Well that was revealing. Most obvious reveal was how much we missed Mo and Sadio. i mean yes you expect to miss them, but to have total domination of possession and only create 1 real chance in the whole game?!? That was a bit scary. Never mind Afcon, we have been really lucky how few injuries (touch wood) those 2 have had over the last 5 years. Hopefully that display will wake everybody up to the fact we really really need another wide man in this window, particularly a right sided one.
Other thing this game highlighted was Jürgen's only weakness - his reluctance to make changes. After they went down to 10, we literally had >85% possession in the first half, without creating a single chance. Control of the midfield was no longer an issue - what we needed was a creative player in there. But he stuck with our 3 workhorses until the 60th minute. Why? Likewise, how the hell did Trent stay on until the 77th minute? He was playing like he was in a coma, offered literally no width the entire game, despite all our possession. I was getting seriously pissed off with him until the commentator reminded me he was just back from Covid. Clearly he was struggling and should have been subbed way earlier. It wasn't until the 77th minute Jürgen finally made the necessary subs, after which we actually had a wee bit of threat, but too late.
MOTM for me was Matip. Feels like about the 10th time this season he has been my MOTM. Today he was literally our most creative player as well - the only one who was prepared to beat his man.
Really did show up the our weak points that game. Hopefully both FSG and Jürgen have a long think about it. Cos, for FSG, we are short at least 1 creative player, and, for Jürgen, we are too reluctant to make changes even when obviously needed.
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