Darlow - 7 - don't really remember their goals but can't remember thinking he was at fault and pulled off some great saves Sterry - 6 - looked nervous and with Atsu in front of him no wonder why! Didn't do anything wrong like Yedlin would have done but felt he could have offered more Schar - 6 - looks a bargain at £3M, again nothing of note defensively and a coupel of good raking long balls Fernandez - 6 - looks better than I thought he was, again nothing of note Clark - 5 - weak link (not his fault) in this defensive line up where he played left back. Made Dummett look like like a worldie! Atsu - 4 - we had him on loan for a year in the Championship where he did very little so Rafa spends the £6M on him - dear god he offers nothing! Ki - 4 - one shot (off target) and one good mazy run. The rest of the time it looked as if he was the one mking his first competitive game for his local club, absoloute **** Longstaff - 6 - very Shelvey-esque! Needs to go out on loan but would hope it was to a Championship club and not Pompey (no offense to Pompey) Kenedy - 3 - our star player? our saviour? our only attacking quality? **** me we are doomed! Muto - 5 - off the pace, needs game time but a £9.5M attacking player? Think we need to get scouting properly! Joselu - 6 - considering absoloute zero service I thought he did reasonable (though Rondon showed the difference in quality) Perez - 6 - showed why he should be our starting no 10 but think we need to start playing to his strengths and as a team we would thrive. Was definitely fouled and a penalty should have been given Murphy - 5 - did absolutely nothing again - looks low on confidence. Oh sorry, he got one cross in! Rondon - 6 - scored a goal, put himself about a bit, needs time on the pitch with Perez Rafa - 3 - we were poor and that is the players fault but it was clear that the tactics were as defensive as they are going to be against Man City. Decided to play Sterry and Longstaff (positive) but then surrounded them with players who had never played together. Needs to sort this ****e out between Lascelles/Ritchie and Shelvey.
Fair enough all round. Rafa is in a bit of a slump. A brain fade against Chelsea and then a further one against Forest. This crap with playing Atsu on the right was just ill thought out. Atsu is limited but every good game for us is largely on the left. I'm not a fan of it generally and think it harks back to when Jose used Robben this way. The difference being he was one of the worlds best at the time and had Drogba through the middle. If we were going to have a left footed player on the wrong side, I'd go with Kenedy. At least there is more chance of him beating men on the inside and getting a shot on goal or finding a clever pass. I felt sorry for Atsu as he didn't have a clue how to play there and ended being dispossessed with ease a gadzillion times. With the likes of Joselu and Rondon too, their main threat is crosses into the box. As a defender what you want is someone stopping, cutting back and crossing. That way you are facing onto to play and its easier to defend. Particularly its easier with physical taller strikers, as its not easy to get the run on you. What Joselu and Rondon need is whipped crosses on the run or from the by line (a la Hefele for Forest or Joselu against Chelsea). That way they only need to make a five yard run timed right and get the run on the defender. We were just too passive and unwilling to press higher up. Its all too risk averse at present. I can only assume this is part of Rafa's way of approaching the season as we did the same last year too. Very negative and defensive in the first half of the season before taking the shackles off a little. I suppose if it garners the same end result we should not complain. There were spells in the first half where Ki got onto the front two more and the wingers pushed up. We exerted a bit of pressure but then didn't get the ball in the box. Then Rafa seemed to be gesturing for them to hold shape and sit more which I couldn't really get my head round. We were unlucky in the end with the Perez incident of course. The other positives were the young lads. Longstaff more than Sterry. Sterry did ok though. Longstaff has good passing ability. The only concern was how easily players drifted by him with a quick change of direction. A tall lad, he needs to work on his agility. Then of course there is the goal for Rondon. You'd hope he can come good. I think we will have to be patient with Muto. There is something there to work with though, its just going to take him time to adapt.
Woodman will leave. We are doing our usual with young players. Send them out on loan, they do well and come back hoping for a go. We don't give them it and they leave. Its no wonder people like Gibson can't wait to get out. Not sure what the plan is with the youth system. We need to invest in it but if we are going to do that then we need to use it. I can understand the excuses given on Aarons who can't stay fit (though he'd be in my squad currently ahead of Atsu). However what is the excuse with Woodman? At least we've been forced into using Sterry and Longstaff, but it should not take a bad transfer window to involve them. They have limitations but hopefully will develop with opportunity. The sale of Armstrong without being given a go is another frustration. I'm sure I will be told Rafa sees them every day in training so they must not be good enough...just like Mitrovic, Mbemba etc. Don't get me wrong if we were operating at the luxurious end of the transfer market buying high quality I could see why they were struggling. We are **** though and buy average players.
The Arma thing was bewildering, especially when you look at our attack and question whether he'd be any worse. Surely there's a buy back clause, or are we just all about the dough up front? Silly question actually. I was reading Rafa wants a loan manager to make sure we send players to the right teams for their development. Suggests it hasn't been happening before. With Sterry and Longstaff, neither are going to be capable replacements for their positons yet and it's hard to blood in young players to a relegation team. Can't remember the last time I've seen it happen without being due to injuries. Would love to see Sterry and Longstaff make it but one was playing in League 2 last season, the other League 1. It is a big jump and I can understand why we're unlikely to see much of them this season if the team stays fit.
