Worth remembering that Bodo and/or Glimt are halfway through their season, while we're little more than a month in Also worth remembering that, the last time we played them, they were in the middle of pre-season training
Thinking about the game a bit more, Bergvall was perhaps a bit wasted trying to play close to Richy. One of his big strengths is progressing the ball through midfield by carrying it - maybe Sarr might have made more of his ability to press high if they’d been swapped. Some of the inability to hold onto the ball was Frank’s tactics (and Bodo) but Bentancur went missing a bit and it’s not always Sarr’s game.
I think I said last night having Palhinha & Bergvall as the deeper midfield options would have definitely improved our control of any part of the pitch outside the six yard box
Also, better to have got this game done and dusted now than have it late november (dunno if UEFA would have scheduled it for dec/jan) .
agreed. So what do we feel is “fair” when assessing Frank at that point? for me, I want to see: - Players that are talented but were under performing previously beginning to flourish under his coaching, consistently. - The new signings to be bedded in and regularly performing. - Some/the majority of our unnecessary 2024/25 defeats turned into draws and/or wins. - New ideas from the training ground being evidenced on the pitch. - corner/free kick routines, patterns of play etc. If the majority of that is evident from week to week, it’ll show quite a lot of progress IMO. Especially with some much weaker squad members that are passengers!
The pts/GF/GA, and how the results are distributed over the games played, would be a coarse objective measure at that date (you could also compare it to the stats for his predecessors) . You will also have played 6 CL games, 2-3 League cup games, and each PL opponent once.
**** match, **** performance, **** ref, **** pitch. ****. Not a terrible result, though. Nicked an undeserved draw and could've actually won it. Foul by van de Ven but somehow not a foul on van de Ven? Bollocks. We need to sort out the attacking midfield role and do it quickly. I'll largely ignore this game, as most of the players looked like they were trying to avoid injury. It was the same issues as we've had in other poor ones, though. Archie Gray is looking surprisingly bright in his cameos, to pick a plus. Leeds next and then another international break. Oh dear...
