First time Ive been impressed with Sherwood, and it wasnt for the result (which is of course amazing).
West Ham I thought was a comedy, absolutely shocking
SCBC I thought was a good result but no real improvement on West Ham performance wise, had to watch it from behind my hands
WBA I didnt see, but reading up on it seems it was hardly inspiring stuff
Stoke was a good performance, but hard to judge considering Stoke are shite. It was at least positive, more controlled and still with the attacking intent.
Yesterday took us a while to get going, but from about 20 minutes to 70 I thought we were outstanding. The movement in the team was excellent, top quality stuff, and the attack looks like it can score every time it moves up the field. We have always been good counter attacking, and at the moment look superb - While defensively we rode our luck a little at times but it was luck well earned.
The last 20 minutes, effort and gusto aside, I wasnt so impressed - and Im glad Sherwood said as much in his post match comments.
I thought taking Capoue off was a bad decision (assuming it wasnt based upon injury), given it was inevitable they would come at us and he was doing an excellent job in breaking things up. I also thought that with Utd loading their attack at the expense of defence he could be the key in winning the ball and hitting them on the break as he releases the ball so well.
The Chadli sub I thought was fair, and while bringing Kane on always looked strange Soldado must have been wrecked from all the work he put in (and as our only fit striker he does need protecting). Bentaleb was the only one that bothered me, and while he did well for himself it was clear taking Capoue off would ceed territory to a Utd team looking to take it.
Ive been pretty strong in my views about Sherwoods performances so far, so its only fair I compliment where its due.
I thought he did bloody well today. I loved that he has balanced out the team more, introduced Capoue but not lost any attacking impetus. Its the first time we have looked like a "complete" team under him, not grossly lacking in one way or another (while there is still obviously plenty to work on). I also liked his attitude post match, he clearly wants more and more from this lot, and it seems they all enjoy playing for him.
Im looking forward to the Woolwich game now, I was dreading it 24 hours ago
Great summation of what I saw yesterday.
If we keep winning Pool's GD won't make any difference at all. Points are way more important than GD. As the table shows we are already ahead of some teams who have a better GD.
