John Terry has criticised Rudiger’s positioning for Manchester United’s opening goal against Chelsea on Monday, while he dug out Christensen for not staying on the pitch to continue.
Chelsea conceded shortly before half-time as Aaron Wan-Bissaka whipped in a good cross which was headed into the far corner by Anthony Martial.
Christensen was criticised for his role in the opening goal, having returned onto the pitch just seconds earlier after receiving treatment and not catching up to the pace of the match quickly enough.
But while Christensen was clearly out-jumped, Terry drew attention to Rudiger and felt he could have prevented the goal had he been positioned better to hinder Martial’s run.
Asked if the blues would be disappointed with how they conceded, Terry said: ‘Got to think disappointed. Two in the box against six is disappointing to start with.
‘But I think if you look at Rudiger in the build-up to that, the ball goes wide and he kind of gets sucked out into an area where he’s not really going to affect it. He can pass him on.
‘If you could have Rudiger just outside the six-yard box, just to stop that run across, Martial then can’t make that run across and that just allows that second centre-half to go touch-tight and be more aggressive with him.’
Christensen was substituted at half-time and replaced by Kurt Zouma after the knock, though Terry says he would have carried on.
Asked if the blow Christensen received affected him for Anthony Martial’s goal, Terry said: ‘Quite possibly. Listen it’s good movement, it’s a great ball into the box and a great header.
‘But can he more aggressive? Yeah, ideally I’d like to see that from him. Does this [the bloody nose] affect him? Clearly because he goes off and he’s kind of holding it seconds before Wan-Bissaka gets his cross into the box.
‘But I was just saying to the lads, they’re ones where you want to get up and not even go off the pitch, just stay on the pitch with a little bit of blood running down your face and get on with it.’
