What the fuck was Pep doing with that starting line-up & formation? ¯\_(⊙_ʖ⊙)_/¯
Baldy totally underestimated how resolute Everton would be & I can’t understand why Foden was shunted out right, leaving us with zero creativity in midfield.
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The only attacking threat we had came from the superb Doku who was my joint man of the match.
Rodri looked frustrated not having the central outlets he's used to, & for all our huff & puff, we couldn't breach Everton's solid low block wall.
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I'm not one to select a boo boy, but I couldn’t for the life of me understand why we panic bought Nunes last summer. He showed nothing at Sporting & Wolves to warrant a move to the Treble winners, & I've seen little to change my mind since he's arrived here.
He was terrible today. He kept making dead passes when he wasn't losing possession & offered nothing in terms of creativity, defensively or attacking wise. The lift in our structure & performance when he was withdrawn was palpable & predictable.
It was a relief to see KDB & Walker coming on for Nunes & Akanji, & that's no sleight on Manuel. We had the wrong personnel, in the wrong positions, in the wrong formation & that's on Baldy.
Once the changes were made, we were a lot, lot better & finally began to look like the team our recent form suggests. We were still being frustrated, but with a new sense of urgency, we were turning up the heat on the stubborn Blue Bin Dippers.
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However, cometh the hour, cometh the Viking Meat Shield! The corner we won was a scrappy affair, but when the ball fell to Erling, he lashed it the fuck in with his right foot to give us the lead, which sent the crowd wild!
The Scousers made a raft of changes, & we changed Julian for Bernardo to gain more midfield control. The Scousers threw themselves at us, leaving them vulnerable to the counterattack, & so it proved when KDB received the ball in the middle third on the left.
He squirmed past a couple of players & played the kind of through-ball to Haaland that both have built their careers on. Haaland out-stronged Branthwaite, wriggled past him, steadied himself at pace & coolly slotted the ball past Pickford for essentially the winner. My head nearly blew the fuck off again!
We then went into game management & counterattack mode & all was calm until TEN FUCKIN MINUTES additional time was shown! Where the fuck did that time come from! \0/
This gave Everton a renewed sense of desperate purpose in the final few minutes, but thankfully we saw the game out & could've made it three, with a missed lob from KDB, or a hat trick for The Viking if Super Kev had made the pass to a better placed Haaland.
On today's performance I can't see Everton going down, unless they're hit with another points deduction. We've put the pressure back on the Red Dippers & ArseAnal, & the Blue Dippers will have more important battles to fight in the coming weeks.
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City are back on top of the Premier League for a couple of hours, with a game in hand, but there promises to be several more twists & turns in the title race before the end of the season.
The Champions League resumes on Tuesday, so roll on Copenhagen who we shouldn't underestimate at home.
