cape wrote: ↑Wed Sep 05, 2018 10:35 am
He can be the exception that proves the rule
In fairness I didn't particularly want him playing - no way was he ready to start. He needs games coming of the bench, or use the A League to bring his fitness up. Certainly not a 12, he already flies out the line like a mad man
To be fair to Manu when he was fit and playing regularly his defence was pretty good and willing to tackle anything that moved.
However his time out has seen him become rusty, not quite up to speed and his ability to launch himself into huge tackles or make interceptions isn't there - he's reacting rather than anticipating which looks clumsy.
I think you are probably right. He probably feels elements of pressure to make big carries and big highlight reel tackles, when in actual fact most of us would rather he was just doing his job plainly but 100%
BFG wrote: ↑Wed Sep 05, 2018 10:44 am
I think he flies out like a mad man at 13 to counter the pace and footwork against him.
He is more of a 12 now in my opinion.
He is also very strong over the ball which in midfield is a huge asset.
We shall see how Newcastle handle him.
It looked like he was flying out the line Vs Chiefs because Toomua was biting in all the time leaving a big gap between 12 and wing for Manu to fill. He was trying to blitz to stop Chris going wide and exposing the space.
Well having the pace to fill that gap is kind of the point for an outside back.
I guess we see things differently but for me it's chicken and egg stuff in what comes first.
IMO he does the blitz a lot and not just in this game, you don't see Tait need to do it as often when he plays there.
It's sort of like the BY debate we had where you think forwards should be making runs to bust the gain line and I think that they can't because that delivery off that obligatory two step that BY takes away from the base actually brings defenders onto his own forward runners.
Likewise give the forwards Harrison's quick service off the base (Worcester away) and they can beat the defensive rush and bust the line.
Again if you have the pace and footwork to rely on at outside centre then you can stay tighter inside and trust your inside cover to come across and trust your own pace to cover the outside and then no need to blitz as often.
Tait has better positioning but he's also not really got a blitz option giving his tackling ability (he's a much better side on tackler). The reason Manu's blitz looked so cumbersome at the weekend was because Toomua was stepping in, there was no chance of Toomua making up the space back to Manu. He was far too isolated. Our forwards weren't drifting out into the 10 channel to take the big Chiefs runners so Toomua was stepping and narrowing our defence. Chiefs do it a lot and are good at forcing the opposition to narrow.
I'd like to see Manu use his experience and back off a little to give any cover time to come across. Mix up his defending style because he's a little predictable at racing out the line. A bit too easy to pick off. Much better when the opposition don't it's coming and get blindsided man and ball.
