Just for the record-- Cork made 1 of 2 tackles and had a 78% pass completion.
Not saying he was bad, just that it's difficult to judge ball-winning midfielders by the stats. Cork puts pressure on opposing teams due to his workrate and constant harrying of players. It's an impact that doesn't show up in his personal stats. Wanyama is just such a physical beast no one wants to mess with him and that also disrupts play in a way that doesn't show up in his stats.
I would give MOTM to Lovren, but all of the back four were good today. The whole team was, really. Davis put in a pretty gutty performance. Really a lot like Cork's just higher up the pitch but he never seems to get the same plaudits.
I would say that only Gazzaniga wasn't that great, but he did enough. I'm okay with him staying on his line, but even if you play conservative you still have to be confident and assured while doing so, and he wasn't. There were a couple of sketchy backpasses played back to him which put him in a bit of a rough spot that he handled well, all things considered. But I also think those backpasses were sketchy because the defenders didn't expect him to be sat quite so far back and because he wasn't really looking for the ball the way a more assured keeper would be. He's in a tough spot though, so can't really be too harsh on him. I just hope he gains some confidence and experience from these games.
Corrected.
