Chance for Kulu 90+3, after Muslera comes out to head the ball away, it falls to the Swede, but his Pedro Mendes arrempt sails well wide of the unguarded goal.
The final score does not disguise how poor we were in all aspects of the game, from the manager's team selection and tactics, to the sloppy goals conceded, and the horrible defending and woeful passing.
We were too lightweight in midfield. Having Bergvall in there was like playing with 10 men. He offers nothing going forward and less than nothing defensively. Plus he constantly gives the ball away. Where is the generational talent everyome is raving about? I don't see it. One of Sarr or Bentancur should have been in from the start. We should have set up compact and play on the counter because they concede goals. We were WAY too open and got shredded. It should have been 8-2 or 9-2, we were that bad. And that is on the naive tactics of the manager. In the end, it comes down to our poor summer transfer window. We knew going in that we were going to be in 4 comps, but did not bring in the depth we needed.
We tried to find a pub here in Manchester showing it, but no luck. Had to monitor it as best I could. When I saw the second yellow ... ... i knew there'd be no way back.
Well that went about as well as expected. The opposition had 10 days rest and could put out a very strong team. And they are good, and at home. Ange pretty much played who he had to play and limited minutes of key players. I expected the press would not be good with Maddison and Bergvall in together, and it wasn't. But they both stunk it up pretty comprehensively, along with most of the team, in the first half. So many poor touches and giveaways. Bergvall has some catching up to do to get to this level of play - I was surprised he wasn't yanked at halftime. And why is Maddison slumping so badly? Lankshear was pretty good until the yellows. Going up against Big Dav was a real learning experience, I'm sure. I wonder what Dav was whispering in his ear after that first yellow? Gray showed why we paid 3X more for him than for Bergvall. Real quality and played out of position again. Yes, he will sometimes get beat playing fullback against speedy wingers, but I can't wait to see him in central midfield. Kulu and Bentancur immediately improved our ability to possess the ball. When Sarr and Solanke were added, we were clearly the better side, even with 10 men. If that was one of the strongest teams in the competition, I think we do have a chance to win it. Final thoughts: Good thing we play Ipswich next. I hope the scouts have got defenders lined up to target in January, because we need help.
Bergs needs Biss and Sarr as his water carriers. He isn't going to do anything with Madders pirouetting around him. Same as Madders needing those enforcers backing him up, instead of The Swedish Gil getting knocked off the ball when an opposing defender breaths on him.
I doubt we will see Gray in his nominal position; unfortunately there is a pecking order of mediocre mids ahead of him that Ange prefers and unless we have another wave of injuries, he is going to be limited to these cameos in defense. He played a pinpoint cross to Johsnon to help set up our first goal, but he is not a defender. He has no positional sense and was nowhere to be seen on a boatload of chances for them. Again, another example of the scatterbrained recruitment of the club, I mean, why spend 40 million on a kid who is never going to play in his preferred position? Madness.