The strange thing is that at 3-0 I thought we were trying to manage the game. Our shape was very defensive and we had mostly stopped playing risky flicks and forward passes in favour of simple short passes at the back to eat up time. But we made two basic errors so it didn't work. I thought the first mistake was at least as much Dragusin's as Forster's. Dragusin went too wide so made the pass hard at which point booting it upfield was the only safe choice.
Sky somehow forgot to admire the corner from Sonny, just wanted to bitch about Fossie and Ange https://x.com/gir1dinner/status/1869873738201870593?t=KZYKBfqxEHq1eI7i3LpedQ&s=19
Another miss by Sky , if this had been Romero you would have had the Neville assassination with 5 different angles and inultra slo https://x.com/SZYComps/status/1869891784790196517?t=D9u3L1Tl49kPlZAZ-Nryfg&s=19mo
The only thing I would change is "basic" to "catastrophic". U10 goalkeeping and defending at it's finest, especially for the 2nd which was criminal. The squad lacks that "winning mentality", even in the battle of the mid table "giants" it seems.. Anyway my full English breakfast is calling out to me...
He's a nasty piece of work, evidenced time and time again. People make excuses for him, laud his talent, but at heart he's just a pos. Lucas (18) won that battle hands down in the end
A still from that excellent clip supports what I said last night. Lucas was up early (and boy, that was a decent height) and their keeper was rooted to the spot, having come too far out and having to back pedal BEFORE trying to reach for the ball - which at that point he'd probably not reach anyway. No foul, not even close. Although thankfully the officials called it right and there was no VAR to over-complicate matters.
Much commentary from the pundits just reiterates the usual stuff about Ange based on what he says, when if you look at the game defensive positions are there and all out attack situations are often paused. The passing around at the back, which I am not a fan of, is not just a feature at Spurs but is the latest fashion in the PL, most teams do it. Ange plays a game with the journalists and they buy it.
The 'hole' down our right flank was a glaring problem from minute 1 though, and there was no technical change made to counter that. The pundits were correct to flag that imo. The pissing about at the back drives me nuts. I get the rationale, but players must also apply common sense - especially experienced keepers like Forster: knowing when to play short or kick long and get rid. You don't see too many goals scored from the opposition half ...
Porro loves to get forward a bit too much perhaps. I think our big problem is not having a midfield general to calm things down and just hold the ball. Bentancur can do this and I think there are signs that Bergval could become that player or Archie Gray but at the moment we don't do it.
By the way Archie Gray is a huge talent, so calm in possession an 18 year old playing his 3rd game in an unfamiliar position and still looking very comfortable. The sooner he is playing CDM the better. I would also give Dragusin great credit for the way he bullied Hojland he won the vast majority of their duels and also covered the huge hole behind Porro (or where a normal RB would be) frequently. Shame he was involved in balls up for the first Utd goal.
Have we heard any pundits saying that Bayindir needed to take control of his area on set pieces, by the way...?
I think Sarr was helping covering the hole behind Porro but it obviously wasn’t working very well. I really don’t like our flanks being exposed like this with the inverted full backs. I much prefer a flat 4 in defence but apparently this isn’t the modern way! Forster’s howlers were terrible but to be fair, he has been outstanding covering vicario. His strengths are not playing out from defence but he has done well until yesterday. I blame the tactics rather than Forster. It’s a shame our home leg in the semi is the first round as it may be too soon for our injured to return. It would have been nice to go to Anfield with some kind of lead. I guess Sunday’s match will give us an indication of what to expect. Obviously there are going to be concerns with tired legs etc especially since Liverpool left out most of their regulars in their mid-week game so they will be fighting fit.
Yeah I thought they were both brilliant yesterday and were likely robbed of a clean sheet thanks to Forster going captain fanspastic. I’ve been hugely critical of Ange’s naivety this season but some of the pundits/ media chat about how he needed game management to see out the game was nonsense, no manager on planet Earth can account for a goalkeeper gifting not one but two goals to the opposition like that. We could’ve had Maldini and Baresi at the back with Makelele sitting in front of them whilst adopting Jose’s in-game management from a winning position and it wouldn’t have made an ounce of difference if the goalkeeper felt like giving the opposition a couple of lifelines.
I was sure I saw some game management last night when we were 3-0 up. I think this was the FBs staying back and lots of passing around at the back! Obviously it went to pots when they scored 2 goals and we reverted to type and panicked somewhat.
He is scared of making a forward pass there when he knows he is incompetent enough to likely to eff it up. So he chose what he thought was the safest option.
