Donnarumma - No chance with deflected goal and a good save. Yawn.
Nunes - Cracking volley. Brilliant that he got into that position in open play. Never feels like a RB, but then when he’s not slipping, he is a very solid RWB.
O’Reilly - Very tidy game and added deep attacking intent (beyond Doku) in the 2nd half. Solid.
Dias - Another steady performance. Unlucky for the goal.
Gvardiol- Anonymous, which is kind of a good thing as a CB in a 5-1 win.
Reijnders - Lots of running to little effect. Had a few good interchanges, but fluffed his lines with 2 chances from the edge of the box.
Gonzales - Thought he had a great first half, but got a smidge slower on the ball in the second half. Best game I’ve seen from him playing 90 mins as the pivot. Developing as a very competent understudy.
Foden - Very nice performance knitting the lines together. Worked very hard on defensive side, too. Definitely getting back to his very best.
Savinho - Always feels like he’s almost a brilliant player…but! Frustrating day.
Haaland - Frustrating day for him too until it paid off. Very little good service, but he did a brilliant job knocking down the Nunes assist and then got his just desserts in injury time.
Doku - Starting to show what he’s about. Second MOTM performance in short order. Brilliant attacking force and if he hadn’t been trying so hard to get himself a goal, I think he’d have earned a penalty. Excellent performance.
-/-/-/-
Dominant first half performance that resulted in the (typical) 1 shot, 1 goal (against!) half time. Second half we looked a little labored for a while, although O’Reilly’s marauding beyond Doku looked like it was going to be fruitful. Then, a cross created the second goal and a square ball across the box from MOTM Doku settled the game.
With the game over, Haaland added to his legacy with a poacher goal that will have made his day after an hour of frustration, but 95 mins of hard work.
Nice to see Pep getting his substitutions correct, and in a timely manner.
Considering the general malaise most are feeling about the start to the season, after today’s results, it’s nice to see we are still very much in and amongst the Top 6 before we get a fully fit squad and actually slip into a high gear.
All in all, what looked like it might be a frustrating day turned into an “if Carlsberg did Saturdays” type day, made even better by the fact that Liverpool drew level beyond 83 minutes again, then Palace made Slot spit out his dummy on 97 minutes with a cracking winner!
