Result more important than the performance tonight. Just as well because the performance wasn’t great. Anyway as Karen Carney would say, just happy to be through to the next round.
it was in the bag, the first half was so easy for them, they decided to give you a few palpitations to get the auld tikker going
Managed to catch most of the game. Meslier - 6. Couple of decent saves. Some nice passes. Flapped at one and should have come off his line for the goal. Lots of things to work on. Ayling - 6. Steady. Decent going forward. Unusually poor defensively. Llorente - n/a. Injured again early on. No time to give him a score. Cooper - 6. One minute looks fantastic but too many brain farts. Not confident in him at this level still. Tried his best to stand firm 2nd half and never gave up. Alioski - 6. Hit and miss again. Won the ball for the first goal. Nearly gave a goal away when he handballed it. Subbed due to booking. Phillips - 5. Never protected the back 4 and looked hurried in possession. Poor by his standards. Rodrigo - 7. Some lovely passes and turns. Still needs to work a bit harder off the ball. Assist for Raphinha. Dallas - 6. Still looks lost in midfield but he gets through some graft. Raphinha - 9. Match winner. Goal and assist. Laid one in for Roberts too. Hit the post. Great signing. Harrison - 7. Took his goal very calmly. Worked his socks off. Bamford - 5. Had his boots on the wrong feet and his head on backwards. Still carried on and got in some good positions. Just didn't happen for him. Needs a goal. Subs. Struijk - 7. Won arial duels. Was strong. Right place at right time and confident on the ball. Impressive for a young defender. Klich - 6. Carried a nuisance factor but failed to shine with the ball. We need him back in form. Roberts - 5. Should have scored from Raphinha pass. Held it up quite well at times but surely his days are numbered at this level.
Well second half was garbage and bum tweaky. Rodrigo missing Raphinah missing, Roberts garbage yet again and he should have scored but had one nice back heel which we should have scored from. Sorry Roberts you need to be gone. Alioski a danger to us, Bamford not in it, Cooper sloppy. It was dire. hopefully now with games coming at us again we might get back into the swing of it again, because we looked rusty. really feel for Llorente but fk me hes a sick note
I thought Robert’s did ok when he came on. Held the ball up better than bamford... Two games on the trot. The issue was no supply in the second half. Whenever sides pen us back and press us, we can’t seem to play out - rushed passes and/or bullied off the ball. Team of lightweight pygmies is fine when you’re in the front foot, not so great when under the cosh. Did Newcastle suddenly become a decent side or did we just make them look like one? who cares, 3 points, stopped the rot.
Upside is that we are 14 points outside the bottom 3. We are 3 points clear of Palace and have a game in hand on them We are 4 points clear of Wolves We are 7 points clear of Burnley and Newcastle We are 9 points clear of Brighton 12 points clear of Fulham 13 points clear of WBA 21 points clear of Blunts
Got to agree, I've been one of Roberts biggest critics, not just about his football but other things which is for the political thread, but i think he's done reasonably well when he's come on for us, got to give the racist ****er credit where its due
Yep I agree. However he didn't really manage to influence our attacks in the build up and gave the ball away a few times. The glanced header was a genuine chance at this level. I think if he gets a goal he will be up and running again.