Crap clearance by Davies. No. Just no. Finally had a decent break and someone stopped running. Every time we get the ball it's a foul. A couple of decent passes there. This is the kind of game the home team wins, often enough on a dodgy decision. Nice (ice hockey) hip check for the Partizan player. Why Kane? I would have thought Lamela was a better choice. We need to reverse the field and get it into open space when they cram one side the way they've been doing.
Nice couple of touches by Soldado, but that's not really where we need him. I didn't realise that Serbian players were so fragile. They seem to be very happy to hug the grass.
Pochettino looks like he's about to cry. Utterly frustrated. We've badly lacked width and imagination tonight. Shades of Villas-Boas, unfortunately. Quite a few new faces, but the system doesn't suit our wide men and it cramps the central players because of it.
I wasn't going to say it, but... The worst of it is that we've lost our composure. Partizan's pressure and diving have made our players forget how to play. Hopeful punts down the field is all we can manage. Another comedy dive. I've got to say our ability to pass it to men in white shirts when we near their box is impressive. I don't understand why we didn't get the ball in quickly. Ugly, ugly game. Poor performance. A draw away isn't the worst result, but the second, cup, team simply wasn't good enough. 0 shots on goal. That and the 15 fouls committed by us to their 9 say it all, the latter in a comedic sense. They spent the entire game fouling our players and diving. After a shaky start, our defending was reasonable. Lamela is a good player, and Bentaleb and Vertonghen (from what I can guess!) had decent games. That's about it for the positives.
Really naive foul by Bentaleb. Gives possession away for no reason when we were totally in control. He must know that any contact's going to send his man straight to the turf.
Another feigned injury. That's really ****ing weak. Why give them the ball back after that? Screw 'em.
Well that was pretty crap, wasn't it? Dodgy pitch, utterly unimaginative performance, loads of diving and an uninspiring result. We need to drastically improve to do well in this tournament. I'm already sick of seeing Lennon and Townsend playing on the wrong sides and it's a little worrying to see it being persisted with. We lacked width so badly and just never troubled their defence.
Some good news, as Besiktas threw away a lead that they held for most of the game against Asteras Tripolis in the other game in the group. The Greeks managed to snatch an unlikely draw in Turkey, making our result a little more palatable, even if the performance wasn't.
Given how sub-par we were tonight I think you have to be happy with the point. Serbian fans sound mental, what an atmosphere. Pitch and referee, and some of the theatrics of the Partizan players seemed a little dodgy so again, perhaps a point isn't to be sniffed at. In terms of our performance, we lacked quality and invention, and weren't doing anything nearly quickly enough going forwards. I liked the look of Stambouli and Fazio. Paulinho didn't cover himself in any glory, and Davies was a bit meh. Townsend and Lennon isn't working, could we see Ceballos sometime? Rash call to put forwards perhaps but he's probably more inventive and technical than those two and might be a better fit, even if he is perhaps a stop-gap. Still - difficult atmosphere, poor pitch and some dodgy refereeing decisions. Given our overall poor performance I'll settle for the point, although I'd be looking for our performances to markedly improve in the coming weeks.
The best news from that match is that it's highly unlikely we will ever experience that referee ever again. He let Partizan get away with far too much for far too long, while giving us nothing in return (not even a booking for that guy stamping on Stamouli's ankle twice in the same foul, FFS) which saw us lose our composure - we were closing them down in their half for the entire first 45 minutes, yet we sat back and waited for a free kick to be given for yet another obvious dive that everyone but the moronic officials could see for the entire second half.
It's easy to underrate the difficulties of playing in front of a loud partisan crowd, on a field unleveled by the referee. A draw isn't a bad result. I'm worried more about how the players who played are doing than the result. Pochettino may be known as a young players' coach for a reason. Lennon and Townsend are not great bets to ever adapt to his system very well. I have my doubts about Paulinho as well. You may say he should adapt his system to them, but he's got no history of doing that that I know of.
I understand what you're saying. However, Pochettino was hired to,do a job with the existing players + it seems, a bare minimum of new signings. To a large extent, he will have to try to fit what he currently has into what is the best facsimile of what he wants. The only other outlet for new blood that he currently appears to have is the up and comers - mason, vjelkovic, etc.
Not a whole lot to say about the game, **** pitch made it difficult to pass or dribble, in the first half Partizan stifled us with numbers at the back and in the second we were crap. We've seen it happen loads of times before, a crap pitch is always easier for the home side who play on it every week, perhaps UEFA should set aside some of the prize money they give to clubs and make them spend it pitch, it looked like they have cattle on their in between games. Shame to not get a result or performance but we're back at home next and hopefully back to 3 points after a few games without.
please log in to view this image Same old, ****. UEFA are actually better at dealing with anti-semitism than the FA are so I'm sure there will be action taken. Embarrassing that there are still fans like this across Europe. Someone should've pointed it out to the ref, he's Israeli and might have actually given a few decisions our way
I know this is our game thread but just watched Everton's game. Someone needs to tell them it's a marathon and not a sprint. They might be happy with 4-1 victory but they were playing a lot of first teamers who they will need at the weekend. One result doesn't win this competition. We achieved our result with a rotated squad. in a later round we will need our first X1.
I thought we did well to get that draw. It was not an easy game for us, and not many teams will dominate Partisan on that ground.
