all jokes aside, we get to see just how bad it is if he doesn’t play. He might not be the best, but if Sanchez is the other option, I know who I’m picking.
3-2 FT. Awful first half, virtually all one-way traffic in the second, but still pretty poor overall. Very important that Bentancur avoided a booking and I guess we rested some players. Sort of. Big result, but we need a couple more this week.
As I have said all season, Conte made a judgement rod for his own back with the final third of last season. That is the standard that he now must at the minimum maintain. I have no idea why the team are so meh for the first halves, nor why Conte has yet to correct it.
If we see Emerson and Sanchez play for us again just shoot me. It’ll be a kinder thing to do than make me watch them again.
Starting to ponder who will be in the starting XIs post the Marseille game (WC 2022 starting XI bods must be getting very anxious now) .
Can’t fault their commitment in the second half. The subs actually worked today. I’m not going to criticise the line up and tactics today because Conte had to rest some players for our critical game on Tuesday. But yes, stupid mistakes from Royal and Sanchez. Apart from the mistakes, I thought Sanchez played well. Dier was great on the wing!
Things are far from satisfactory, we still can’t put together a first half performance. But through the crazy schedule, injuries to key players, lack of cover for others, Conte making some questionable choices, and some important players simply being bang out of form, we’re 3 points off the top of the league. Yes I know the games played is a bit weird for everyone right now but this season is a weird one full stop. Can’t help but feel that it’s all about staying in touch with the top 4 and getting out of the CL group and then once the post-WC dust settles we can actually see how everything shakes out. All the ‘big 6’ are struggling like we are with the fixture congestion and everyone is going to have some sort of post-WC fatigue or injury hangover. It’s going to be a season for attritional football, I just hope our players are up for the fight. That’s was a big second half for us ahead of a big week.
