Good question... Yesterday instead of taking advantage of their slow defense (Terry and Ivanovic) we played with Petric and Ruiz who are slower than slow. Especially Ivanovic nobody ever try to force the second yellow card by taking him one to one.
Overall we were not too bad and the score line flatters them but they certainly were worthy winners. They closed us down very quickly and could not play our normal game. That said we also had so many changes to the team that was on a good run that it was difficult to find a rhythm and play as a team. Individually we were ok I thought. Until the first goal, which was fantastic, there was not much in it but a goal can change a game and they grew in confidence. Good to see Petric back even if he cleared off the line a certain goal. Things just did not go our way and the Ruiz "Dive" is another example. From what I could see he was clipped, stumbled, tried to recover and then fell down. If he'd have gone down straight away it was a penalty but when he tried to carry on and then fell down it looked like a dive to me. I haven't seen a replay but that is what it looked like to me. Shame, I went into the game quite confident that we would do a lot better.
We murdered them in the first half, yet went in 2-0 down. If, as FFC_Madness said, Petric had been taken off at half time we were still in with a big shout. On paper Jol sent out a very attacking team with Petric , Ruiz, Berba and Emanuelson. But that was not the reality with Petric the primary weak link - his work rate and movement was poor. The other three did fine although I felt Urby was as confused as I was about his actual role - he left JAR terribly exposed. And why oh why does Bryan never get into the box (we all know the outcome on the one occasion that he did) and why oh why does he never try a shot?? Jol’s substitutions were not only weird, they were the wrong ones at the wrong time. SuperBri said all that needs to be said about Senderos and goodness why Jol (when he was talking about new signings on Tuesday) thinks we’re okay at the back. But we did play very well for most of the game and I take heart from that. Footnote: having slagged off Petric enough I still cannot resist asking not only what was he doing clearing the goal bound header on their line but also how did the heck did he manage to whack it so high over the bar?? Totally bizarre and arguably a big contribution to our loss of "will to win" in the latter period of the game.
Well, what he actually said (as reported by the BBC) was: "We have an option in Sascha Riether's loan [to make it permanent] and we will probably take that. For the rest, I don't see any problem."
And here is a video replay (Senderos' reaction is priceless) [video=youtube;6Jmb-YHc45c]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jmb-YHc45c&feature=player_embedded[/video]
Hell of a clip - How the hell did he manage that? And if it had gone in then he was offside! Some nights it's not meant to be - Almost pleased I could not go. Roll on a rebound against Arsenal - COYW !!!!!!!!!!!!
I suspect I will go to my grave never understanding just how Petric managed to get that so far over the bar. Real head in hands moment!
As always, you can interpret words very differently depending on what you're looking at. Given the context of Jol's recent comments in relation to Sidwell being our only CM currently under contract for next season, his comments on on defence in no way indicate to me that Jol isn't looking to upgrade our defence this summer, just that he's happy to have extended those he wants to keep. At this point, if Jol really felt Senderos was going to be a nailed on starter next year he would not have given him a one year extension. Given his age, home grown status and natural talent (even if he does lack some mental application...), it makes perfect sense to give him game time now to see what his role will be next season. Lastly as we've been in decent form, why would Jol come out and say he wanted to upgrade a particular position (the CM contract situation aside) now? We're not struggling, so the only potential impact on the players would be negative. Jol is saying exactly what I would expect him to say right now and I don't think we should really read much into anything quite yet.
I've only just seen this. Ironically, even if Petric had turned it in, he's offside when Senderos heads it, so either way he would have succeeded in preventing a goal. D'oh!
