I just don't know where to start, but what could I say? Our jinx against the lesser teams continues again. And again our unfortunate 2nd half performance continues.
First half we started brilliantly and we pressed them high. They got little to show and we were firing on all cylinders. 2nd minute of the game and Skrtel nearly got us the first goal but the bar denied us. From there there has been series of unfortunate events coming our way. At least we missed out on few good chances because of the post. God I wished they were a few inches wider! We didn't let them breathe and Johnson was awesome. After 45 minutes of attack, finally Bellamy broke the deadlock.
2nd half where evertyhing turned sour. It was again the same episode rerun against Sunderland. We failed to mount any pressure and let them into the game. We were playing like we're satisfied with that one goal advantage. We let them boss around our midfield and leave a huge gap for them to manipulate. We actually let them dictate the whole 2nd half for us! And their equalizer marked their determination to get even. After that we gone under pressure and made some serious errors. Our passes were sometime premature, overhit or too direct. Our flanks didn't worked well, some of our lads held up the ball for too long that they managed to regroup and defended well.
Problem is again our 2nd half performances. We seem to be experiencing an issue with our 2nd half. The same when we played against Sunderland on our 1st game. We left too much space for them to manouvre and let them dictate our game. 45-55 minute we continued the usual play then 55-80 we dissapeared and gone AWOL. 80 to the dying 2nd we went ballistic and as if hell breaks loose. After they got the equalizing goal we're still in dreamland and like inviting them to attack more. Come 80th minute when we realized that we've under too much pressure, we switched to gung-ho mode and that's where we lost too much because our eagerness to get that 2nd goal. We made too much passing errors. Then again when palying with Suarez upfront we crossed like we a 7 foot giant.
It's not that we're lacking in strikeforce,29 total shot proved that, but we're lacking in finishing. And putting on Carroll so late in the game didn't help either. I just wished that if we have one more Suarez everything will change. As for Suarez, there's no one I would love to have other than him. His determination, passion and hunger for goals really got me going. It's a shame he didn't cap his fine performance with a goal. Anyway, what's done is done and our lads need to learn from this. Never let other dictate your game, bring the game to them, and if you want to go AWOL do it after 85 minutes of the game.
Logged