try them” but he does more harm than good trying them. So many of our problems come from him trying to make a “line-breaking pass” or some mazy dribble and failing miserably. It does more harm than good.
Danso is clear
World class + great leader apparently btw
This encapsulates problems with our defense for the whole season if not longer.
Romero kicks things off by needlessly jumping up to put minimal pressure on a player that is already being closed down by two others. Jogs back, never really gets back in a position to help with anything else, and just watches the ball go into the net.
Porro gets torched 1v1 as always.
Gray, who is absolutely not a defender, actually leaves his man to jog along and watch Porro get beat from a safe distance. Never commits to helping Porro, never tries to cut out a passing lane…just as ineffective as Romero and they’re both “covering” the same space.
Sarr is like he’s allergic to MGW…he’s late to pick him up initially when he gets the ball and then just leaves him as Porro is getting burned. Some are saying that he’s trying to cut out the pass to Igor, but he ditches MGW well before Igor gets around Danso.
Danso doesn’t do a great job of keeping up with Igor. Maybe he recovers in time to block a shot if that’s where the ball ended up.
Tel is in the unfortunate position of being the closest to MGW after the shot only b/c Sarr just ran away from him and Gray & Romero are doing fuck all. He’s also ball watching a bit–probably could/would have at least been closer to MGW if he was switched on a bit more or expected Sarr to just dart away.
So a real team effort in all. Well done.
Romero and VDV have been very poor for months now. They should be dropped!
That right there is one of the worst goals we’ve ever conceded. Everything is wrong.
Him constantly rushing out, failing to nick the ball and then leaving space in behind has cost us a few goals already. He did the same thing against Burnley for their first or 2nd goal. Although in this scenario, others should have done much better, it’s a repeated thing with him. He just doesn’t learn.
Also, his poor awareness of runners in the middle and right channels of the box combined with Porro’s generally poor defending of the right side has cost us multiple goals as well, even under Ange. Way overrated as a defender.
….and vicario gets the blame.
There’s actually so many errors there. The initial pass shouldn’t be so easy, but sadly our midfield has been easy to pass through for almost 2 years. Sarr is leaving MGW with too much space to run into. Then Bergvall leaves his man in space to run towards MGW when 2 players (one of whom is Romero) are already shutting off MGW in that channel, MGW then slips the pass to the player whom Bergvall has left unattended. Porro rushes out and gets himself skinned. Sarr then seems caught in 2 minds and Tel has already decided to stop at the edge of the box and watch what happens. Amidst all that, Romero is just wandering around at this stage.
Romero has been awful all season with consistently poor decisions, and has been a horrible captain besides.