94' Ramsdale forced into another good save to stop their equalizer. I'll give him my MOTM. Regardless of what happens in the next 60 seconds.
so, again, referee is allowing kamberi to throw a tantrum and be a general asshole with no discussion. but, hey, yellow for gabriel, though.
After one more dangerous header by Zurich sails inches wide in the 97th minute... FT ARS 1-0 ZUR We did BARELY enough. But it was a moment of brilliance and luck by KT3 that was the difference. But overall we showed no great confidence in this match, no balls, and rather poor quality finishing. Vieira comes to mind first but others also share that blame. Onward to R16... but JUST! And limping a bit.
We'll, the result is what I wanted, even if packaged in a mediocre performance. I'd feel pretty selfish if I complain any time the (mostly) B team pulls 3 points. Job done, on to the next one.
Kamberi deserved a yellow for several reasons and Katic deserved to be sent off (2nd yellow) for his tackle on Nelson.
That’s on Partey. He is great at progressive passing but he needs to shake that when a match needs to be deaded.
he's amazing at just nicking the ball away and winning the ball in general but, yeah, a couple of times got caught in possession.
we got it done -as painful as it was - and united ended up in 2nd with 2 extra games. cannot ask for more.
Spent the last 15 minutes trying to watch the stream and it was as terrible now at 7 PM ET as it was for everyone else live. The the menu to skip ahead disappeared so I hit reload and now it won't play. I guess I have to wait for the replay to show up, they only have replays for the early matches. This Paramount+ free trail is definitely worth what I'm paying for it.
Something I just realized. Matt Turner was not in the squad today. So his groin injury must be more serious than we might have hoped. Bad for him that he missed a couple of UEL matches but also that may miss his chance for Qatar.
I think what we’ve learned in the group stage is that our first 11 is really good but we can’t rotate heavily and still be really good. If I’m being generous you can rest one of the front three (but only if ESR is alive or maybe Vieira on the right). I feel okay about the back four; there are six guys there I’m comfortable with in various configs. But the midfield three basically all have to play or we have zero control of games.
that midfield three all have such hyper specialised roles that it's insanely difficult to try to break anyone in. i think maybe we could get away with 2/3 with a whole tons of ifs surrounding them. if lokonga gets multiple games at the 8 to find his legs, maybe he can fill in for xhaka alongside odegaard and partey. if everybody else from first XI is in, maybe vieira can fill in for odegaard because the stylistic difference would be made up then. if zinchenko is at left-back, maybe elneny can fill in for partey and have his lack of offensive ability be negated.
I didn't see the match, but his MOTM performance came on the right and it dipped off when he switched to the left against NF, and our first goal came from a pass he made on the right to White who crossed the ball in before it fell to Tierney. What did he do for the match that made him better on the left?
I said more interesting - the way he plays is that his game is better when he cuts in, and I think he's more likely to have success doing that on the left. Makes it easier for him to see the field given how right footed he is. In Jitty-speak, he was made for the left half-space. That makes for an interesting combination with Tierney, who Martinelli doesn't pair well with at all because both like to pull wide. The Tierney overlap on the outside is much more useful with Nelson.
I think we struggle when we rotate largely because Lokanga and Vieira both start games very slowly. Lokanga didn't really get into the game until half time, and Vieira takes 25/30 minutes to get up to the speed of the game. And, then he's tired by the 50/60th. I'm happy for Nelson he's got his tail up and showing what everyone expected of him. His time in Holland was good once he got going he just keeps the play going so well. And is an practiced finisher something every team can use.
As it was yesterday with Eddie on the left, no? If memory serves me correctly KT was doing more previous-version-of-Arsenal bombing down the left yesterday. Although I must say I wasn't giving the game full focus yesterday as I had it on a second screen as I tried to do some other work. Ha, tried!
Regarding Eddie's performance, there seems to be a general consensus on the pods I've listened to so far, is that it'd be better to play Nketiah at CF with Jesus out wide. And I would tend to agree. Adrian Clarke said he would've played GJ on the right, as he did at Citeh... sounds good to me, as long as Nelson proves to be as effective on the left as he's shown on the right.