serghei
Senior Member
Also he lacks a remarkable performance in the big game. The Messi-Alba connection rarely works in the CL.
True. That's mostly because in CL we face teams who have dangerous wingers, and Alba can't play full on offense without worrying about the defense too much. Say we play PSG with Mbappe on his side, would Alba be so adventurous? I think not.
Part of the reason why our chance creation drops in CL in KO stages. Alba doesn't do as much as in La Liga and there's nobody to create from midfield because we play everyone there in a defensive role first.
Part of the issues of using a fullback to hide your poor midfield creativity. Once his offensive output is reduced due to having a great rival to block defensively, that amount of offensive pedigree is greatly reduced.
I'm waiting for Alba to play this great vs the likes of City/PSG etc., when he'll have fast players like Mbappe and Sterling to worry about on defensive transition. It's easier to go full on offense when you're playing teams who have decent wingers at best. Once you get to meet teams having great attackers, as a left back you need to play a defense first game or else those attackers would run havoc in defense. Especially when we'll probably not be able to dominate the game vs Europe's best.
Let's not pretend he's Marcelo 2.0 vs the big teams, who can basically play full offense and neglect his defensive role because he's so damn great at dribbling, passing, even shooting.
Vs a big team Alba will stay back more, and it will be down to the midfield to create chances. God help us with 3 defenders in midfield trying to create chances for a rather static front three bar Dembele.
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