Once again this is going to be a frustrating night for those who hanker after flowing football, poetry in motion and all that stuff. There'll be plenty of people "fuming" if Lallana doesn't start, and/or Markovic. There'll be lots of comparisons to watching paint dry, wondering why on earth Moreno isn't in, why Gerrard is, and all manner of other things.
The thing is though that once again we are probably going to play in a way which is completely and utterly alien to the way Brendan wants us to in the longer term. We'll be lumping it when pressed, not getting forward in any serious numbers, and even at times inviting Leicester onto us, "f*cking Leicester, this is an absolute disgrace FFS!".
The thing is though, Lallana is getting plenty of time to ponder how he was completely becalmed after a good start at Palace, Moreno to consider how to defend corners better than he did in Ludogretz. Markovic is getting time to rev himself up for his next opportunity, and in the meantime it's journeymen like Toure, Lucas and Lambert who are digging us out of the sh!t.
I take us to battle hard and to win very ugly tonight, 1-0. That'll do fine for me too, there'll be time for our pretty players to light up the stage later, in the meantime some of our hard workers have to build it.
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