1-0 HT. Need more dominance in midfield. More focus in defence. More precision in attack. More Guaje on the pitch. Less pushing to the overcrowded middle of Sevilla area where it's always at least five defs against 1 or 2 our guys. Not that horrible, but many little things we could/should do better. Need goals anyway.
Switch Alexis and Pedro. The former is a completely different player when playing on the left or center while the latter is better coming through on the right than on the left. And if we're still losing after 60 minutes, bring Villa on for Cesc. Tough game so far, they've been very physical towards Messi who hasn't been able to do much yet.
I think its been a really competitive match so far, I'm noticing despite the high octane pace, we don't have enough people forward when Sanchez has the ball on his wing. Perhaps we're trying to cover more for the Song-Masch pair, but I think Song played very well. The stream was so choppy I didn't really see their goal so I don't know what happened, other than the shot.
We're losing because of everyone, not because of this or that player. I also think Alexis is a good player, and so is Pedro, and so is Cesc. All play well in general, and ok tonight as well. But the problem with all of them, even with Pedro sometimes, is that for such high positioned players, they simply don't score enough. This match can end 2-0 to Sevilla, or 1-1 or 1-3 to us and it's one thing, but the other thing is that we need attackers to score goals or at least look determined to score, not just move the ball goalwards or messiwards. That's a big reason why Villa's presence is so much needed (although obv he is not a difference-maker by himself) and that's what is the biggest challenge in near future for already good players like Alexis, Tello and Cesc -> to evolve in simply scoring more goals. As for the defence, some mistakes but generally ok-ish. Need to communicate better and need to stay focused ALL the time. In attack the key is to create moments of good enough play (that culminate in goals scored) but in defence the key is to avoid expensive mistakes. We have lessons to learn in both aspects.