I love the 2 calls on Zappa for foul throw. I've noticed it every time he plays. Everyone nearly anonymous. Christensen solid again. Impadu (?) was good.
DD looked rusty, (as you'd expect I suppose), and Ampadu was inexperienced, (again, as you'd expect), but, between them, I thought they did well. One thing I DID like was that their first thought was to move the ball forward. if the guy's in front of them, particularly Bats, had been a bit more on the ball that would have led to more chances. Unfortunately he seems to be playing like the arrival of the ball is something of an unwanted surprise, atm. After his 2 recent goals, that as something of a disappointment Christensen was solid, as you say, and comfortable on the ball. But is was mainly the central 2 I was most happy with
I didn't think that was a 'great' performance to be honest, we seem to spend periods of every game in 'panic mode' when it looks like we can concede a goal every minute, it happened against Watford and again last night, still every win boosts confidence I suppose and we do look woefully short of confidence.
I think Bats is great once inside the penalty area but outside he just seems to lack the necessary control apart from the very very occasional brilliant layoff. Also much better off the bench than as a starter. I thought DD was very rusty and played very conservatively compared to his dynamic performances at Leicester. Steady as she goes. I thought Ampadu showed great promise but Musonda was bullied off the ball too much. He either needs to bulk up or develop other strategies for dealing with big lumpy defenders. Still we got through which is the main thing.
Worth pointing out that this was mostly an entirely second squad while they played almost their entire first team squad.
I didn't get to pay too much attention but we need to remember we played with a midfield of Drinks and Ampadu. One of those players hasn't played a match all season and the other is a 17 year old with a semi porn stache. We did alright all things considered. All that said, we are poor defensively.
Agreed about the midfield. It wasn't much worse than what we've seen out of the first team. Annoyed that Scott sees the bench for PL and CL matches and then doesn't get into a game like this and other players do. I guess it's about positions. Our defense has looked scrambled all year. Very last ditch and not cohesive. Kante apparently is close to being back with Conte evaluating when the best time to bring him back is.
Thinking Ampadu has passed Scott which is fine by me as he genuinely looks up for it. Kante is close. We "should" be okay.
I thought Ampadu has a 'Mini-sideshow' look to him. Physically and playing-wise. TBH he's probably BETTER on the ball the sideshow is but then, he's a dedicated defensive midfielder rather than a converted CB so that's to be expected. I was impressed with the kid
Er... I believe so. Yeah, I'm just going on what I saw of him last night and on his YT vids. he seemed to be one of the few guys you see on YT who THEN seemed to demonstrate the same display live in a game situation. But I was also quite happy with DD, tbh. He had a few wayward balls, as you'd expect, but he also seemed to want to go forward with the ball. He had a picture of what he wanted to do with the ball before he got it which is the key to good midfield play.
We get Bournemouth in the next round. Another opportunity to grow our youth in a Cup environment. SPURSLOL.
He counts as homegrown. Being English doesn't mean anything. There are 3 categories: Club trained Association trained Homegrown So someone like Charly Musonda is homegrown, association trained, and club trained. Drinkwater would be association trained and homegrown. Ampadu is also all three while being Welsh so having him on the bench helps us fill the HG quota. Fabergas is HG due to when he joined Arsenal at 15 but I don't believe he's association trained and not club trained (could easily be incorrect on AT in this case). How those different distinctions are used in terms of UEFA and the FA I'm not exactly sure off the top of my head. Sorry for the lecture, didn't mean for it to come across as such, just wanted to clarify being English is irrelevant to any of those classifications.