Al Hilal (N) | CWC | Post Match Thread

You're not going to win much with a team of midfielders.
Perhaps we should look at buying defenders who can defend?

Was really excited by Ait-Nouri going forward, but he's failed the acid test tonight.

No positional sense whatsoever, I'm afraid
The Ait-Nouri right back looked decent
 
We need to move on from Dias. I don’t think his leadership makes up for his weaknesses any more. It definitely did for a while, but not now imo. He is both slow and terrible in the air - a dreadful combination in a team that mostly has to defend transitions and set pieces. He’s practically useless on both. A clear area we can upgrade - we even have Khusanov on the bench getting hardly any game time. Maybe we should think about putting him on the pitch at some point.
 
He's awful Dias I don't actually get what he brings to the game. IMO I would keep Ake but I would get rid of Dias, Akanji and Savinho, we can't rely on them. I would think about getting rid of Ederson too. What good is it if he's good at passing but can't make a save.
If someone offered £50m for Dias I’d snap their hand off, hes turned into a complete liability he’s not improved since his first season and in the last two seasons has clearly regressed.

The likelihood is though he’ll get a new deal and we’ll get rid of akanji and ake.

Hopefully if anything tonight has shown our need for a right back and that will probably mean we see the back of Nunes or kovacic if pep decides he wants Nunes as a back up rb option.

Under no circumstances should we ever ben losing to a second string Al hilal though, it’s more embarrassing than anything else from last season.
 
We need to move on from Dias. I don’t think his leadership makes up for his weaknesses any more. It definitely did for a while, but not now imo. He is both slow and terrible in the air - a dreadful combination in a team that mostly has to defend transitions and set pieces. He’s practically useless on both.
He killed us in Madrid sealing our CL exit and was a bomb-scare tonight
 
They were average. We made them look good with pathetic defending. The kind of defending we seen all last season. Nothing has changed in that department.
They're a decent team with good players who are well above Championship level. They also have a top quality manager.
If it's us that can't defend and it's continually happening, maybe it's us that are the average team and this morning should not actually come as a shock.
 
Well that just simplified my schedule for the next couple of weeks...

Well done Al Hilal. Four shots; four goals. Where have we heard that before? But their defending was superb.

Sorry to say, but despite a couple of nice moments, and I know he is young; but Savinho is not really up to it - at all. His buddy on the other side is definitely better but gets figured out as the game goes on. Both should be impact subs for me.

I really thought that we had been playing a new style up until tonight. And we are a bit more direct, but when we get behind due to the same old defensive frailties, we tend to revert to type and try to do the old pass from side to side instead of the more progressive passing that we had started to do in the earlier games.

But it's all an experiment I suppose. I wanted to win this thing, as did Pep probably, but I won't say no to the rest. And neither will the players, I think.

Here's to a great season ahead. Giddyup!
 
Defensive is utter gash yet Khuzanov and Reis can't get a game.

Pep needs to be asked questions on this.

Nico Gonzalez still can't get a game as well.

Were going to be great going forward but I have to seriously question the decision making of the defensive transfer signings January onwards.
Khusanov would of been torn to shreds tonight, no way is capable YET of competing against the guys who are in front of him if not he would be playing simples. He's an accident waiting to happen and looks like a rabbit in the headlights, just coz he's a youngster and we all want this fairytale of youth been given a chance does not make it right to throw them in and potentially damage them and us
 
He killed us in Madrid sealing our CL exit and was a bomb-scare tonight
Its our set up. We cannot solve a low block to save our lives and when we lose the ball and get countered, we are panic stations. Couple that with no speed from Dias, Akanji or Ait Nouri and this is what happens. Pep got timing wrong on subs. Way off. If we think this is a one-off loss. Think again. This is what is going to be deployed against us every game this season.
 

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