robsblubot

Think he’s a good/decent player at this time. Perhaps the niggling injuries have hindered his development, but I don’t see a great player there just yet. he’s young tho, so plenty of time to get there and he does have good skill on the ball. Our system relies a lot on Caicedos ability to cover—he’s really good at that. Enzo is more of a luxury player, so we need the base to work. could’ve done without the mistakes at the back today too.

agreed. It’s easy to say what if’s in hindsight. Now we know he had nothing to lose, but at the time he did have something to lose by opening up even more. lets not forget that Fulham have plenty of quality players. For ex, Brazil are not what they used to be, but bad players don’t get called up by being poor players: Andreas pereira is always there for ex.

Understand the point of trying something else, but Felix to control a match is hard to imagine eh. we missed a bit of quality esp at the back today. I’m giving up on nkunku as well—he’s not a good alt for Jackson also because he’s not different enough.

Well not many of us think this is a title winning squad just yet—much improved, but not quite there yet.

That was poor defending right there… 😕 free player applying the finish. started with a really poor kick by sanchez

Yeah I thought Neto should’ve been subbed after the yellow. hard to second guess the D side. Maresca may think it’s too tight to take him off. almost!

He is what he is. He’s a good player for these exact type of games. I don’t think he was particularly great today, but even when he’s off he delivers the defensive work. we had quite a few players below level today, like sancho.

It is a tough one to defend against, but Tosin was marking no one there 😕

Makes sense. Nico was not as sharp today. Nkunku has been a bit meh in the PL, so hope that change a today eh.

What would be the best reaction when someone says the obvious and keeps on bragging about it? has anyone here said this was going to be easy match? Because I did not see it. 🤷‍♂️

That was a great run by Jackson, but the finish should’ve been a pass. There was no way he was going to get a good shot off.

Andreas Pereira is considering a move to Palmeiras in Brazil, which is surprising to me. He’s their best mid on the ball.

Great save by Sanchez now! he’s actually doing good as a goalie of late. Not as good with the ball at his feet as advertised tho.

Wtf was that ouch! Sanchez

Neto has been working hard, but not one of his best games. Perhaps time to sub him after the yellow now.

Agreed. They are too dangerous in attack — we need a second goal at least. team is playing well; Jackson took a bit too long at times, hopefully he can be a bit sharper in the second.

I don’t care one bit about individual stats. I care about how a player makes the team better! Being with goals, assists, hard work, leadership… I don’t care. Rashford does not improve the team he plays for (at this level) — quite the opposite.

Rashford is just not a very good footballer, and age has not improved things one bit. Yeah noticed that. The original article did not mention age, but BBC always include players age in them, which I find very good practice; the intern got it wrong this time.

Never said it was easy. We've won quite a bit of silverware employing low blocks. It's certainly *easier* to defend with a low block than with possession: less space behind your D line to worry about. it's also far cheaper to play defensively, and defend with a low block, than it is to employ, successfully, a possession + attacking minded side. I think every time your team plays some is indeed shown to others who might be paying attention. Heard from multiple managers that it's common to be forced to switch strategies during a competition as other teams find ways to block your most effective strategies. How effective other sides will be at employing a low block against us? we will see soon.

Was reading that we had close to 70% possession and only 5 shots on goal. if that’s the case then the collective did not produce enough to win the match. That goes into strategy, team setup, player characteristics, and quality (roster). Teams will start playing with a lower d line against us, so this is hardly the last time we will struggle to find space.

You just can't risk injuries in this competition. We have the roster to rotate now, so might as well.

I'd go a bit further: there is no such entity as "the fanbase." There are no "fickle fans" as some like to address here. Fans are different and think differently about players and way to play, have their own preferences. The club should largely ignore fans and mostly does. This is the same everywhere.

Interesting discussion An Uncomfortable Conversation With Josh Szeps: Media Silos, Disagreeing With Grace, Protecting Liberal which touches a lot of points mentioned in this thread. Requires apple account signup, but could be avail on yt too (did not look).