Yes we can. It's only a friendly.
2006-07. Last friendly before the season started - 0-5 against Mainz 05. We ended that season playing in Athens.
Only a friendly.
Diego the difference is that we finished the previous season in 3rd, only ten points off the title. We were playing well. So a one off could just be that, a one-off. Whereas last season we finished 7th, and in this game against Celtic we showed many of the same weaknesses that plagued us last season. Lucas is still too slow; Enrique still has no idea what he's doing going forward; our back four looks shaky; Allen and Henderson aren't up to par in CM; and we can't find the right ball in the final third.
Now if everything were perfect last season, then I'd be more inclined to say "yea, it's just an outlier and a friendly." But it's much more likely that we just haven't played any strong competition thus far this pre-season, and the first halfway decent side we face exposes the exact same weaknesses we had last season, which is no surprise considering we haven't done anything to upgrade our starting XI.
That's why it's different from Mainz.
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