Torn here, there were real signs of progression against Newcastle, we utilised three of the new lads perfectly. And I thought we were 2/3 top signings away from being really very good again.
The Pep has basically refused to revert to that style of play. Constantly reverting back to this one paced narrow system that makes look poor in both attack and defence.
Today, the team was screaming out for width. De Bruyne looked like he’d never played football before and is sadly just not at it anymore.
Him doing 95 minutes today is inexplicable.
On the flip side though, we have suffered horrendously with injuries and a real regression in key players.
Not only the amount of injuries, but to whom and when. Couple that with the general exhaustion of the squad, there’s a reason no one has won it 5 times in a row. We have been deep in every competition every year. Look at Liverpool this season, their legs have already gone.
Pep working with a small squad is great when all is going well, but it’s stagnated a bit, players are fucked, we’ve asked them to go into battle one too many times.
There’s a cracking xi whenever everyone is fit and fresh, and add 3/4 quality players in the summer and we’ll be building again.
But today, might have been his worst game/performance for us.
If we repeat that vs Palace, we’ll get buried, rags being utterly shite was our only savior tonight.