The Bumblewaggon Keeps Rolling on
Fuck me, we don't half fuck abaaaat. Has a win, featuring 75% possession ever looked as wonky as that did.
I know we are missing some key players, and I also know that Poch didn't organise the World Cup and insist that we had so many players go so far in it, and we are not the only team with players who will be suffering some mental and physical fatigue from it. And like every one us, I'd rather play badly (or incoherently, or without cohesion etc etc - whatever we want to call it) and pick up points than play badly and not. So...yay and fucking whatnot.
But fucking hell Poch is doing some weird shit that is pretty counter intuitive lately. I mean, four four fucking two with Moura as a striker. For what, the fifth time this season, and it's looked shit every single time. He just runs down blind alleys and gets in Kane's way.
I just do not understand why he would pick Son, Moura and Sissoko - all of whom are variations of a similar theme - pace, direct, but who never seem to have the ball fully under control - and leave Lamela, with the more unique skillset of occasionally being able to get his head out of his arse, see and deliver a pass, and who's had much less football than Son in the last 12 months on the bench.
I remain extremely fucking non plussed by his perseverance with Dier in CM. Why? I mean it's fucking Cardiff FFS, we hardly needed the ballast. It's not even as if he's Kante defensively is, a player who tears around reading danger and snuffing it out, we're still conceding horrendous chances to even the shittest teams with him out there. And we have Wanyama, who we desperately need back on form, who desperately needs games (especially ones like today against shitcunts like Cardiff) and who again is much, much fresher than Dier and played with Winks in midweek, so Poch could have actually kept a bit of rhythm in midfield, but no, more unnecessary and counter intuitive changes. Change of midfield, another change of shape, another very incoherent game of football.
A major factor in why we didn't win this game more comfortably or convert our 75% into more goals or quality chances is the AM trio of Son, Moura and Sissoko, who were so fucking careless, continually failing to control the ball or taking poor first touches, making easy little passes look difficult, trying to dribble too often etc. when what we were desperately crying out for was just some fucker with a bit of composure.
Anyone marking Rose high in this one wants to have a word with themselves. Rose did a couple of decent things, but just did not put a proper shift in - literally seeing half the ball Trippier did, and still managing to give it away 10% more. There was a moment in the second half where Winks had burst forward, broke the lines veering toward the left where there was this huge expanse of pitch that Rose just hadn't bothered to sprint into. And his defending for the chance they nearly scored from is fucking atrocious. He's got 2 yards head start on Murphy, who just brushes him aside as he runs past him, Lloris once again does poorly - and Sanchez doesn't cover himself in glory getting done for the first header either. And there was another chance where Alderweireld gets done for the header and once again Rose is just stood ball watching again as Murphy goes through 1v1, this time Lloris stands up and saves. Piss poor defending from an experienced FB though.
The second half started brightly enough, we had a couple of half chances, and after the sending off for a syndical hack on Moura, it looked like we might finally kill the game off, but the lack of composure just continued and we bumbled the game out. The end.
Individual
Lloris - Poor for the one they nearly scored from, good for the second 1v1. The rest routine stuff.
Trippier - Our most involved player, no-one saw more ball, did some decent things, played a couple of lovely passes into that channel that got wasted, and a lot of meh stuff too. Also got beat too easily once in the second half.
Alderweireld - great defending for the line clearance, some good stuff, some less than good.
Sanchez - Looked a bit wobbly at times today. Not his best game.
Rose - Put in a nice cross for Kane second half, and probably should have had a pen, but didn't offer enough down that left flank for a game like this where we had so much possession, so much ended up having to go right. And defensively he was fucking shambolic. Gets caught twice letting Murphy go 1v1, Murphy also skanks him second half once too, luckily it came toothing. No wonder our left side is the one that actually gets targeted eh
Guido 🇺🇦
.
Dier - pffttt...
Winks - Another game where he gradually grew into the game and when he did he tried to keep us moving (100 passes 93%) would just like to see a little more risk taking incision in is passing occasionally, but still just about our best player on the day.
Sissoko - As Sissoko games go, this wasn't his worst, but it was against one of the worst sides Ive seen in the PL recently, and it's still painful to watch him most of the time, it's not just the big things, it's little things like he'll have a simple 2/3 yard pass to make but he'll hit so that the person he's passing to has to check his stride instead of move onto it, and every pass invariably has too much whack on it (look at the pass he makes for Son's great chance on 45 eg). That said, by the time the first sub was made, I actually didn't care if he went off or Son or Moura, but that said more about them than it did Sissoko.
Son - A nice run that created a great chance for Moura to wank wide somehow aside, this was mostly lots of bumbling around.
Moura - Same as Son. As ever lively at times, but devoid of the required composure to make much of it count for anything tangible.
Kane - Refreshingly, work rate wise, he's actually looking bit like proper Kane last couple of games, but Poch getting him deeper with Moura ahead of him in the build up is stupid.
Fuck me, we don't half fuck abaaaat. Has a win, featuring 75% possession ever looked as wonky as that did.
I know we are missing some key players, and I also know that Poch didn't organise the World Cup and insist that we had so many players go so far in it, and we are not the only team with players who will be suffering some mental and physical fatigue from it. And like every one us, I'd rather play badly (or incoherently, or without cohesion etc etc - whatever we want to call it) and pick up points than play badly and not. So...yay and fucking whatnot.
But fucking hell Poch is doing some weird shit that is pretty counter intuitive lately. I mean, four four fucking two with Moura as a striker. For what, the fifth time this season, and it's looked shit every single time. He just runs down blind alleys and gets in Kane's way.
I just do not understand why he would pick Son, Moura and Sissoko - all of whom are variations of a similar theme - pace, direct, but who never seem to have the ball fully under control - and leave Lamela, with the more unique skillset of occasionally being able to get his head out of his arse, see and deliver a pass, and who's had much less football than Son in the last 12 months on the bench.
I remain extremely fucking non plussed by his perseverance with Dier in CM. Why? I mean it's fucking Cardiff FFS, we hardly needed the ballast. It's not even as if he's Kante defensively is, a player who tears around reading danger and snuffing it out, we're still conceding horrendous chances to even the shittest teams with him out there. And we have Wanyama, who we desperately need back on form, who desperately needs games (especially ones like today against shitcunts like Cardiff) and who again is much, much fresher than Dier and played with Winks in midweek, so Poch could have actually kept a bit of rhythm in midfield, but no, more unnecessary and counter intuitive changes. Change of midfield, another change of shape, another very incoherent game of football.
A major factor in why we didn't win this game more comfortably or convert our 75% into more goals or quality chances is the AM trio of Son, Moura and Sissoko, who were so fucking careless, continually failing to control the ball or taking poor first touches, making easy little passes look difficult, trying to dribble too often etc. when what we were desperately crying out for was just some fucker with a bit of composure.
Anyone marking Rose high in this one wants to have a word with themselves. Rose did a couple of decent things, but just did not put a proper shift in - literally seeing half the ball Trippier did, and still managing to give it away 10% more. There was a moment in the second half where Winks had burst forward, broke the lines veering toward the left where there was this huge expanse of pitch that Rose just hadn't bothered to sprint into. And his defending for the chance they nearly scored from is fucking atrocious. He's got 2 yards head start on Murphy, who just brushes him aside as he runs past him, Lloris once again does poorly - and Sanchez doesn't cover himself in glory getting done for the first header either. And there was another chance where Alderweireld gets done for the header and once again Rose is just stood ball watching again as Murphy goes through 1v1, this time Lloris stands up and saves. Piss poor defending from an experienced FB though.
The second half started brightly enough, we had a couple of half chances, and after the sending off for a syndical hack on Moura, it looked like we might finally kill the game off, but the lack of composure just continued and we bumbled the game out. The end.
Individual
Lloris - Poor for the one they nearly scored from, good for the second 1v1. The rest routine stuff.
Trippier - Our most involved player, no-one saw more ball, did some decent things, played a couple of lovely passes into that channel that got wasted, and a lot of meh stuff too. Also got beat too easily once in the second half.
Alderweireld - great defending for the line clearance, some good stuff, some less than good.
Sanchez - Looked a bit wobbly at times today. Not his best game.
Rose - Put in a nice cross for Kane second half, and probably should have had a pen, but didn't offer enough down that left flank for a game like this where we had so much possession, so much ended up having to go right. And defensively he was fucking shambolic. Gets caught twice letting Murphy go 1v1, Murphy also skanks him second half once too, luckily it came toothing. No wonder our left side is the one that actually gets targeted eh
Guido 🇺🇦
.Dier - pffttt...
Winks - Another game where he gradually grew into the game and when he did he tried to keep us moving (100 passes 93%) would just like to see a little more risk taking incision in is passing occasionally, but still just about our best player on the day.
Sissoko - As Sissoko games go, this wasn't his worst, but it was against one of the worst sides Ive seen in the PL recently, and it's still painful to watch him most of the time, it's not just the big things, it's little things like he'll have a simple 2/3 yard pass to make but he'll hit so that the person he's passing to has to check his stride instead of move onto it, and every pass invariably has too much whack on it (look at the pass he makes for Son's great chance on 45 eg). That said, by the time the first sub was made, I actually didn't care if he went off or Son or Moura, but that said more about them than it did Sissoko.
Son - A nice run that created a great chance for Moura to wank wide somehow aside, this was mostly lots of bumbling around.
Moura - Same as Son. As ever lively at times, but devoid of the required composure to make much of it count for anything tangible.
Kane - Refreshingly, work rate wise, he's actually looking bit like proper Kane last couple of games, but Poch getting him deeper with Moura ahead of him in the build up is stupid.
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