There are some positives to take from this. We were basically City's equal throughout most of the game, except when it came to that bit of quality up top. We didn't look way too inferior to them, except in finishing. I don't think we are playing badly, we're just struggling to score, we're on bad form, but losing to city, united and Liverpool isn't exactly the end of the world. I have faith we'll regain form. It's clear Wilson is off form, Isak looks impressive most of the time when he play, time to bring him on, and give him a run of games. He may not be as strong or hold the ball up as well as wilson, but he has better pace, more skill and appears to be more creative. Ratings - Pope - 6 - Couple of decent saves, unlucky with the goals really. Trippier - 6 - Got into some decent positions, some classy and some wise dirty defending, but also some sloppy passes that lead to chances. Lascelles - 7- MOTM - Good performance really, dealt with Haaland well, probably our strongest player in the air. Some people wont agree, but I thought he managed haaland very well, and won a lot of good headers, and looks by far our best threat from set pieces. Botman - 6.5 - Some sloppy passes, but some good defending around the box, and I felt he dealt with haaland well. Mostly solid really, his passing was his only let down. Burn - 5.5 - A bit overrun sometimes, but didn't play way too bad. Longstaff - 6 - Some decent passing, good work rate. Beautiful ball for trippier to set up the wilson chance. Bruno - 6.5 - Some beautiful passes in behind, some good defending. Joelinton - 2 - His worst game for a while, topped by a stupid yellow. Willock - 5 Almiron - 6 - Worked hard, defended well, some good runs, couldn't create much though. Wilson - 4 - Off form. Gordon - 5.5 - Good work rate and defending, didn't do much up front. I hope he isn't the chris wood style signing of the season. ASM - 6 - Some decent skill and runs, and link up play. Isak - 6 - Some good running, played his role in attack, looked a threat.
4 for Wilson is generous. Not only does he miss a sitter, but he’s never in a threatening area constantly drifting out to do nothing at all. Dreadful, need rid.
I think he's just on bad form, he scored quite a few goals early in the season, and his scoring ratio is like 1 in 2.2.
Bruno is too deep to make that sort of goal scoring impact, but I think if we go on a good run he'll get more goals.
Agree with Laecelles as MOTM, good defending and gave us far more options on corners. Worth keeping him the team, as Schar hasn't been all that recently. Also the team seemed more solid and organised with Laecelles as captain, with Trippier not being great recently, it felt like we had a more vocal captain.
That un all. Just seemed like a much more confident and alert performance from the defence than we've seen recently, as a result of him being captain.
I don’t understand what’s happened. Look at early matches at how far up the field the midfield used to be. Now there’s a ****ing chasm between midfield and forwards so it’s no surprise it’s a struggle.
Thought we let ourselves down with a lot of poor passing out of defence with Trippier and Botman the main culprits. Lascelles had a steady defensive game but his inability to pick a quick forward pass is always a weakness. I would also like to see Targett back in. Don’t think Burn is doing anything wrong but think Targett and Gordon could work together well. Definitely give Isak the nod over Wilson. Latter is off the pace, and if not scoring, adds nothing.
We weren't actually bad, they didn't create that many chances, we actually had the better chances and just didn't take them.
Right, so my point was we didn't ultimately play badly. We defended well enough, they just had enough quality to punish the 2 mistakes we made, we had some decent spells of possession, we pressed them well at times, and created good chances. The only thing that was really lacking was a finish. The player rating average of around a 6/10 is fair because we were decent enough most places on the pitch except in finishing.
Genuinely believe if Wood has been playing, he would have scored one of those crosses by Murphy Murphy needs to start
