This is why I couldn't be mad at Tonali today. His box defending was on point. Tomori MOTM, 100% would've conceded more than one goal had Romagslowly played.
Tomori was not MOTM, that honor 100% goes to either Rebic or Calabria. I will say he was an upgrade over Romagnoli today IMO, but his marking early in the game wasn't good (off the ball marking that is, whenever he was marking the ball carrier I really thought he was exceptional), BUUUUT he has the speed to recover for his mistakes. For example the only reason he had to make the 1st block on Pellegrini is because he lost him earlier but he was actually able to catch him unlike if that was Romagnoli because of his speed. Also, on the last shot by Mkhitaryan, Tomori didn't come out to challenge and ducked away from the shot, fortunately it was straight at Gigio. That being said, I saw Tomori fight for the shirt today which I LOVE as for some reason I just really think he wants to be here and win that starting spot and I really enjoy a player who does that. I'm looking forward to seeing more starts from him to see how he does with more consistent games, hopefully he continues this upward trajectory. Well done today from him IMO, but not MOTM.
I think the bigger issue is formation and playstyle as once again the attacks on our left are no surprise. I can't count the number of times where Theo is just gone and then either Kessie or Tomori has to cover at LB which drags our players out of position and causes big issues regardless of whether it's Tomori or Romagnoli in. IMO we can't play with a high line + run only 2 real mids + run a 4 man backline with Theo gone 80% of the game. If we want to keep the high line we have to go with a 3-4-1-2 or 4-3-1-2, or if we can stop playing as high of a line and keep the 4-2-3-1. Either way, teams are starting to figure us out and after a great first half today we were just hanging on in the second half and looking exposed once again. If Tonali doesn't make the diving block and if Mkhitaryan scores either one of his 2 good chances we tie or worse... glad we hung on, but the fact remains, we're hanging on and not taking the game to teams anymore.