It could be the biggest mistake of the season as no doubt Jota would have been playing the last 3 games,whether off the bench or from the start and he would have made an impact but instead was played in a dead rubber game and got injured
20 of the 25 man squad for the entire group stage had to go to Denmark, at least 11 of them had to play, 5 others could also feature at some point, 4 others could be left on the bench. That's 20 players that had to go there. Only 5 of the squad could be left behind, of which most of those were injured already. Contrary to popular myth, you can't just call up the tea lady for dead rubbers in Europe. We don't have very many anyway.
Instead of focusing on injuries, which can happen at any given time, Jürgen and the squad should be congratulated for not having to go away on the last night of the group needing a result. Other clubs closer to home didn't have that luxury.
Shooting outside the box when it is stacked with defenders is not a good idea. Yes, once in a while you get a goal or deflection or the keeper can't catch the ball and some striker scores, but the odds are just bad, therefore no one does it.
I agree with this. When Plan A fails, try Plan B. Have a few shots. They don't all zoom into Row Z. Some get deflected, some are spilled by the keeper, some might hit the woodwork so we can score on the rebound. At the very least they might give the opposition keeper something to do. Possession for possession sake is useless.
If that's the case though surely we should have been signing a centre half (or two!) the first day the window opened. Yep we will overpay but we need to get it done if we want to turn the season around. Need to get the midfielders back in midfield so we can put out a more settled side - at the moment the changes we are making within the side is just disrupting everything.
If the money men are worried then just tell them the loss of not making the CL next season will be greater than any centre half we try to sign now.
We've conceded 5 league goals since the last international break. We conceded more than that in one game before then. I know we're depleted at cb, but we usually keep the ball out of the net. Now we need to win games. A draw in this game wouldn't really be something to get very excited about.
Think we're starting to miss Fabinho in midfield now.
I don't think he, Hendo and Thiago can be our new midfield. All 3 of them are midfielders who can all do the same job. So one, if not two will have to play a different role, if they're all going to start together. That is what happened in this game.
Three weeks ago, we were 6 points clear and threatening to pull away. We've won almost as many points as we've dropped since the last break. No it's not good enough and there's going to be lots written about us between now and the next league game. For perspective though, there was a lot more written about us in 2011 when we consolidated our bottom half league position after the trip to Blackburn. Kenny was brought in to put things right at the mancs in the cup. He barely had 24 hours to prepare for it. At least we'll have plenty of time to prepare for our next game against them. Only time will tell whether it was worth the wait this time.
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