Nelson Semedo

[serghei]

Semedo should be in better position to try and track the overlap knowing Raki has come across to help with Guedes.

His body position was terrible and achieved nothing. Made it obvious overlap was on.

Rakitic didn't do shit. First he allowed acres of space to Parejo to receive the ball, even though he knew in advance Parejo was the only Valencia player who could have played a good pass the way they were set up. Rakitic left Gaya alone to do exactly nothing. Didn't apply pressure, didn't block the pass, he just stood there occupying space nobody from Valencia was even close to claiming and left Gaya all alone, who instead felt the follow-up and created a 2 vs 1. Rakitic wasn't even close to blocking Guedes. Only reason Guedes didn't go in the box and had a shot at goal was because Semedo was marking him.

Look at the replay again. Every Valencia player is accounted for except for 2 potentially dangerous players who make their move in that play. Dani Parejo and Gaya. Rakitic has an option. He can either pressure Parejo and block the action before it gets dangerous, or at least he could have stayed closer to Gaya. He does neither.

 

[JamDav1982]

Rakitic didn't do shit. First he allowed acres of space to Parejo to receive the ball, even though he knew in advance Parejo was the only Valencia player who could have played a good pass the way they were set up. Rakitic left Gaya alone to do exactly nothing. Didn't apply pressure, didn't block the pass, he just stood there occupying space nobody from Valencia was even close to claiming and left Gaya all alone, who instead felt the follow-up and created a 2 vs 1. Rakitic wasn't even close to blocking Guedes. Only reason Guedes didn't go in the box and had a shot at goal was because Semedo was marking him.

Rakitic was on the inside of Semedo for Guedes cutting in.

Semedo in that position should do more to set himself up to defend the overlap and his bod position was terrible.

Rakitic should not have been marking Parejo although he could have got across to Semedo quicker and pushed him on to overlap.

 

[serghei]

Rakitic was on the inside of Semedo for Guedes cutting in.

Semedo in that position should do more to set himself up to defend the overlap and his bod position was terrible.

Rakitic should not have been marking Parejo although he could have got across to Semedo quicker and pushed him on to overlap.

No he wasn't. Rakitic was too far out. A player with the speed of Guedes would have claimed that gap between Semedo and Rakitic very fast. Rakitic at best does a last minute tackle or something, a penalty or fails to block Guedes alltogether. Guedes has the upper hand if Semedo leaves him.

Guedes, minutes before the goal, dribbled Umtiti while Umtiti had a perfect position. He would've probably went past an out of position and gassed Rakitic with ease. The man was spent.

 

[JamDav1982]

No he wasn't. Rakitic was too far out. A player with the speed of Guedes would have claimed that gap between Semedo and Rakitic very fast. Rakitic at best does a last minute tackle or something, a penalty or fails to block Guedes alltogether. Guedes has the upper hand if Semedo leaves him.

Guedes, minutes before the goal, dribbles Umtiti while Umtiti has a perfect position. He would've probably went past an out of position and gassed Rakitic with ease. The man was spent.

No he wasnt Rakitic was there if Guedes cut in and Semedo in that scenario should be defending the outside.

Leaving the overlapping player is more dangerous than letting Guedes cut in towards traffic and where Raki was.

Raki should have been screaming for Semedo to defend the outside and between them got it all wrong.

 

[serghei]

No he wasnt Rakitic was there if Guedes cut in and Semedo in that scenario should be defending the outside.

Leaving the overlapping player is more dangerous than letting Guedes cut in towards traffic and where Raki was.

Raki should have been screaming for Semedo to defend the outside and between them got it all wrong.

Rakitic was poorly out of position from the first seconds of the play, ever since he positions himself in such a way that he can't put pressure on any Valencia player. He is almost at the exact same distance from Gaya, as he is from Parejo, so as a result of this, he can't block any of them nor can he stop any pass between them. This happens during the whole play. It's OK for him to leave Gaya, as the ball is played somewhere else, but if he does that, he needs to put pressure on Parejo there. That's his no1 mistake and this is actually what led to the goal. The position Guedes and Gaya find themselves in can lead to a goal no matter if Semedo leaves Guedes or not. The biggest mistake happens before that.

Rakitic can't do jack shit the way he is standing. He just makes himself irrelevant in that play by way of poor positioning. You see every Valencia player being pressured this game very well, but it's enough for one player to go to sleep and ease off the pressure and Parejo - Guedes - Gaya made the diference with 3 quick passes.

You can blame Semedo, but Rakitic has most of the blame for the most part imo, then Umtiti and Semedo in equal shares, with Vermaelen and Stegen that could have done more too. When you go for a tight defense and apply pressure on the ball carrier and on the most obvious first pass, if one player sleeps for a couple of seconds like Rakitic did, it shows.

 

[Neeraj]

No he wasnt Rakitic was there if Guedes cut in and Semedo in that scenario should be defending the outside.

Leaving the overlapping player is more dangerous than letting Guedes cut in towards traffic and where Raki was.

Raki should have been screaming for Semedo to defend the outside and between them got it all wrong.

Your point of running into traffic/Rakitic only stands if Guedes has to beat Semedo and cut in. You guys don't seem to see the fact that if Semedo just leaves him and starts running after a guy who doesn't have the ball (just think about how ridiculous that looks when there's nobody either side of you, and you just leave the guy with the ball?!), then there's no need to 'cut inside', because he has a direct straight path to goal where Rakitic can't do shit. A sliding tackle MAYBE. As Serghei pointed out, the action of letting his man go on the overlap was the far safer option, and there were many things that had to still happen after that action for that goal - a great first touch from the overlap, good cross, slightly poor defending, a bit of luck, etc.

 

[JamDav1982]

Rakitic was there if Guedes cut in as he should have been.

If double up on player like that is up to outside player to best to try and prevent overlap.

Between them fucked it up and allowed the ball to go where there was more danger but Semedo defending there was crap. He did nothing but clumsily try to cut out the pass.

 

[serghei]

Let's agree to disagree. Everybody in the conversation will never admit they're wrong anyway.

 

[Windhook]

What if Semedo cut out/deflected that ball to throw in or something. Instant Ballon d'Or?

There is a thin line between love and hate.

Some suggest Jose Gaya should have been closed down by Semedo, but that would have left Guedes with lots of time to think of shooting, crossing far-post... and again Semedo would have taken the blame.

 

[Stoichkov1]

Your point of running into traffic/Rakitic only stands if Guedes has to beat Semedo and cut in. You guys don't seem to see the fact that if Semedo just leaves him and starts running after a guy who doesn't have the ball (just think about how ridiculous that looks when there's nobody either side of you, and you just leave the guy with the ball?!), then there's no need to 'cut inside', because he has a direct straight path to goal where Rakitic can't do shit. A sliding tackle MAYBE. As Serghei pointed out, the action of letting his man go on the overlap was the far safer option, and there were many things that had to still happen after that action for that goal - a great first touch from the overlap, good cross, slightly poor defending, a bit of luck, etc.

Lol in the clasico last april Carvajal did what you just described. He left Andre Gomes with the ball and started running after Alba. Messi scored but Carvajal did the right thing in that situation.

 

[clemente]

Your point of running into traffic/Rakitic only stands if Guedes has to beat Semedo and cut in. You guys don't seem to see the fact that if Semedo just leaves him and starts running after a guy who doesn't have the ball (just think about how ridiculous that looks when there's nobody either side of you, and you just leave the guy with the ball?!), then there's no need to 'cut inside', because he has a direct straight path to goal where Rakitic can't do shit. A sliding tackle MAYBE. As Serghei pointed out, the action of letting his man go on the overlap was the far safer option, and there were many things that had to still happen after that action for that goal - a great first touch from the overlap, good cross, slightly poor defending, a bit of luck, etc.

Have you never seen someone leave a player to chase an overlap? This happens all the time and its how it should be, that player will be by himslef with the ball for 0.5 seconds max before he has Rakitic in fron of him, even if he beats Rakitic his only option would be some Insigne finnesse into the far post or he would also have to beat busquets with umtiti, which is much better than a player in our penalty box that has many options to choose from.

 

[te amo barca]

Semedo is at fault for the goal, to a greater extent than Rakitic. Semedo shouldn't have stopped moving. Got caught flat footed. No way in hell Rakitic is covering that run, he did the right thing - to cover the player who gave the pass.

 

[jairzinho]

Semedo is at fault for the goal, to a greater extent than Rakitic. Semedo shouldn't have stopped moving. Got caught flat footed. No way in hell Rakitic is covering that run, he did the right thing - to cover the player who gave the pass.

Dude. Semedo HAS to cover both Guedes and the fullback because the space between him and Rakitic is too big and could potentially be exploited by a winger like Guedes.

As soon as Guedes recieves the ball from Parejo, he sizes up Semedo on the edge of the box. When the fullback begins making the run, Semedo has to keep covering Guedes because the space between him and Raki is too wide. So he can't pickup the run. What's happening here is a simple case of 2v1 because Raki is simply in no mans land without the ability to make an impact on the play. Had he left Guedes to pickup the fullback, Guedes would have had the drop on Raki who as we all know is slow as hell and would not be able to intervene with Guedes running at full speed.

 

[Saladin]

Semedo's anticipation is rubbish, unfortunately. Time and again you see him run a couple of steps out of 'course' with the balls expected trajectory, just to find himself baffled, turn and run the other way. His vision of when to run forward, when to stay back is light years from Alves, and his ability 1on1 is decent but extremely hesitant, as if his confidence is nonexistent. It's as if he runs 'after the ball'/along the balls course rather than anticipating his teammates passes, positioning himself properly in spacious areas of the field and figuring out his direct opponents decisions. We've been spoiled with having a world class right back for years, I know, but still. Worrisome faults in a player that I still hope will come through and show off some of the potential that made us buy him.

 

[Trafalgar]

and we expect him to stop Neymar lol