So much better. If we had played with anywhere near that intensity at Prague we would have won comfortably Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk
We had enough chances to score 6. And they were clear cut chances. We really need to take more than one of them.
There was so much fluidity between Redmond and Sims and Hjojberg who got forward really well, meant Austin could actually play as a striker rather than a winger.
Great win. Cedric and Bertrand were brilliant and exactly what we missed in Prague. McQueen had a good game mid week but Martina slows it down far too much and is poor defensively. Hojbjerg so much better as well, had some phenomenal touches today. Can't fault Sims at all for that debut, great assist and some brilliant runs and skill. I do feel we still need to take more chances though, 1-0 won't always work and despite the fact we played really well today, we were lucky to score so early. Overall fully deserved win though and very happy!
That was a long 89 minutes. Josh Sims was a revelation. He really fitted in well, even when he was a bit too keen to run with the ball. Great result. Extra heart pills needed!
The most impressive thing about Sims for me was the way he kept popping up in the gap between their defence and midfield. Something which has been lacking massively from our play. Important to not get carried away after one game but he's been highly rated for a while and after being thrown in he not only stepped up, but excelled. Very promising and fair play to him.
It's great work from puel to pick sims; today would have been so easy to play safe but he didn't and should get a lot of credit for it Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk
I see that Lawro predicted a 1-1, which one might have thought was hedging, though understandable. But SAM, the super-computer created to predict football results, got it smack on with 1-0 Saints. Considered it a 52% chance of happening, against a 27% draw or 22% away win, which given certain recent acceptances of 52% makes me wonder why we didn't just have the points awarded to us at 16:30.
Puel seems to be a manager that picks players who deserve a chance. Means the other academy lads will see this and see they can get a chance. Many were pissed off how they got treated under Koeman.
Sims reminds me of lallana in the way he gets the ball and turns in one move. Looks a good player and a very good debut
Really thought we were going to blow it. Missed so many chances. Expected Everton to snatch a late goal or 2. Disappointed in Virgil, he missed a tackle and a header. Needs to buck up!
Having a 3-man midfield, as well as having wingers made a huge difference IMO. I think it's time we stopped using the diamond permanently.
To be fair to Tobes, knowing him (in a forum way) he'll probably happily admit we were the better side and deserved the points. Still think he got the rough end from some on here... he only reported what he had heard from his end and some of ours resorted to abuse a lot quicker than what he did. Probably a debate for another day though and don't wanna clog the thread up with it