I'm going on the evidence mate.
And I'm not buying for one minute that Sturridge was only able to miraculously start yesterday due to his fitness level, that coincided with an injury to Firmino.
I'm not saying he doesn't know what he's doing, inflexible, stubborn yes. Not that he doesn't know what he's doing. All his guardians on here have been saying all season long how Sturridge doesn't fit into his system. What with running around a lot, and defending from the front being en vogue, and scoring falling beneath these requirements he demands in his strikers.
Like I said, the evidence seems to contradict what you say really.
No worries though, we won. Pretty emphatically too, and I'm not going to take anything away from the boys by implying West Ham were sh*t. I'll credit Jürgen (playing Couts deeper) and the boys for making West Ham look sh*t.
I think though mate the game yesterday suited Studge. We were away against a team we don't have a great record, so we didn't expect them to park the bus. Some people are saying they parked the bus, I didn't think so, they held a high line mostly, which gave space for Studge to make a lot of runs. I've seen him come on in games against teams literally parking the bus and he's been ineffectual.
Game plan yesterday really suited us though. Having the pace of Studge and Origi along with the movement of Lallana allowed Couts to sit deeper and pick his passes. Not sure that tactic would have worked against Crystal Palace at home for example.
Not complaining, just saying Jürgen got his team selection and strategy spot on yesterday, and boy did we miss the ruthlessness of Studge. I don't think we should have a one size fits all approach to games, it's just very tricky to balance consistency in team selection with variety of line ups to suit different games.
Anyway, was an outstanding performance yesterday, we could have had 6 or 7. I was saying to a mate before the game how we needed to step up to the challenge otherwise I'd have no complaints about not making CL because we wouldn't deserve it. The boys stepped up, the gaffer stepped up and I'm proud the lads. I like the fact that apparently the first thing most of the players said when they got back into changing rooms after the game was "1 more game" - I like that, not dwelling on 1 success but focusing on the next one.
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