Only if Reed is good enough. If Ralph sanctioned Reed's loan because he didn't believe Reed was good enough, then I'm quite happy to accept his judgement. It underlines the folly of not having another CM, absolutely. But I'm not sure if that can be extended to apply to keeping Reed.
Problem is, without Lemina our midfield is no longer as good or as deep as it was last year. The press did not work too great today. We let them have too much possession and we still have trouble with long balls. Eventually something would give. More mids is not going to stop the other side from bypassing midfield via long balls. Honestly the only way out is to be more of a threat to score so the other side has to pull players back.
Oh get me wrong, I don't mean to imply that Lemina might come out tomorrow and announce he's happy to stay. He clearly wants out! But if September 3rd comes along, and he's still here because no foreign club has signed him...
Apart from probably saving us multi millions of pounds by turning us around and keeping us up of course.
Maybe for you guys. The worst part games like this is I get up early to watch the games at 10 AM. It kicks off my weekend. So now I have the whole weekend to stew over this.
Yeah we stayed up easily with no dramas at all It is a fact that he does not seem to be able to organise the team defence wise, and we cannot keep clean sheets at all. I don't see why he's given such a free pass on this
Never realised that Pierre was unfit, that was the only thing apart from starting both Stephens and Vester, would've preferred Maya instead.
Yeah, the way the team capitulated so badly on the first game of the season is what kind of pisses me off and concerns me going forward. If we had lost 1-0, away to Burnley, with essentially the same team as last year minus Hojbjerg, I would have been okay with it.
I would play 4-3-3 with one of the 3 being a dm. Gunn Valery Yoshida Bednerek Bertrand Romeu Prowse Armstrong Redmond Adams Djenepo If Pierre is unfit that is
We're still a work in progress and I expect the new kid to slot in the back line after he has settled in.
Our defense is trash. There are two options there: play ultra-conservatively and hope to lose 1-0, or play aggressively with the knowledge that we're going to ship goals. We're doing the latter. It's probably the right call.
Clutching at straws but positives. Take early our chances and it’s a different game. First half was decent. We’ve got one of the worst games of the season out of the way. Liverpool will hopefully be without Alison (hope he gets better soon but maybe after next week!)