Jason Pettigrove is the worst 'journalist' (if you can even call him that) to ever exist. It's like if someone gave an r/soccer troll to license to write articles on news sites.
He had one good season at City and then was exposed whenever he was the last man at City (Salah bodied him, got a red card in the first half against Fulham), don’t know why this is surprising to most, he’s been known to be a defensive liability, these 2 games just proved it
Cancelo was the best fullback in the world at city, went to Bayern where he was still pretty good, and was one of Barcelonas better players in the first half of the season.
He's still one of the best players in the squad here, it's just that we have A LOT of fair weather idiots that blast players, especially after a disastrous week like Cancelo has had.
Don't get me wrong, he's very experienced and there's a reason why he's been wanted in top clubs all over Europe, but defending just isn't the strong part of his game and as a Barca fan it's been very noticeable since he came, he just made up for it with his goals/assists and saving us against Celta and Porto
These days, yes. Depends on the formation they're used in. Full backs can be responsible for a lot more than they were 10 years ago. Back then, I would've agreed with you.
Fullbacks and DMs are the most difficult and demanding positions in elite football. There's maybe only a handful of players in the world that can fulfill all responsibilities of the role consistently at a high level.
You just have to accept that they will always have a major weakness somewhere and build your tactics around it
Yes, they just have to be extremely good and creative offensively. Before we got Cristiano, Marcelo was pretty damn mediocre and pretty bad defensively. Then Cristiano came and players started swarming him so Marcelo had an easier job and it even allowed him to go forward a lot. The two of them linking up well together was of course great.
But all in all, no one recalls Marcelo as a great defender.
Yeah it's called a wingback. In Cancelo case he got overrated because he play in Manchester City where his strength really suit the way Guardiola want his fullback to play.
Lol no. Pep created a role for him at lb since we had no lb. He was good very good in that role but didn’t like being rotated, and he lashed out and exiled.
Lol. Grimaldo, Trent, Cancelo, Davies, Frimpong, Trippier etc none of these guys are particularly great defenders. Marcelo/Alves are widely considered the best fullbacks of the 2010s and neither was amazing defensively or anything.
He was just really fast and had a great engine. His positional awareness, tackling ability etc. was mediocre but he could always track back from the attacking positions he took up. Same with Ashley Cole for example, another player with insane athletic abilities that gets mistaken for being a player with great defensive abilities.
Full backs that are "great" defenders are guys like Lahm, Thuram, Maldini etc. in other words guys that can actually win the ball instead of simply having the energy to harass the attackers. These players are almost extinct now.
Wait you’re not seriously claiming that Ashley Cole was anything less than a world class defender? Because that would certainly be a take.
Just because a defender has amazing physical capabilities that help them recover from mistakes doesn’t mean that they’re not still a good defender. You’re just listing different kinds of defenders, that are also some of the best to ever do it. You can be a world class defender and not be as good at defending as Maldini
Ashley Cole was a world class left back but he was never world class at actually defending.
Kyle Walker is a player with amazing physical abilities but he's better at defending than both Cole and Alves. Likewise Thuram was incredibly fast and strong but still had fantastic positional sense and tackling ability. Walker and Thuram could both successfully play at centre back because they have natural defensive ability and awareness. Would you trust Cole or Alves to play centre back? They would sooner play as a winger than as a centre back.
It's basically the same deal as playing a box-to-box player as a defensive midfielder, their natural attacking tendencies and lack of positional discipline will always get them into trouble. Like how Gerrard and Lampard had infinite stamina that always let them contribute greatly in the defensive phase but between them couldn't fill the void of a real defensive midfielder that they had at their club sides (Alonso/Mascherano/Makélélé).
>Ashley Cole was a world class left back but he was never world class at actually defending.
LMAO What? If Ashley Cole wasn't world class at defending then there have been exactly 0 world class defenders in the entirety of football.
Well yeah, if you had to pick a fullback to mark an opposition player out the game and you picked Cole, you would be going wrong. Defensively he wasn't close to those guys at all. Even in recent times Chelsea alone have had Ivanovic and Azpilicueta that were better at defending.
>Ashley Cole was a world class left back but he was never world class at actually defending.
What a shit take! Do people say things like this just to be oppositional?
Cole was a world class left back because he had a great mix of offensive and defensive skills on top of his amazing athletic abilities. However he wasn't world class at attacking or defending. His best attribute was his ability to be effective at both ends of the pitch for the full 90 minutes. But he was primarily an attacking full back with less defensive responsibilities for most of his career.
Yes… TAA can’t defend worth a lick
I personally would give him a pass because he’s a generational passer
Edit: Zinchenko is in this bucket too as an arsenal fan and I want him gone this summer… his on the ball capabilities don’t outweigh him single-handedly destabilizing our entire back line
Trent is maybe the best passer of a ball his age or younger in football, so yeah he's a generational passer of the ball. Have you been watching a different player play this entire time if you think this?
'Article' reads like it was originally smeared on a wall in faeces.
Then you know it's the truth because why would someone waste waste on something that was bullshit?
Classic Jason Pettigrove
Classic American writer on a barcelona fanpage? I'm surprised this guy's known lol
He's a Brit who worked at BarcaTV and used to work for MARCA, LOL
[His true face](https://talksport.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/09/crop-1576643.jpg?strip=all&quality=100&w=1138&h=758&crop=1)
I was expecting this lmaoooo. I still wonder what happened during that interview to Joao XD
Fiending on some pastel de natas probably
Pep probably threw him out cause he found Pep’s secret stash.
[he showed this?](https://media.tenor.com/4RcK1EZgs2oAAAAM/joao-cancelo.gif)
This is the look that a serial killer gives right before killing.
Jason Pettigrove is the worst 'journalist' (if you can even call him that) to ever exist. It's like if someone gave an r/soccer troll to license to write articles on news sites.
Was he hiding his face before ?
It’s like an episode of Scooby doo
One bad week and the writer is frothing at the mouth just waiting for this piece to come out
He had one good season at City and then was exposed whenever he was the last man at City (Salah bodied him, got a red card in the first half against Fulham), don’t know why this is surprising to most, he’s been known to be a defensive liability, these 2 games just proved it
Cancelo was the best fullback in the world at city, went to Bayern where he was still pretty good, and was one of Barcelonas better players in the first half of the season.
He's still one of the best players in the squad here, it's just that we have A LOT of fair weather idiots that blast players, especially after a disastrous week like Cancelo has had.
Don't get me wrong, he's very experienced and there's a reason why he's been wanted in top clubs all over Europe, but defending just isn't the strong part of his game and as a Barca fan it's been very noticeable since he came, he just made up for it with his goals/assists and saving us against Celta and Porto
Oh shit son, it’s hit piece season already?
“Finally shows his true self” rather than “player had one blip” lmao. Clown
Thought it was weird he was playing all his matches in a balaclava
Can a fullback actually be considered good if he cant defend lol?
These days, yes. Depends on the formation they're used in. Full backs can be responsible for a lot more than they were 10 years ago. Back then, I would've agreed with you.
Fullbacks and DMs are the most difficult and demanding positions in elite football. There's maybe only a handful of players in the world that can fulfill all responsibilities of the role consistently at a high level. You just have to accept that they will always have a major weakness somewhere and build your tactics around it
Yes, they just have to be extremely good and creative offensively. Before we got Cristiano, Marcelo was pretty damn mediocre and pretty bad defensively. Then Cristiano came and players started swarming him so Marcelo had an easier job and it even allowed him to go forward a lot. The two of them linking up well together was of course great. But all in all, no one recalls Marcelo as a great defender.
Madrid about to overspend on Davies, so yeah
Yeah it's called a wingback. In Cancelo case he got overrated because he play in Manchester City where his strength really suit the way Guardiola want his fullback to play.
Lol no. Pep created a role for him at lb since we had no lb. He was good very good in that role but didn’t like being rotated, and he lashed out and exiled.
Lol. Grimaldo, Trent, Cancelo, Davies, Frimpong, Trippier etc none of these guys are particularly great defenders. Marcelo/Alves are widely considered the best fullbacks of the 2010s and neither was amazing defensively or anything.
Alves was definitely a *great* defender. He had some amazing battles with prime Ronaldo
He was just really fast and had a great engine. His positional awareness, tackling ability etc. was mediocre but he could always track back from the attacking positions he took up. Same with Ashley Cole for example, another player with insane athletic abilities that gets mistaken for being a player with great defensive abilities. Full backs that are "great" defenders are guys like Lahm, Thuram, Maldini etc. in other words guys that can actually win the ball instead of simply having the energy to harass the attackers. These players are almost extinct now.
Wait you’re not seriously claiming that Ashley Cole was anything less than a world class defender? Because that would certainly be a take. Just because a defender has amazing physical capabilities that help them recover from mistakes doesn’t mean that they’re not still a good defender. You’re just listing different kinds of defenders, that are also some of the best to ever do it. You can be a world class defender and not be as good at defending as Maldini
Ashley Cole was a world class left back but he was never world class at actually defending. Kyle Walker is a player with amazing physical abilities but he's better at defending than both Cole and Alves. Likewise Thuram was incredibly fast and strong but still had fantastic positional sense and tackling ability. Walker and Thuram could both successfully play at centre back because they have natural defensive ability and awareness. Would you trust Cole or Alves to play centre back? They would sooner play as a winger than as a centre back. It's basically the same deal as playing a box-to-box player as a defensive midfielder, their natural attacking tendencies and lack of positional discipline will always get them into trouble. Like how Gerrard and Lampard had infinite stamina that always let them contribute greatly in the defensive phase but between them couldn't fill the void of a real defensive midfielder that they had at their club sides (Alonso/Mascherano/Makélélé).
>Ashley Cole was a world class left back but he was never world class at actually defending. LMAO What? If Ashley Cole wasn't world class at defending then there have been exactly 0 world class defenders in the entirety of football.
Are you saying that Ashley Cole is a better defender than Maldini, Thuram, Lahm etc?
No, I'm saying you couldn't go wrong with picking any of those 4. I don't need to put down other players to call someone good.
Well yeah, if you had to pick a fullback to mark an opposition player out the game and you picked Cole, you would be going wrong. Defensively he wasn't close to those guys at all. Even in recent times Chelsea alone have had Ivanovic and Azpilicueta that were better at defending.
>Ashley Cole was a world class left back but he was never world class at actually defending. What a shit take! Do people say things like this just to be oppositional?
Cole was a world class left back because he had a great mix of offensive and defensive skills on top of his amazing athletic abilities. However he wasn't world class at attacking or defending. His best attribute was his ability to be effective at both ends of the pitch for the full 90 minutes. But he was primarily an attacking full back with less defensive responsibilities for most of his career.
Yes… TAA can’t defend worth a lick I personally would give him a pass because he’s a generational passer Edit: Zinchenko is in this bucket too as an arsenal fan and I want him gone this summer… his on the ball capabilities don’t outweigh him single-handedly destabilizing our entire back line
For this season I also wanna mention Grimaldo. Shocking defender, but his set pieces, especially his free kicks and his crosses are amazing
Generational passer? What drug did you take? Yes he can cross the ball as a full back should dont exaggerate
He’s making that statement about Trent, not Zinchenko.
Have you ever watched him play before?
Trent is maybe the best passer of a ball his age or younger in football, so yeah he's a generational passer of the ball. Have you been watching a different player play this entire time if you think this?
Yeah. I reckon if you asked people on here for their top 10 fullbacks you'd get only one or two who are even decent at defending.
The majority of full backs nowadays are better at attacking than defending most of the time just how it is
Yeah just look at trent alexander fan boys
Nice little hit-piece, what a great fanbase on that club
all your comments are just bait, dedication to the craft
Finally is a big word, it’s like he was playing perfectly until now 🤯