Had to watch it on catchup as I was out all day at work yesterday.....managed to avoid hearing the result as well which made it an even better watch. What a ****ing game, we absolutely bossed them at times. Our bench (again) is ****ing woeful and shows just how far we still have to go. A couple of observations of my own from the game:- Pope - awesome display, some critical saves and he commands his box so much better than Dubs and takes the pressure off our defence at just the right times. His kicking, especially when under pressure made a me a tad nervous yesterday and he fluffed a couple which could have turned out a lot worse than they did but overall he has thus far been a class addition to our squad and quite rightly deserves his place in the team over Dubs Willock - save for a foraging run foward in the first half I really don't see what this guy brings to the team. Maybe I need to watch the game again and watch him in particular incase I've missed something but I can barely recall hearing his name mentioned a lot. Bruno got a ridiculously early yellow card (which wasn't a ****ing yellow either) and I would have expected him to step in and do the hard yards and put himself about a lot more than he did to offer a bit of protection for him but he just seemed to be missing to me....maybe its a perception thing cos I didn't hear his name mentioned a lot. Botman - some shaky/nervy defending at times but it's only his 2nd start in this league and he was up against an absolute ****house of a centre forward in Haaland (more on him below). Miles better than Lascelles don't get me wrong and he looks calm and composed on the ball and will get to grips with this league no doubt. Haaland - Absolute ****ing beast. He's gonna rip this league new one, he's like a combination of Shearer and Torres on ****ing steroids and I honestly don't think there is a defender in this league who is going to be able to handle this guy...quite frightening really. ASM - by far his best game for us, probably ever. He's at least doubled his valued after that performance....sell the **** now !!
Willock faded a lot in the second half. Usually he brings a lot to the midfield but I think he was a bit overrun by City’s midfield and Cancelo and Foden. Think it was made more obvious because Walker didn’t offer as much on the right side But then again I thought Ilkay Gundogan was fairly off the boil as well for 80 minutes of the game but his class was there when it counted in and around the box. Willock should watch videos of him
For Willock (and Bruno yesterday for that matter) I think their impact on the game is shown when they are replaced. Now I get fresh legs but even though we'd conceded a couple, the midfield just had more control when Willock played in it. When Longstaff came on we were always a yard away from the ball and the pressing game we had been playing fell away. That energy and pace to get up in the faces of Man City players, to make them make mistakes, is what he brought to the team in my opinion
Now imagine if we had Gallagher or Paqueta starting with Willock coming on to add something to the game? Same with Almiron and Wilson (who’s now looking injured yet again, who didn’t see that coming?). Three short of a really decent team.
Was it all a dream. Just didn’t and still doesn’t feel real. I bet you Botman was thinking “this is mental”.
