Complete melt down. I stopped after we conceded the 4th one. It's like every time the ball is near our box our whole backline freezes. Joe Gomez still plays like he's just got here and is breaking through. 50% of the decisions he makes are wrong and on a night like this one, we paid the price in full. That first Vinicius goal was written on the sky since it was the 3rd or 4th time he cut on the inside and Gomez doesn't close him up at all. Its telling that he ends up scoring one from inside our box after a one two with plenty of space to spare. Doesn't help that TAA reverted back to being completely toothless defensively after a two games hiatus as it leaves Gomez with even more space to cover in for, but its still some very bad defensive decision making.
We essentially showed the same defensive frailty against Newcastle, but the fantastic Ali kept us in the game. I wont have a go at him for the odd sh*t show tonight.
But more important than any of this is the total mental meltdown. Its like watching ice cream in the sun. As soon as they scored their first you could tell our belief and intensity went down one big notch. As soon as they scored their 3d you just could tell that was it for us. All of this at home too...for god's sake.
Anyway, far from the mental aspect of it, I think it confirms what I said in the scouting/transfer thread. It would be a mistake to go into this summer thinking we should put all our eggs in the midfield basket. Gomez has had his fair share of back luck with injuries, but this is now what, 4 years of him trying to cement a place into the starting XI? Except for the two times his progression was halted by injuries, he never looked good enough to be our second choice CB. With Matip being the injury magnet he is that means we have to let one of those two go in the summer and invest in a CB that will keep competition high. Right notw there's no competition. Konate walks into that team any day of the week and VVD is spending his savings.
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