I've seen the score and read this page. (Not able to see game). My thoughts: that's a shame, oh well. Obviously would rather have won and a shame to be out of the running, but it's not like we're not busy with other competitions and that at this early stage, it's the least important of the four. Silver lining, less distraction for League and Champions League and less fixture congestion.
She would have been hamming it up and getting the crowd participating. They would all been up and crackling.
Well we did thst to ourselves by picking a lad who was out for 2 full years at rb on the bench then throwing him on after 10.mins cos the senior player just back from.injury dropped. Cearl prioritised the lesguenas he did in the champions league and didn't learn much from that first game. McConnell was shoved about which was unfair to him to cover this. There were gaps everywhere in truth. A.gap between Elliott's ears. Not the pen, no. **** can happen. The performance and then comes.out and apologies cos we lost? No. Solve the problem on the park, we don't need sorries. So disappointed in the performance he put in on the ball. An age gap in nyoni. That game was too soon for him. He is simply not ready for adult football yet and it shows in spades. You can stroke it about in space but that's easy, just not ready to mix it. And really perform.in tight areas. A large gap in pace in chiesa's legs. Really this guy had a good attitude but zero ability to implement what he wanted to do. For a winger at this level that's really that. If he had thr ability to drop to cm for example and make passes that would be something but he was shifted left and Diaz right. In actual fact we had nothing to offer on either side. It was a standard deep lying defence but we had no ability to switch play on the park. No full backs capable of supporting their winger and no 10 capable of moving to support the witdh either. Really really slow build up and finding an isolate player up against 2 or 3 defenders meant it was as blunt as could be. Hopefully slot has all the info he needs now to shape the remainder of the season. Hopefully he has a good idea of the rebuild he has to do in short order as well.
A cobbled together team played cobbled together football. It was probably the worst game I've watched in a long time. The first thing you have to do in games like this is match the opponents enthusiasm and effort then outclass and outplay them with your superior talent and skills. We did neither. With the amount of games we've had and still have to come, it made sense to give the fringe players and young players some game time, no surprises there but to not have at least a couple of first team players on the bench to rescue the game, looked like we weren't serious about winning. The Plymouth fans have a day to celebrate which is great for them. There's a reason their team is where it is, apart from their superior effort and desire to win, they offered nothing. The comms on the game were obsessed with the line 'beat the best team in the land'. No they didn't. The best team in the land was sitting at home watching the tv like the rest of us in total bemusement. It is what it is. At least all the media quad talk will stop. There's a reason no team has ever done it, it's extremely hard. This is one of Rafa's 'blessings in disguise'. We have given ourselves some breathing space in between our busy schedule and that's a good thing.
I had to explain this to a friend who has no interest in football but had heard the headline. We clearly had no interest in winning that game. I don't mean we purposefully handed it to Plymouth, just that there was little enthusiasm for it from the senior players, and not enough experience amongst the youngsters. I don't recall seeing a single move that I would describe as good football, and there were countless aimless passes into empty space. We have bigger fish to fry, and a heavy schedule ahead, so I understand the mentality to an extent - but I'm always disappointed to lose a game under any circumstances.
not bothered by going out the cup but was by the performance of the senior players who looked half arsed at best .
There was a certain irony for me in that Slot in his recent interview said (paraphrasing) 'when you pull the shirt on, your only objective is to win'. Like you I don't want to lose any game. I feel that this loss was avoidable. We take it on the chin and move on.
Agree with all of that, but nonetheless, we now face three months of highly intense, must-win-all-games football knowing that, goalkeeper apart, we need our first eleven to be fit and in-form for every game. We're flying without any reserve fuel tanks now, and this is when we'll probably need them most. In fact, seeing Villa last night, I'm even pissed off that getting to the final of minor cup means a re-arranged league game against an in-form side crammed into a 4 games in 15 days schedule when we need it the least. Nothing, absolutely nothing should get in the way of winning that league. 6 points could vanish in a week if we need some of the lads on display yesterday for the run-in - they're just not good enough.
Indeed. Chiesa at least has a claim that he's not played much first-team football, but the other two were rancid in their own right.
Who would have guessed before the game that these three would not be able to score against a lowly championship team. But the FA cup produces results like this from time to time. At least Slot will know how little talent sits behind the first 11. Injuries, hopefully lack of will determine what we win this season.
Kelleher. No excuses but didn't need many Tsimikas. Not bothered and only started running forward when behind Quansah. Running off everywhere at times but OK. Endo. Did ok. Moved to cb. Never going to set the world alight. Gomez 10 mins and off. McConnell, shifted 3 times in the game. Not a rb and wrong to ask him to try imo. Nyoni. Not ready, not by a mile. Slots fault. Elliott. Zero excuse. Zero. Very poor. Diaz, at least was alive the few times he got it wide with 3 and 4 men on him. Chiesa. Could barely control it never mind beat a man. Couldn't run but still lost the all most of the time rather than even recycle Jota wasn't too pushes imo. Zero closing down. The reality of our situation is this; Vvd and play God like passes 40 years to open play. None of the players even in midfield were capable. Macca and gravenberch can turn and carry thr ball with intent. No midfielder on show could. Sloboszlai can see where to linked with others. Elliott ran away from where the links were needed and was too deep or pulling away from physical contact. We neded up throwing nunez on bit not Jones as the game was not important. We left Diaz Jota nunez and chiesa on and I think threw kone Doherty at it who has no clue what senior football is even like. Elliott was at at a proper cm trying to pass forward and being spectacularly poor at it. Win lose or draw there the main thing to be taken from that game is that we really do not have many good squad players and are especially short of the quality to spray thr ball about. It was away, it was a bobbly pitch but there's no excuse for not trying and working. (Some of them) and there's no place to hide when you are not capable (others) We've carried gomez and or quansah beside vvd this year and it showed in goals against. We lost in the league cup semi putting tsmikias in who was woeful that night and half fit. Every time Jones plays form thr start the team is worse. He's OK late on in games to rest a player like szobo but the drop off in our game is massive. We've don't have a reliable 9. We had all 3 play there Sunday and none knew where the zone of most danger is was balls went across to empty space. We have a fine 11 and then a few subs slot trusts but they have to be kept fit for the rest of this league. Gakpo, salah, gravenberch, macallister, Szoboszlai, konate and vvd are totally irreplaceable for us. Alisson and trent has OK back up. Robertson or tsimikas is debatable and none of the three playing 9 fill me with much confidence due to brains/fitness/style depending who we look at. Fingers corssed keeping those players fit. The drop off is massive to the next warm.body.
TBF, with Jota and Chiesa struggling for fitness, that front three probably hasn't played together before. Certainly not much.
