That wasn't the game to give him minutes. Pep hung him out to dry, like he did with the lot of them last night.
You've got a big money defender coming in from Wolves. Highly rated. Plays alright in his first couple of appearances but gets injured and can't really shake it off. Finally starts coming back into the team but can't really nail down a starting place because O'Reilly's performing so well. So you start him on a big Champions League night when the rest of the team is also made up of other lads coming back from injury who aren't match sharp? Absolutely mental, sorry.
This is what I meant about Pep destroying the confidence of so many players last night. If Ait-Nouri had played in a back-four with Khusanov, Dias, and Stones last night, with a proper midfield and winger in front of him, he'd have looked far more comfortable and would have been given less to do. Instead he just got shuffled out with the rest of the B-team, got exposed because Savinho is his "protecting winger", and will now need more games to get right.
If Pep wanted to make big changes and rotate a lot, he should have started with something resembling the team that finished the game, just with Ait-Nouri instead of O'Reilly. You can't expect a new player (coming back from a bad injury) to get anything resembling rhythm when you're only starting him in games that are being used to give rhythm to 7-8 other players. We got away with it against Swansea but we were absolutely horrendous against Leverkusen.
Give him 30 mins against Leeds at the weekend in a team that will be functioning better. Give him another 30 mins against Fulham in midweek. Start him against Sunderland if he does well in those games so that O'Reilly can be fit for the Bernabeau. Don't just drop him in alongside 7-8 other lads who've barely played recently and expect him to click instantly. Dragging him off at half-time will have destroyed his confidence as well. Can't really be understated just how much Pep fucked everything up last night.
You've got a big money defender coming in from Wolves. Highly rated. Plays alright in his first couple of appearances but gets injured and can't really shake it off. Finally starts coming back into the team but can't really nail down a starting place because O'Reilly's performing so well. So you start him on a big Champions League night when the rest of the team is also made up of other lads coming back from injury who aren't match sharp? Absolutely mental, sorry.
This is what I meant about Pep destroying the confidence of so many players last night. If Ait-Nouri had played in a back-four with Khusanov, Dias, and Stones last night, with a proper midfield and winger in front of him, he'd have looked far more comfortable and would have been given less to do. Instead he just got shuffled out with the rest of the B-team, got exposed because Savinho is his "protecting winger", and will now need more games to get right.
If Pep wanted to make big changes and rotate a lot, he should have started with something resembling the team that finished the game, just with Ait-Nouri instead of O'Reilly. You can't expect a new player (coming back from a bad injury) to get anything resembling rhythm when you're only starting him in games that are being used to give rhythm to 7-8 other players. We got away with it against Swansea but we were absolutely horrendous against Leverkusen.
Give him 30 mins against Leeds at the weekend in a team that will be functioning better. Give him another 30 mins against Fulham in midweek. Start him against Sunderland if he does well in those games so that O'Reilly can be fit for the Bernabeau. Don't just drop him in alongside 7-8 other lads who've barely played recently and expect him to click instantly. Dragging him off at half-time will have destroyed his confidence as well. Can't really be understated just how much Pep fucked everything up last night.