What a dopey name for the League Cup. These Companies have rocks in their heads if they think pumping in millions to name the 2nd division Cup competition will be of some financial benefit to them, or at best people will remember their Name. Milk Cup was at least easy to remember. Anyway, it's a trophy and we're still in it. As for the game. Sarri obviously read my post where I said Christensen needs to play alongside Rudiger or Luiz, and did exactly that. Christensen was steady, solid and composed, which was a big improvement from his outings with Cahill in a very second choice 11. RLC also started, and when he'd finished, proved once and for all that he is seriously better than Barkley will ever be, and should be 1st choice midfielder until his form deserts him, if it does. What a disappointment Barkley is. Can't pass ,can't attack, can't hold the ball, can't do much of anything. He cost 17 mill. Sell, sell, sell, while his couple of good games fool people into thinking he will fulfil his "potential". Fabregas showed why he needs to go to Italy where play is slower and more technical. Finished. What else? Well we looked just like we usually do, too slow of thought by miles, unable to break down a decent defence, suspect to really quick direct counter attacks, topping the passing count, although 70% of our passes are not necessary. We are numbingly slow of intellect, fail to see runs off the ball, and pass for no reason whatever, far too often. Sarri needs to ban the back heel, 90% go straight to opponents. It was simply more of the same, everyone was OK, a couple were great, Pedro for one, while Willian was very poor. Hazard livened things up, our strikers can't score, no goals likely from anywhere except Hazard, and even that was a hit and hope. Winning ugly, but still winning. By the way, the young fair-haired midfielder for Bournemouth turned us inside out for 60 mins, while the striker we are allegedly dying for, was already dead ordinary. He'd be bench warming at Chelsea. Solutions? Play the youngsters and watch them thrive. Oh, and buy back Ake ASAP, what dope let him go???????
I think some of your points are fair, some maybe a bit harsh. Ultimately this was one of the biggest cup games in Bournemouth's history (never made a semi apparently) and we largely dominated albeit without creating too much and got the win in the end. This despite fairly large rotation throughout the team and giving some of the more fringe players like Emerson and RLC a go as had been sought by many. This team and set up is still very much a work in progress and even more so in the games where the likes of Kante and Hazard didn't even start. . We are struggling to break down defences of course but most teams are playing deep and trying to hit us on the break. A top class striker would make a lot of difference or if we had more geniuses like Hazard. When he came on, it was inevitable he'd be the difference as he was at Liverpool. Don't know how we are going to replace his impact. The biggest disappointment was getting Spurs. Going to be very tricky that. City would probably have been easier as they will rotate more and they've practically got a gimme to the final. .
Absolutely typical that we get Spurs, but hey, we might go at them next time and do a Man City on them. That Dele Alli is hard to like, but boy he's a talented sod, the 2 goals he was involved in against Arsenal both showed terrific skills, one a pass, the other a cool as you like finish. He'll need watching. I usually err on the side of harsh, sometimes to be ironic, others to vent frustration. On replay, we actually created a few chances, Emerson played pretty well, keeper was impressive and Kovacic also put in. Hope we get the right striker, poor old Hazard looks so frustrated at times, desperate for some help and imagination from anyone . Pedro looks better than Willian to me, and Barkley again dissapoints. I think Sarri might need a good think about a small re jig in his approach to better use Kante, and try and get some faster linkage going with the front men.Seems like too many players fail to join in an attack where they might just keep on running for a return ball. We're misfiring in midfield and look for all the world like we just aren't set up quite right.
I actually thought we played quite well. Lotus Cheek was far superior to anybody else on the pitch though, he stood out a mile, even out of position. Kovacic probably next best. Barkley doesn’t seem to do a lot I agree, game almost seems to pass him by. Passes it safe, doesn’t beat a man but runs about a lot. I was hoping he’d be a bit more creative but seems a bit nervous on the ball. I think if we’d have scored early we might have got 2 or 3 but they seemed to grow in confidence the longer it was 0-0, we need to start killing teams off earlier imo. Anyway, difficult draw but it won’t be too concerning should we not make the final, same goes for Spurs. Definitely the trophy that both teams won’t be too worried about winning.
I think a lot of teams are setting up to contain us knowing we'll start running out of ideas. Hazard has been the difference so many times this season and we rely heavily on his genius to break teams open. I also think we are a bit too nice and could do with a bit more steel through this team.
IMHO there is more significance this season. For either, by FT as finalists they would have played 4 games against teams in the current PL 5. Similarly you will have played 5 games against PL teams, and Spurs will have played 6. The value to supporters in terms of silverware ranking is low. The measure of the squad management in terms of the above + PL + UEFA campaigns, and the resulting faith to take the bigger prizes in the second half of the season, is IMHO far greater.
I'd much rather we try win the Europa league again to be honest, at least we get a guaranteed CL spot if we do that, plus its a better trophy than the Milk Cup.
Sure. As I said, a League Cup win for either is more a statement of squad intent/resolve for the rest of the season than anything.
I'd think we'd like to win any comp we are in. Sarri seems to make sure he plays strong enough teams in Europa and Cara Cup to give us wins. Even though the Europa squad has featured more fringe players, he still had some big guns on the bench if needed. And it's worked. It's in the PL that we are looking most vulnerable, only because as yet, we have not been able to step up another rung for the last 4 or 5 games, despite pretty quickly adapting to his new style. Sure, the other teams have sussed out how to disrupt us, but our set up and personnel hasn't changed to adapt. Could be simply we need different players, certainly strikers, but I think there are a couple of things could be tried as well. January window will be interesting, because from then on , things get more difficultt. Squad looks up for it, and looks to be ready to fight.People have had poor games, but for the most part, everyone is giving their best for Sarri and the Club.
