Agreed. Although I still think they created little. 2 of their 3 best “chances” were long range efforts. The other we gave them. Thought we played some lovely stuff first half particularly,
Yeah but one of their wingers(?) is Salah and the other is no slouch But being fair Clarke was not bad today. However we have to score goals, their goal was a cracking shot. Embo or Pritchard for us could do that, but they were taken off.
Encouraged by that. We gave it a real good go. First half I think they were a bit surprised by our press and we moved the ball really well, we were good value for the lead at half time, a special mention for Pattersons save. Second half they stopped sitting off us and pressed us harder, forcing us into mistakes. We had some chances and the save from Stewarts effort was a bit of a turning point as they managed to pin us back a fair bit after that, we struggled for an out ball. Moment of individual quality from Gyokeres and a point it is. We competed and theres more signings to come, we'll be fine.
I mean if your point is that we could do with a player like Salah, I'm not going to disagree with you... I wouldn't be against another wide option, but the real issue is making sure we are solid enough as a back 6 so that the front 4 can play with a lot more freedom in my opinion. It may be that we need to sacrifice the number 10 to make that central midfield stronger.
In his position you're doing very well if you're barely noticed. All players make individual errors but the mistake he made end of the first half was shocking. Literally schoolboy. Didn't even look up, just passed directly to their player and they should have scored. He doesn't have to be spectacular, but 4 or 5 of those a season would make him a liability.
For me it's his lack of physicality. He's neat and tidy and does read the game well. He just doesn't have the engine or physical presence to take control of a game
Often I think Stewart is very good at winning the ball whilst leading the line and then setting somebody up. I assume that Pritchard is our player supposed to pick those chances up. Well he is undoubtedly our best creative CM, but we need another natural poacher to feed off and to Stewart.
i'm thinking AN held back on some changes as they were on the up and he probably felt a point was a good start against a team expected to be 'up there' at the end of the season...much as i love onien i have to go back to that tackle and that is very much the downside of his game, he always has that in his locker and i will be shocked if he gets away with it so much this season, not the best sub in hindsight i guess.
