asajoseph
Established Member
I'm wondering if this is something that might not have been picked up on TV.
There were a lot of occasions, particularly in the first half, when Gibbs received the ball in a lot of space up the left flank, with a lot of room to move into, and only one Inter player in front of him. Not once though did he take that player on, but every single time he ran forwards a short way, at a slow pace, then appeared to get a little nervous, turned, and passed sideways or backwards. He didn't make many overlapping runs on these occasions, either.
Considering how little Inter were doing defensively on the flanks, I consider this to be a really poor end-result, of what would have been, for a more mature player, a great attacking avenue.
People say he didn't give the ball away as much as Walcott - but the fact is, in that situation, Walcott would have tried to beat the man and utilise the space in behind every single time. He might not have got it right as often, but he would have had a much, much bigger impact on a poor side than Gibbs.
There were a lot of occasions, particularly in the first half, when Gibbs received the ball in a lot of space up the left flank, with a lot of room to move into, and only one Inter player in front of him. Not once though did he take that player on, but every single time he ran forwards a short way, at a slow pace, then appeared to get a little nervous, turned, and passed sideways or backwards. He didn't make many overlapping runs on these occasions, either.
Considering how little Inter were doing defensively on the flanks, I consider this to be a really poor end-result, of what would have been, for a more mature player, a great attacking avenue.
People say he didn't give the ball away as much as Walcott - but the fact is, in that situation, Walcott would have tried to beat the man and utilise the space in behind every single time. He might not have got it right as often, but he would have had a much, much bigger impact on a poor side than Gibbs.