YaYa's Left Peg
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 13 Dec 2010
- Messages
- 1,472
Gosh we can be negative. Don't post until you've had a sleep.
In short we allowed Celtic to drag us into a tear up rather than a tactical game. In short, we came through it and learnt more, at very little expense, than we ever would have by winning a dull game 1-0.
I view it as nothing but a long term positive and a damn entertaining watch to boot.
Agreed mate.
What a great game and advert for attacking, intensive football. Both sides deserve great credit for it. UEFA should be thanking us rather than punishing us if we are going to showcase their competition so brilliantly.
Like you, I saw it as a great positive because as Pep says we learn the most when we lose (I know we drew but you get my point). This is the first time this season that a team has pressed us hard, and to be fair, without being at our best we coped with it, and had it not been for some uncharacteristily poor passing, comical defending, and some players off the boil slightly, I'm convinced we would have won that game.
That takes no credit away from Celtic - they were manic and deserved something just for the sheer amount of effort they put in - they looked shattered at the end.
Obviously there is no excuse for the poor defending, but I was actually quite proud of the resilience we showed to come back after going behind three times. I doubt if many teams could have done that. And despite us being slightly off, at times our passing and movement was mesmeric.
And reasons for optimism:
- Fernandinho surely can't have a poor a first half as he did last night;
- Gundogan's fitness and contribution can only get better over time;
- we surely won't defend as bad as that many times this season;
- Sterling is a superstar in the making;
- Sergio won't be as quiet as he was last night;
- KDB will be back soon; and
- we have Pep.
And by the way.....unlike some on here, I doubt if Barca will be thinking the two games against City will be gimmes.