Disappointing result after thrashing united a week ago. It’s a funny old game though isn’t it? I left the ground quite frustrated only to put the radio on in the car and a guy rang up on the phone in and said if we drew 2-2 at united and then battered Brighton 5-0 we all would have taken that and been quite happy and he’s right I suppose.
I stay off this forum a lot now, too many idiots about the place these days and the posters I did enjoy engaging with seem to have vanished, but I occasionally come back when there’s some talking points, like yesterday.
In the summer, I and many others, couldn’t believe we didn’t replace Gini. Half a dozen idiots on here were defending that decision and making excuses to support their weird pro FSG agendas. The whole point of the gini debate was that he was an ever present for us who rarely missed a game. Our squad is littered with midfielders who have injury problems but gini was the only one who we could rely on to play week in, week out.
I predicted we would have a midfield crisis this season, the same way we had a defensive crisis last season, and I thought we would see those problems in November.
Well I was wrong about one thing, it wasn’t quite November, because we saw it yesterday. We drew that game, and in my opinion were very fortunate not to lose it in the end, because of our midfield. We were all over the place. We got out run, out fought, we weren’t tracking their runners and our front three were starved of any service.
The only three lads we had available were Hendo, Jones and Ox and all three of them were abysmal. I felt sorry for Hendo because he was left on his own and couldn’t cope in there. Jones and Ox were honestly shocking. The drop off in levels between Thiago, Fab, Keita and even Milner to those two is massive.
Brighton are a decent side in fairness, they have some good players and potter has them playing well, but even so, 2-0 up at home against them then you expect to see the game out but our midfield lost all control.
I’m sure the usual people will respond and say why are you moaning, we’re second in the league, flying in the CL and in the quarters of the league cup etc. That’s true, but I knew that result would come around this stage of the season, and if we don’t get our midfielders back soon and look after them then we’re going to see a lot more of them and we can’t afford too many or we will be out of the race. If somebody’s available in January then we have to go and sign them. We need somebody as reliable as Gini. I’d go and break the bank for Bellingham personally because I think he is exactly what we need.
Two other players I thought had a nightmare yesterday were Bobby who couldn’t trap a ball and I don’t know why Jota wasn’t on a lot sooner, and Konate. Konate has great physical attributes and I’m sure he will be a big player for us but his inexperience showed yesterday and he was dragged all over the place. Why is Matip not starting, who was probably our second best player behind Mo so far this season?
Moving forward, I hope Jürgen doesn’t play the same midfield three as we saw yesterday. It might have already been said on here but playing gomez right back and putting trent in the middle could be an option for the time being.
West Ham and Arsenal (who have found their feet suddenly) coming up. Two massive games.
Logged