I was so up for this one...and was left so down. Not only b/c we lost, but the way that we lost. Giving up another soft goal, and seemingly passive offensively. No energy, no excitement. There were times that Basel were passing the ball, moving up the pitch with ease, as we did last year. Let's start with their goal: Skrtle heading the ball backwards is never good, but who was marking Streller? Why do we always have two defenders (almost always our CB's) go for the same ball?! Majority of the time when this happens, neither come away with a clearance! Straight up, man to man marking should be done. This way, each and every player is held accountable. And I can;t help but feel that Migs and/or Enrique could have done better with the ball there as it seemed to be in slow-mo. Our offense looks slow and boring. Mario looks lazy the majority of the time and just wants to hit shots from 20+ yards out. Sterling had a nightmare of a game, had 3-4 golden opportunities. Markovic, underwhelming to say the very least. At least he showed some pace finally. Couthino I thought did ok...was buzzing around the field. I want to see more of him and Lallana together. Hendo...seems to put the same gam in every week: tons of hard work and energy, and thats about it. And Stevie...average, which is not good enough for him. Manquillo and Enrique I thought did ok. Enrique had his hands full but pulled through, and Manquillo has so much heart and energy, but offensively seems raw. I thought Die for them was the MOTM...controlled the middle and was all over the pitch, until the very end. We need two things: Daniel Sturridge, and our pressing aggressiveness back. ASAP.
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