Takehiro Tomiyasu (18)

Superrrrrrrrrrrr, Super Tom. Majestic today.

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Me too. Raised an eyebrow at kickoff. Then Tomi continued to show why he’s been such an astute signing. Top performance today to keep Salah silent.

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Fantastic performance. It’ll be interesting to see whether that defensive lineup was a one off or whether it becomes a common big game setup.

Would also like to get a look at him at LCB on Thursday.

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This guy can play three positions at an elite level. Absolutely ridiculous. Kaveh Solhekol can eat shit.

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:henry2:

I think it was more to deal with the threat of Salah cutting in which would have been nice against United + Antony but largely stifles us a bit creatively as we don’t have that inverted left full back who ticks into midfield and m makes our left side so deadly.

Tomi is basically the best quality backup we could possibly have that covers 3 positions so well. Id feel very comfortable with him at CB on top of both full back positions but he definitely doesn’t look comfortable receiving the ball on his left which is understandable.

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He was offered to Tottenham too, and they went for Emerson instead :slight_smile:

Masterstroke by Mikel to put him LB and deal with Salah all game
Said it to my mate sitting next to me, hes done it on purpose, hes taller, stronger and defended against him very well all game

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We essentially played with 4 CB’s

Yeah big :brain: selection by Mikel this LB thing vs Salah.

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It’s a massive thing for us to have versatile guys like him or White who know how to play basically anywhere across the backline. You just need players like this, impossible to cover every position with 2-3 quality options, that’s why versatility like this is vital.

Although we’re still making naive mistakes at the back… I’d love to finally see a back 4 of Tomiyasu, Saliba, White, Zinchenko/Tierney. I think it should improve us a bit at least.

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Yep was worried we were sacrificing our style to defend Salah but it worked really well.

Sometimes Mikel knows what he’s doing :wink:

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STAY FIT FOR FIVE FUCKING MINUTES WOULD YOU

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Swear all of our full backs are just made of paper

Fortunately White is a CB :wink:

Sadly just soft tissue problem after soft tissue problem with Tomi, hopefully for us he is raring to go again come boxing day.

He did start 7 times in the last 30 days.
Tierney should have played a couple of those games when we know Tomiyasu has concerns fitness wise