Meslier Lllorente Struijk Cooper Ayling Phillips Dallas Raphinha Rodrigo Harrison Bamford (S) Roberts (S) Shackleton Subs: Klaesson, Cresswell, Forshaw, Summerville, McCarron, Costa, Roberts, Gelhardt, Shackleton.
Difficult to give marks out of 10 for what was supposed to be a game of football but which was turned into an ugly battle by Burnley’s thugs and a weak referee. Thought Ayling was our worst player by far, and he also didn’t push out with the rest of the defence which played Wood onside. Struijk didn’t do too much wrong all game, so he’d probably get a 7 from me, as would Phillips. The rest would get a 6, and Ayling 4. Glad we got a point.
Meslier 6 Lllorente 7 Struijk 6.5 Cooper 6.5 Ayling 4 Phillips 7.5 Dallas 6 Raphinha 5 Rodrigo 3 Harrison 4 Bamford 5 (S) Roberts 4 (S) Shackleton 6
Its yet another all around 6 performance again, which isnt good enough. International break means Bielsa can sort some of the mess out because Koch, Rodrigo and Llorente are not selected and Raphinha not going to red list countries. Klich will also be there along with Ayling and Harrison and Struijk, Firpo and Shackelton. Passes still going astray and not enough final balls finding a player so not enough being created.
It’s simple for most fans to see… Rodrigo is being accommodated because of his price tag when it should be Bamford or Rodrigo. We need to stop pulling Dallas over to LB and get a settled Dallas/Phillips combo. We need to stop relying on Roberts and buy ourselves a proper attacking midfield player. Substitutions need to stop being one dimensional, we look at the bench, you know no matter how the game is going which two will be off and which two will come on. If we can all see this our opposition can as well. Away to Liverpool next, that’s no points then maybe a point from Newcastle, Wolves have Watford and Brentford, Burnley v Arsenal, after 5 games I see us being bottom three or best case scenario a point above the drop zone then the pressure really will start to mount
