Douglas Higginbottom wrote:From what I have seen Zinchenko has two issues with having to play as a defender. First he isn't very quick. Maybe not slow but in a race against a quick player he will always lose out.
Second is his lack of experience as a full back. That's mostly about reading the game so his lack of pace doesnt get exposed.
Probably both those issues contributed to their goal but so too did the miscontrol by their player which wrong footed basically everyone and allowed the quick forward pass which caught us out. Maybe also Stones could have stayed more central but ge also was thrown I think by the miscontrol.
Having said that I thought Zin was very good today. excellent touch and very sensible ue of the ball too. Good player
I think its worth noting that pep looks at other qualities other than defending for those who play in defence. I mean even his goalkeeper is primarily a sweeper. So he looks at what they can bring to the party, qualities like how he is going to link play with his teamates before how is he going to defend. Zinchenko meets most of the primary requirements in this respect.