That’s quite some effort managing to try and deflect blame for the first onto Onana. The pass to Torres was a perfectly fine option, Emi just cocked it up.
Nonsense. Watch again. See the acres of space to his right and he stands there like a fucking statue. Kamara would have drifted into the space but then Kamara is one of the first names to go on the team sheet. Of course Martinez is to blame but having options, better options, shouldn't be dismissed.
This argument stuck a chord with me, because it's one I have often used against many of our midfielders, especially Tielemans. But I've since realised I was wrong. Or, at least, I've come up with a different idea of what's going on there. Basically, Martinez doesn't need more than one or two options when he has the ball like that, and almost every time that will be Torres and Konsa. That's where he'll always look to, and where the ball is most likely to go. The thing is, though, that those two players need an option, almost immediately, as they are more likely to be under pressure than Martinez is. So it's more important that Bouba, Onana, Cash and Digne are available to our CBs, rather than Martinez.
Take the goal on Saturday - if Martinez would have been able to make a 6 yard pass, Torres could have rolled the ball into the space to the right of Onana, and we'd have been 30 yards up the pitch in an instant. By standing still on Saturday, Onana, kept that space free to Pau to use. But Pau never got the chance.
Since I noticed this, I've been a lot calmer during matches, so I hope it brings you the same feeling of peace that it has brought me.
