Pau Torres

[paul_e]

Really starting to look like he did in his first season. Few missed placed passes tonight, but generally excellent. The turn and pass for Malen that led to the second was superb.

Best bit of football from either team on the night and rightfully led to a goal, the guy is quality when he's fully fit and in form.

[Ian.]

Every match he’s played this season he has made us a much better team. He’s such a good footballer. Head and shoulders above everyone else when it comes to picking out a pass.

[astonvilla82]

Credit to him,had a very good game

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Got to admire him for coming back with confidence in his ability. A couple of sloppy fuck ups but overall very impressive.

[KevinGage]

Thought he was faultless tonight.

The assurance on the ball should be (but hasn't always) been a given with him.

But was most impressed with his determination to dog it out or play it simple when required.

[eye digress]

As in his previous appearances this season, Pau gives our passing game an extra dimension. It even seemed to rub off on to Konsa last night.

Big Mings fan, by the way, and we need him too. But Pau is different gravy.

[Dave]

Big Mings fan, by the way, and we need him too. But Pau is different gravy.

As was said last season at the height of the defensive struggles, if we want to turn into a team that is playing on the front-foot, attacking and expecting to see more of the ball than our opponent does then that's with Pau, or a Pau-style centre-back.

If we're happy being a soak up pressure, head balls away from the six yard box, throw your body in front of the ball team then that's with Mings or a Mings-style centre-back.

Hopefully the plan is to make us more of the top one, and the defending is mostly done by making sure that the ball is usually in the other half of the pitch.

[eamonn]

Just wish he had a bit more muscle and a right foot that worked half as good as his left.

[john e]

Big Mings fan, by the way, and we need him too. But Pau is different gravy.

As was said last season at the height of the defensive struggles, if we want to turn into a team that is playing on the front-foot, attacking and expecting to see more of the ball than our opponent does then that's with Pau, or a Pau-style centre-back.

If we're happy being a soak up pressure, head balls away from the six yard box, throw your body in front of the ball team then that's with Mings or a Mings-style centre-back.

Hopefully the plan is to make us more of the top one, and the defending is mostly done by making sure that the ball is usually in the other half of the pitch.

Spot on, agree with every word

[LeeB]

But sometimes situations will call for more basic defending and it's great if we've got options for both.

[Smithy]

Every match he’s played this season he has made us a much better team. He’s such a good footballer. Head and shoulders above everyone else when it comes to picking out a pass.

And when the player he can pick out starts being Tielemens again, I think we'll look a much better side for it.

[Dave]

Every match he’s played this season he has made us a much better team. He’s such a good footballer. Head and shoulders above everyone else when it comes to picking out a pass.

And when the player he can pick out starts being Tielemens again, I think we'll look a much better side for it.

Yup.

I reckon the times we've looked like a really good team over the last 18 months or so, it's mainly been through Pau picking the ball up in defence, playing it through their press to Tielemans, he collects it on the half-turn, carries it 20 yards, plays Rogers in behind the midfield, he carries it another 20 yards and either plays in Watkins or they back off him and he just keeps running.

Back to front in fifteen seconds, nothing too complicated but really hard to defend against if you do it well.

[paul_e]

Every match he’s played this season he has made us a much better team. He’s such a good footballer. Head and shoulders above everyone else when it comes to picking out a pass.

And when the player he can pick out starts being Tielemens again, I think we'll look a much better side for it.

Yup.

I reckon the times we've looked like a really good team over the last 18 months or so, it's mainly been through Pau picking the ball up in defence, playing it through their press to Tielemans, he collects it on the half-turn, carries it 20 yards, plays Rogers in behind the midfield, he carries it another 20 yards and either plays in Watkins or they back off him and he just keeps running.

Back to front in fifteen seconds, nothing too complicated but really hard to defend against if you do it well.

You can isolate it from everything else entirely though. When it works it's because you've managed to create gaps between the lines to exploit and a big part of doing that is "baiting the press" by "fucking around with the ball at the back". Last night was a perfect example, after we scored they started pushing higher and trying to win the ball back in our half instead of closing gaps and stifling us into giving up possession, which led directly to our 2nd goal. The same happened for Ollie's goal at the weekend, they started drifting too high up the pitch and we punished them for it.

It hasn't worked for us against Palace for a while because their approach has been a gentle high press with 2-3 players committed forward but then with a a solid 6 or 7 players holding their positions and choking up all the space in the final 3rd. The rough start to this season has come because a lot of sides have watched those games and started setting up in a similar way. It's on us now to not only improve at finding ways through those teams but also make it harder for them to counter-attack us when their defensive swarm wins back possession. We allow far too many chances for teams on the long-ball counter attack and I think the reason Emery has bene using Mings more is to try to address that exact part of the problem.