Quote Originally Posted by Stan Marshall View Post
Agreed but it was also noticeable that Enzio and Ruben worked their pods off that game. Enzio in particular showed greater commitment in chasing back. I consider Ruben and Enzio as ‘reluctant’ defensively but they worked for the cause that night. Which begs the question, why not regularly?
Although against weak opposition that game provides the template for what's needed - the whole team working their socks off (to compensate for being a man down that night) / defenders trusted to defend / One guy holding in midfield / players coming for the ball to link defence with attack / freedom for the skilful, creative players to operate / nobody hiding or underperforming

Btw that's totally unfair on Enzio who for an attacking player has regularly put in a shift defensively for quite some time now (maybe asked to do too much of that). Ruben is a different case, he still wasn't totally match fit a third of the way into the season - that was mismanaged, and it doesn't look like he's any better now in the glimpses we've seen of him.