Thin and Ugly
It was a win; by a fine margin and could and should have been better, but we won.
I`m grateful to ‘ItsMe` – a quality poster from the front page. Having returned from the game late on Sunday, I was about to put my thoughts on paper, but read the front page comments first and was about to say that it was a performance short on quality, but long on endeavour, but the win was comforting – not so long ago, we’d have lost or drawn this – but there really wasn`t much to feel overjoyed about, but in the end saw no reason to disagree with a single word in ‘ItsME` post match thoughts, so my gratitude to him as I`ve lifted it wholesale because it`s a first class summary;
“We were lucky and yet we won ugly. I thought over all GK did well, not played in how long, started yippy and made a couple of poor balls out towards the end but more than made up for it with three fine saves.
Jan and Dier and Sanchez played well in what I thought was difficult due to a poor Aurier, he has a lot of work to do to get to PL standard and our usual standard of Walker before and now Trippier.
Sissoko still doesn’t cut it for me, did nothing in frst half, yet he does makes some good tackles and runs but then also doesn’t very little else and still cannot control a ball, how he gets in before Dembele is beyond me.
Son was very poor today other than his goal, he just couldn’t control the ball and he messed up when he got free, but he scored the winner, he is not in form this season though.
Not a great game but I think he was carrying a knock, I think he was not able to push himself just in case so he wasn’t as effective but not too concerned about him, be happy if he, Winks and Dele miss England games, be good for them to rest imo and not aggravate injuries on international duties.
Rose played well, ran out of steam but was effective for his first full game back. Overall not pretty, too many lose balls and not enough creativity. I still think Lamela would add to this team and a Barkley would be a good enough addition going forward. Llorente, still not sure he is going to be adequate back up, too slow and I just cannot see him getting enough game time to bring him up to fitness and effectiveness. I think it’s time to bring in a proper centre forward but a youngster. May be that is the way to go next season, keep Llorente but have a third young proper striker who can may be play a few games and be brought up to scratch.
Thing about this game was we won and we won at Wembley again. The Wembley hoodoo is over and we managed to win without so many first teamers and after a gruelling few weeks. Shame winks went off, he does retain the ball well even though he can lose it occasionally. When we get a fully fit squad we will be very good, but too many injuries causing us problems. Wanyama, Lamela, Rose, all been out for so long and now Toby.
Overall happy but it made me nervous. well done lads. “
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