Yep, very typical of a Rafa type European away fixture is how I read it too mate.
Course it's a bugger that we conceded late on but the tie is far from over at 0-1.
Hindsight is wonderful, even Jürgen himself says he was surprised how little Villareal offered in terms of threat. When we're talking about a team that had conceded only one goal at home in the competition so far I just don't understand how overwhelmingly confident people are that Jürgen got it wrong.
I suspect he got it wrong by not bringing Sturridge on at halftime but not starting him, well I'm less convinced for a few reasons:
Firstly we had chances to score, we had Allen who should have scored with a glorious chance on 5 minutes, that goes in and the game/tie changes completely. Secondly we had Moreno clean through on a break which he should have done better with, people are quick to jump on his back for the goal we conceded (there were about 7 errors that led to that goal) but he almost did this himself. Firmino also hit the post and we had, as you say 15 shots. We didn't go there to only stifle them and had we come away with only 0-0 we'd have all been relatively happy.
What we heard after the match was quite hilarious, with Sturridge we'd have put the tie completely to bed, no need for them to bother flying over it would have been over. Which would be fine if we didn't then go and play the mighty Swansea with Sturridge and Coutinho in the side for Sturridge to be an almost non entity, he didn't win the game on his own against what most would agree are a much lesser team, we didn't annihilate them like we're told that one change would have done, no we got what people seem to forget is also in Sturridge's locker a game where he disappears.
He's become this ridiculous symbol that people seem to have lost all perspective on. It's at the point they're believing he can win the game on his own. Granted occasionally he does have that type of performance but they're few and far between even for him. It's a team game and Jürgen selects the team that can get the most out of a game, he's given everyone enough insight into how he works that people should realise that. Now Jürgen has us in the semi-finals and suddenly it's no, no, you're doing it all wrong Jürgen it's Sturridge again and again like a rod to beat him with. Had we listened to them earlier we may well already be out to Dortmund in the last away leg, had Origi not been butchered by that bluenose he may well have had his preferred choice up top but he made do and lost out to a last minute winner.
You can hear the teeth gnashing, you can hear the angst in people's posts, well if they truly are believers then they'll back the manager over Sturridge all day long. It's an easy choice for me and I can live with the consequences quite happily in the knowledge that we're in the right hands and Sturridge or not, Jürgen is making the call he thinks will give us the greatest chance of success.
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