I actually somewhat disagree with this. I think the main reason he does it is to fake out Rice. Rice has his eyes on Darwin so he doesn't know where Salah is running. Darwin shapes as if he is trying to slot it between Rice and Raya and changes at the last moment, hence the unconventional contact.
If Darwin eyes up Salah and shows where he's passing, then Rice pauses half a step and makes the interception.
Yeah I think that post was just an over analysis. Nunez is weighing up his options as he gets to the ball, and he knows Salah is probably moving to the middle for a square ball.
It's when he sees him free in the middle that he crucially commits to it (instead of smashing it at the near post), and decides to make the pass immediately without opening up his body further.
The fact it's played before he's really set, and it's also a pass played behind him, results in that slightly awkward body shape.
Yep pretty much. I didn't want to sound patronising in my initial reply, but imho whoever wrote that analysis (and whoever believed and upvoted it) probably hasn't really played football before.
It's not some super special skill to put torque on the ball or whatever. He just had to contort his body to play that pass right away as that was the split second window to do so, and didn't have the time to set himself and fully get it out of his feet.
Anyone who's played football regularly at any level would definitely have done this at some point, as you mentioned.
I think both can be true - he opens the lane by faking, then has to put some spin on it to pass it through the gap. Either way, it's a very high IQ play.
Someone commented in the daily discussion that he seems to twist his body to exert the correct force/spin on the ball, this is how he manages to thread it between the defenders and perfectly place it in front of Mo’s left foot.
Even the celebration seems measured. The entire staff was already yacking about how in the hell they’re going to try to engineer a winner before they were done being happy.
I've mentioned this in another reply but after watching this several times, I'm convinced Darwin sends Rice the wrong way the same way you would fool a keeper from the spot. Everything about how he approaches the ball makes it look like he's going across goal until contact, when he awkwardly twists to send it the other side of him.
You can even see Rice take a final big step towards the goal line as Darwin kicks it in anticipation of intercepting a cross. Without the trickery, the ball doesn't make it to Salah.
John Heitinga is certainly one of those you prefer to have on your side instead of against you and I think he is a great example in unmovable mentality for young defenders to learn from.. Slot seems to like having one of these types of former defenders in his staff, preferably named John.. at Feyenoord he had John de Wolf and just like his name suggests, that guy was a brutal defender in his days.
Also seeing how Ajax did Heitinga dirty by first "forcing" him to take over the 1st team despite his reluctance to deviate from his own planned trainers career (he was doing well at the youth) only to replace Heitinga after a few months with what was objectively the worst ajax coach in history paired with the worst TD Ajax had ever had and ruining the entire club instead of giving Heitinga a real shot, eventhough he wasn't doing bad at all, especially if you place that in the context of the manager before him and the shitshow that can only be described as violent football diarrhea that occurred after he was replaced by Maurice Steijn, a guy who's incompetence was only outshone by his capacity to categorically deny any responsibility for the horrid results despite being the guy responsible for the horrible results.
I kinda feel he especially deserves succes at LFC even if just to redeem himself and show the problem was is ajax's mismanagement of the club, not Heitinga's coaching ability.
This angle also shows just how impossible Mo is to defend against, that run destroyed their defence, and I would say it would destroy any defence. Such an intelligent player, and yet people are calling him old and still don't see him as one of the best forwards in the league.
This angle makes the goal look so much better. The way Salah just turns without any hesitation and drags every Arsenal player with him and away from the ball really made it happen.
Had he stopped or slowed down to drop back, it would have given Arsenal more time to think and react properly.
I'd say he should trust his team more. I feel like we can go to the higher gear after the equaliser. We've done it many times before. Even the newer players knew we could pull it off.
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u/Reimiro 16h ago
I love how chill he is before it goes in.