I'm taking on EL matchday duties for the remainder of the season. Also known as: I'm taking on EL matchday duties for a couple of games.
Dont suppose there are any links going around? Seems to be awful hard to find one these days on the very odd occasion I need one.....
Watching on Dazn. Good to see Perotti making Kolarov accountable for his woeful effort. Someone needs to.
Not happy at all with our performance. We shut down play after the goal and could've already conceded a few goals on the counter if their decision making in attack wasn't that bad.
It is the same story so far for me. A team lacking in confidence. Cristante is trying but he doesnt have that quality to create quickly and Pellegrini again doesnt have the character to play number 10. These two key positions being weak will always result in a flat performance. No spark. I'm bored and going to get back to work They are slowing building some pressure and could have had a goal.
And this is one of my major issues with Fonseca. He continues to persist with these two in these roles. Unbelievable, Milhouse serves his ban and then walks straight back into the team again.
Attitude and effort can carry you a long way though. Unfortunately Under has shown himself to be lacking in both. I think his quick rise may have went a bit to his head. You can count the number of good 90 min performances he's had on one hand. Talented for sure but he needs to correct the above. Ljajic was the same and look what happened to him.
Did I just see correctly ? Pellegrini gets the ball in the middle of the field and he literally runs out of space into the corner. I think this is some kind of EDF - Olsen syndrome again. His place in the team just cannot be justified.
On the whole yes Gent has had too much possession in our end, but we have missed some golden scoring opportunities ourselves.
But tbh he doesnt have much else right now. Mancini is a good back up but without a good attacking midfielder in front of them you will see an even worse build up play. Pastores good form made that team work in that period. It might be better to switch them in these roles if he was willing to be more direct and change the game but I get it, managers dont like to give up their identity. Pellegrini's one good aspect is his ability to pick out quick through balls. Cristante will fight for everything so in this sense, if we were to admit the midfield is broken and be willing to go long and direct for now. It would not be pretty but it would be more effective and that beats this.
I noticed that our attacking play improved after the introduction of Mikitaryian and Kluivert. Overall, we make a far too many mistakes though.