Poor old Sober Shaks has been taking stick again, but the offy is open now. But people are allowed to criticise players when they make a booboo. When the ref was asked to go take a look he had no option but to award a penalty, maybe he should have looked at the whole thing and may have came to a different decision. So even if Coops was to blame every one of our players deserve criticism except maybe Meslier and Phillips. Most players scored 5,6 or 7 at best which just isnt good enough.
I think our main problem is going to be depth of squad and injuries and suspensions. Cooper and Phillips will be suspended again this season, but at the moment its our 4 CBs that have to cover for Cooper and Phillips, which could then mean we only have Cresswell as back up. So for me we need a top midfeilder who is good enough to cover Phillips and also be able to create as an 8, and just why Bielsa tried for Cuisance last Summer and Gallagher this summer. Why has it taken 3 transfer windows and we still dont have that player. I hope we get him next week or we will have to go into a 4th window in January for another try
Yep we'd have easily lost the game yesterday without Kalvin and he was nowhere near 100% fit. Seeing him yesterday confirmed what a player he's developed into under Bielsa but also it was the right decision to leave him out last week.
Players from yesterday who are still on a massive upward curve;
Meslier
Struijk
Junior (maybe ?)
Phillips
Harrison
Raphinha
Dallas unbelievably just keeps getting better and is currently undroppable.
That leaves Klich, Cooper, Ayling & Bamford from yesterday's starting line up, all good players but if you're looking at areas of the team where improvement is likely to be limited then those are the ones.
As we don't have a spare £100+ million we can't improve on Bamford so just have to accept that that's as good as it gets for now in his position. To be fair he works so hard for the team that anyone coming in would have to be some player. Plus it leaves the opportunity for Geldhart or others to break through if good enough.
Llorente is the best central defender at the club so no need to upgrade as we have enough once he's fit again.
Drameh will push Ayling all the way from now on, which is good as Luke will hopefully relish the challenge and keep performing well.
Which leaves Klich who has been excellent for us and can still do a decent job. Unfortunately improvement in his game is unlikely and as it stands Rodrigo & Roberts are competing with him for that position. This would seem to be the reason Bielsa is not favouring signing a direct replacement for Klich as he feels he already has 3 squad members vying for that one role.
When you look at it in the whole you can clearly see why we're not rushing to spend big in this window. That only changes if it's with the future in mind or a worldy becomes available at a reasonable price.
