Might be a bit more interesting/relevant if it wasn't from a match from 4 months ago. What tipped me off first was the 6 KO's, then the Santa avatar.
Rafa's teams are usually good to great defensively depending on personnel. I'm more likely to call Emery the rich man's Marco Silva right now.
I spent the weekend sitting in the sun and then doing outdoor spring clearance with the tractor Far more interesting
Obviously our defensive stance failed big time. Sitting back and trying to beat them on the counter was probably folly with 11 men, and then became a joke when we went down to 10. And at that point the chances were essentially nil for turning us back into a high-pressing offensive team, although I saw us try that a few times. Adrian Clarke's breakdown said that our 32% possession is the lowest ever recorded in the 16 years since Opta's been tracking it. (surely someone else tracked it before that no?) Maybe Emery's plan was to try to preserve collective energy, with an eye towards Valencia. But I think he probably did more damage to our collective psyche and confidence by setting us up that way, and suffering such a humiliating defeat. Hopefully he's learned that lesson, and we play to our strengths for all remaining matches. Live by the sword, die by the sword.
The dive master is a Villa supporter so we had an interesting conversation about the Leeds vs. Villa match.
We have a Europa Cup Semi in 48hrs. Even with the high amount of thread-starter squad rotation lately, I trust there's someone left who can step up and start that thread.
I was imagining someone who hasn't been in recent rotation might step up. But if they don't, just do it.