Having taken a bit more time to digest Wednesday’s 3-2 win over Eintracht Frankfurt, one predominant issue occurred to me that was slightly worrying despite the crucial points that have put us in the driving seat for winning the Champions League’s Group D.
Several readers and commenters have highlighted how our performance levels diminished somewhat after the visitors were reduced to 10 men, and I have to agree. Going into half-time, and after the restart up until Tuta’s red card midway through the second half, I thought we were good value to score a 4th, perhaps even a fifth goal, given how open Eintracht Frankfurt were.
Indeed, I was surprised at how open the visitors were, even in the reverse leg last week, as it doesn’t take Albert Einstein to figure out that generally, the best way to beat us is by employing a low-block. I digress; the fourth goal didn’t come, and I feel as though the red card caused our players to take a collective breath of relaxation and adopt the “job done” mentality, forgetting that: a) playing against ten men is harder than conventional wisdom would have you believe (see Marseille game, 1-1 draw with Saints last December); b) we were playing Champions League opposition; c) there was over half an hour of football yet to be played. None of these reasons exactly justify switching off do they?
It seems that we took our foot off the gas, and if anything, our best spell in the second half came once Frankfurt scored their second, with Kane missing the penalty and Gil spurning a few openings after being gifted the ball by Frankfurt.
What this tells us about the team, I’m unsure, as there could be a few possibilities – do mental fragilities still linger within the side? Are they simply more desiring of preserving energy amid such a packed schedule, rather than maintaining a high intensity against 10-man opponents? Or are the players themselves a bit more mentally fatigued after a taxing week of three consecutive away trips and the passing of Gian Piero Ventrone?
All of these are plausible explanations, but the way we ended the match was ultimately disappointing given how we initially blew our opponents away after going behind so early on.
Nevertheless, a win is a win, and now we have the chance to qualify for the Champions League knockouts as group winners if we were to beat Sporting CP and Eintracht Frankfurt beat Marseille in the next matchday.
For now, our attention will revert to domestic action this weekend when Everton come to town tomorrow. Preview to follow…
To many articles, should be a match day thread, not the take aways from a game from Wednesday.