The League Ying, The CL Yang
I think it's fair to say we've rode our luck several times in the league this season, but that luck is definitely not riding with us in the CL.
It's not that we aren't making similar sloppy mistakes in the CL that we are making in the league, it's just the ratio of mistake/punishment is much more severe in the CL games so far.
I really don't understand why Dier was picked for this one, even if your one of his fanboys, logic says he doesn't need to be starting every game, and especially when you have Dembele out there as well, you have Wanyama and Winks on the bench, and you are playing against such inferior and passive opposition, who weren't even defensively brilliant.
For all our possession, our play was still incredibly laborious through midfield, both Dembele and Dier are extremely cautious passers, there was no one to zip the ball about, that game was crying our for Winks.
To be fair to Dembele, he started the game really brightly, but after his silly huff at the ref, which then got him booked for a soft hand off a few minutes later, he definitely quietened down a bit.
Yes, Dier is very a very solid unit. But it's all so fucking predictable and ponderous. It's great being able to safely tap 90 passes to the guys 2 yards from you, or once a game hit a floaty diagonal to the FB, but we need some fucking vim in there. Some tempo, some intensity. There were so many times when Trippier makes a run and just needs that ball played inside the opponent LB, but Dier's never going to play that ball. Trippier is the only one that seems to be able to play the ball that he needs sometimes.
The first goal we concede is yet another example of Dier's avoidance to offer up for the ball when defenders are looking for an out (I think ManU away was another good example). He hides from Sanchez initially, then too late shuffles tentatively toward him, by then Sanchez is forced into shoving the ball back to an under pressure TA who mis-controls. The next bit is very unlucky as TA busts his bollocks and actually gets back to make a great block, only to see the ball spin over Coco the Clown's head.
This is the thing. It's easy to blame shit luck, but there are familiar tropes running through much of what we do this season, a sloppiness in forward areas, a lethargy in midfield, this inability to maintain even passive control of games like we used to, the only difference is, as I said, in the CL we are getting punished at a much higher rate for those issues. This game echoed very much the Inter game, where we were seemingly in facile control and just lost a grip, defended sloppily (particularly Aurier) and pissed away the points.
Some of the above tropes contribute to us not killing games off. There's a lack of incision from midfield and a too much bumbling in forward areas. Our ratio of possession conversion into quality chance isn't good enough. Too many great situations flounder on either slow transition through midfield, lack of vision from midfield or carelessness and poor decision making in forward areas.
We looked so much better for Eriksen being back, but I think the sloppy pass that led to the sending off, was actually indicative of a lot of our and his play tonight. He's without doubt our most important player, and, as ever, he got through a shitload of ball for an ACM tonight (71 passes 80%), and he was the major factor in us looking more in control, as it's like having a third CM/8 in there, and he did play a nice little inside ball to Trippier for the first and a beautiful cross for the second, but there were also quite a few moments where he was uncharacteristically careless with passes, weighted them badly etc, and in the end it was one such piece of carelessness that initiated the clusterfuck, the baton of which Lloris gleefully picked up and ran off into the sunset with.
Where Lloris is concerned, It's really beyond the "he's great, everyone fucks up" stage now. His keeping for a year or more has been pretty fucking erratic. He even dropped a bollock in the WC final. Yes, he makes good saves, most top level keepers do, at some point we have to stop making excuses for the bloke. He fucks up a lot.
The first sub was a bit odd, Son had been insipid up to that point, and Moura had been his erratic self but had seemed more of a thorn in their side, but to be fair, after the sub, Son did actually play a bit better. hey ho.
The pluses apart from Eriksen being back, were Kane continuing to look like proper Kane, bit wasteful but busy and getting into good positions, Trippier probably a fair candidate for MOTM (especially if we use the Duckworth-Lewis-Sissoko calculus method) played a lovely ball for the first, unlucky not to have a couple more assists and as ever was constantly involved.
Individual
Lloris - pfffttt....
Trippier - Guess who is averaging the most key passes in the whole of the CL this season? Kroos, Neymar, Silva, Messi ? Wrong, it's none other than our very own Trippier (5.5 a game), and he's done it in less minutes than most of them. Another very good knock tonight. Head up, nice pass for the assist, played a couple of other great passes, put a free kick in that we should have scored from and defended well enough.
Sanchez - Decent game.
TA - Decent game, fucked up for the goal but was very unlucky not to redeem that fuck up.
Davies - Bit meh, but ok.
Dembele - Got off to a really positive start, looked up for it, but then gave away a couple of silly free kicks, got himself a daft booking as a result of flouncing at the ref previously, and after that he was fine but seemed to have lost that early verve.
Dier - We have to find a better solution.
Son - Piss poor for the first 70 minutes, then had a lively 10, then went off (so I'm told).
Eriksen - Couple of very good things, lovely assist, good to have his metronomic tick tick back out there, but some sloppy stuff too.
Moura - Same stuff as ever really, lively but unreliable end product.
Kane - Decent game, but did waste a couple of good opportunities.
Ref - Ginormous cunt.
I think it's fair to say we've rode our luck several times in the league this season, but that luck is definitely not riding with us in the CL.
It's not that we aren't making similar sloppy mistakes in the CL that we are making in the league, it's just the ratio of mistake/punishment is much more severe in the CL games so far.
I really don't understand why Dier was picked for this one, even if your one of his fanboys, logic says he doesn't need to be starting every game, and especially when you have Dembele out there as well, you have Wanyama and Winks on the bench, and you are playing against such inferior and passive opposition, who weren't even defensively brilliant.
For all our possession, our play was still incredibly laborious through midfield, both Dembele and Dier are extremely cautious passers, there was no one to zip the ball about, that game was crying our for Winks.
To be fair to Dembele, he started the game really brightly, but after his silly huff at the ref, which then got him booked for a soft hand off a few minutes later, he definitely quietened down a bit.
Yes, Dier is very a very solid unit. But it's all so fucking predictable and ponderous. It's great being able to safely tap 90 passes to the guys 2 yards from you, or once a game hit a floaty diagonal to the FB, but we need some fucking vim in there. Some tempo, some intensity. There were so many times when Trippier makes a run and just needs that ball played inside the opponent LB, but Dier's never going to play that ball. Trippier is the only one that seems to be able to play the ball that he needs sometimes.
The first goal we concede is yet another example of Dier's avoidance to offer up for the ball when defenders are looking for an out (I think ManU away was another good example). He hides from Sanchez initially, then too late shuffles tentatively toward him, by then Sanchez is forced into shoving the ball back to an under pressure TA who mis-controls. The next bit is very unlucky as TA busts his bollocks and actually gets back to make a great block, only to see the ball spin over Coco the Clown's head.
This is the thing. It's easy to blame shit luck, but there are familiar tropes running through much of what we do this season, a sloppiness in forward areas, a lethargy in midfield, this inability to maintain even passive control of games like we used to, the only difference is, as I said, in the CL we are getting punished at a much higher rate for those issues. This game echoed very much the Inter game, where we were seemingly in facile control and just lost a grip, defended sloppily (particularly Aurier) and pissed away the points.
Some of the above tropes contribute to us not killing games off. There's a lack of incision from midfield and a too much bumbling in forward areas. Our ratio of possession conversion into quality chance isn't good enough. Too many great situations flounder on either slow transition through midfield, lack of vision from midfield or carelessness and poor decision making in forward areas.
We looked so much better for Eriksen being back, but I think the sloppy pass that led to the sending off, was actually indicative of a lot of our and his play tonight. He's without doubt our most important player, and, as ever, he got through a shitload of ball for an ACM tonight (71 passes 80%), and he was the major factor in us looking more in control, as it's like having a third CM/8 in there, and he did play a nice little inside ball to Trippier for the first and a beautiful cross for the second, but there were also quite a few moments where he was uncharacteristically careless with passes, weighted them badly etc, and in the end it was one such piece of carelessness that initiated the clusterfuck, the baton of which Lloris gleefully picked up and ran off into the sunset with.
Where Lloris is concerned, It's really beyond the "he's great, everyone fucks up" stage now. His keeping for a year or more has been pretty fucking erratic. He even dropped a bollock in the WC final. Yes, he makes good saves, most top level keepers do, at some point we have to stop making excuses for the bloke. He fucks up a lot.
The first sub was a bit odd, Son had been insipid up to that point, and Moura had been his erratic self but had seemed more of a thorn in their side, but to be fair, after the sub, Son did actually play a bit better. hey ho.
The pluses apart from Eriksen being back, were Kane continuing to look like proper Kane, bit wasteful but busy and getting into good positions, Trippier probably a fair candidate for MOTM (especially if we use the Duckworth-Lewis-Sissoko calculus method) played a lovely ball for the first, unlucky not to have a couple more assists and as ever was constantly involved.
Individual
Lloris - pfffttt....
Trippier - Guess who is averaging the most key passes in the whole of the CL this season? Kroos, Neymar, Silva, Messi ? Wrong, it's none other than our very own Trippier (5.5 a game), and he's done it in less minutes than most of them. Another very good knock tonight. Head up, nice pass for the assist, played a couple of other great passes, put a free kick in that we should have scored from and defended well enough.
Sanchez - Decent game.
TA - Decent game, fucked up for the goal but was very unlucky not to redeem that fuck up.
Davies - Bit meh, but ok.
Dembele - Got off to a really positive start, looked up for it, but then gave away a couple of silly free kicks, got himself a daft booking as a result of flouncing at the ref previously, and after that he was fine but seemed to have lost that early verve.
Dier - We have to find a better solution.
Son - Piss poor for the first 70 minutes, then had a lively 10, then went off (so I'm told).
Eriksen - Couple of very good things, lovely assist, good to have his metronomic tick tick back out there, but some sloppy stuff too.
Moura - Same stuff as ever really, lively but unreliable end product.
Kane - Decent game, but did waste a couple of good opportunities.
Ref - Ginormous cunt.
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