Scienza was good first half. Faded second. His miss was as bad as Macca's cock up, but whatever, I'll let that go. I was very happy with his debut, but as I just replied to Loading, J-Rob never really deserved to be dropped, and I would be equally happy if either start on Saturday.
It makes me feel a bit sick to give the ITV commentators any credit, but early on (must have been very quietly so as not to upset the natural order…) they did point out that Jelert had done his homework. I’m with you, I think he managed to show him back inside every time and never over committed, it was a very assured display. I also enjoyed watching Scienza face forward at every opportunity. It was like watching Alcaraz again as if you’re already facing forward, you’ve got a yard already to push.
Yep. there's merit to that argument for sure. A lot will depend on what formation Still chooses to go with. Robinson would suit a 4-2-3-1 more than Scienza, who worked well in a 3-4-3 shape we saw last night.
Quite nice to be debating what formation we should go with to help some 'good' players. I think it was late 90s the last time I saw that
Don't think i've seen it mentioned but Flynn was much more like his old self last night and influenced our play a lot.
Have we got a volunteer for the Middlesborough match day thread yet? Happy to put myself up there for the top of the league game, if no-one has already offered. It's been ages since i lost!!
Without looking through the results (because my memory isn't good enough) I'm pretty sure all 3 Liverpool games we put in a good performance last season (and lost), Arsenal away (can't remember at home), Man Utd at home (can't remember away), Man City both games and at home where we got that all important 12th point. It doesn't happen every time sure, but we do regularly raise our performances and effort levels to compete with the big teams and lose, but never follow up that intensity of performances against anyone else.
No probs. Had a quick trail through to try and find out, but gave up after a while, and thought i'd ask instead!!
Yeah maybe! My memory doesn't always serve me with these things. Just remember Dibling absolutely destroying the Man Utd defence at home which may have clouded my overall memory of how the game went!
Home game we started really well (and you're right about Dibling), missed a penalty and then conceded twice in quick succession before HT. Away game we took a first half lead and then conceded 3 in the last 10-15 minutes.
Does anyone think Saturday might be an improvement? I would love it to be but like most of us I have been damaged by our last two relegation seasons, and even the promotion season had its moments that weren't fun. It would be nice to get on a level footing, and look like a good, difficult to beat football club, I don't mean win every game and storm to the top of the table (although if they want to do that, I'm on board), I'd love to look forward to Saturday (normally) and either watching Saints on TV or checking up on their games as much as I can. As a soft sort of bloke, with a few non-football serious problems, it is bloody depressing, it's a thing I need to help cheer me up a bit. Although my old ice hockey team has started well, two games unbeaten and the away game in a difficult to win at place. So c'mon Saints you can do this!