Oluwaseun 🇳🇬

Lacroix's defensive decision-making and physical characteristics over large spaces is unideal. It can partly be resolved through training and more experience but I think the rest is an inherent drawback (do correct me if I'm wrong with that). I'd break down his weaknesses in decision-making as: (1) positional awareness, (2) body orientation, and (3) inefficient choices on when to press up and drop back to delay. Physically, his agility, footwork, speed of shifting between different body orientations, and pace make him susceptible when tracking back and defending big spaces. I do want to emphasise that many defenders find it difficult because it is just really tough to effectively defend large spaces consistently. There is a certain calibre of elite defenders who can achieve that. I don't think Lacroix gets to that level due to the inherent physical characteristics but there is still room to improve from a decision-making point of view. Below are examples taken from the second half against Brentford where he incorrectly presses up instead of dropping to delay the attack considering the opposition had an overload. Image 2 is his inaccurate decision on jumping out to put pressure rather than tracking the runner.