An embarrassing win but a win nonetheless. Management and players need to take a look at themselves after that.
Was there goal line technology, it looked over the line anyway. Phew, lucky we drew a team more spursey than us.
2-1 FT. Bloody awful. Nobody looks fit and our squad balance is ****ing awful. Ndombele and Lo Celso should help if/when they get up to speed, but we need backup/competition for them both. We've got too many workmanlike midfielders and not enough quality.
He's actually the 2nd best Portuguese manager we've had ffs. Hopefully Bale can give us a big short term boost as we don't look like even close to decent at the moment.
Job done, I suppose. We should have been out of sight with a pen denied in the first half and some awful finishing before they scored. Son in particular looked way off the pace. But nobody in particular shone, aside from Tanguy who had some good moments when he came on. Lots of questions to answer for the players and staff once again but at least we’re through to the next round. We need to improve greatly though.
Lots of the players look absolutely miles off the pace. They didn't look this knackered or shambolic before the summer break. I can't see how a couple of weeks off could've affected anyone that badly.
The highlights should be good. Blank screen followed by some fireworks and dancing Bulgarians in the streets!
The play this season reminds me of Ramos at the beginning 2008 and AVB at the beginning of 2014. Players not trying, weird team selections and appalling football.
We face Shkëndija of Macedonia in the next round. Just down the round from Plovdiv, a little to the West. They knocked out Botosani of Romania 1-0 away from home. Scored an early goal, then went down to 10 men in the second half.
It's sort of fitting that Ndombele looked like he scored by accident Not for him, but this evening's performance
Honestly if we can get Tanguy and GLC together behind the Son/Kane/Bale trident then that is going to be a completely different prospect. We were mostly dire today but Tanguy bought more to the game going forwards. If he can do that over the course of a league campaign and sort his fitness out then I have hope.
