Second half gave me promise. The title has gone but it was a team who showed a bit of fight. Certainly more fight than they’ve shown in the whole of the past month.
There’s issues across the team. Walker is shit - criminally so. Can’t defend men in front of him. Can’t defend men running beyond him. No positional awareness to defend space either. So can’t defend forwards and can’t defend space. And isn’t good on the ball. So what does he bring? It certainly isn’t leadership. Our should-be captain, Dias, rightfully gave him a bollocking after their first.
Lewis isn’t good enough. Not aware enough to be a defender. Not good enough to be a midfielder. His first touch is like a wall. He’s bullied off the ball too easily, not strong enough but builds his whole game around needing to be able to hold players off. Hope he improves but I just can’t see it working out. And when he backed out of that tackle with Roberson in the first half? Do me a fucking favour. Young, local lad scared shitless so jumps over the ball to avoid getting in a 50/50. Sums him up. Scared of the physical side of things (hence being on the floor 90% of the game and 100% of the time an opponent comes near him) and only wants to try and do the pretty things.
Gundogan too slow. Same with Bernie. Both have the confidence to take the ball and try to control the tempo but don’t have the legs to do it anymore. Not alone anyway. Nunes tried but he’s limited.
Foden is anonymous and arguably one of the biggest culprits of the past month. IMO anyway. He should be doing more. Haaland needs service and with a bunch of slow midfielders, defenders and poorly-performing wingers - Foden needs to step up and be counted. Instead he’s hiding in games. Giving away petty fouls and overall being just another player in a flailing system rather than somebody we look to for answers. Maybe we’ve been spoilt by Kev all these years.
On Kev. I get that he’s probably told to preserve his legs but fuck me, if you lose the ball don’t just stand there motionless and then start walking while the rest of the team are scampering about trying to sort your mess. Players who have been overplayed, overworked and ran ragged for 75 minutes are then working twice (to be polite) as hard as he is when he’s the one giving the ball away.
Wingers. Doku and Savinho try and make things happen. Doku is the one to unlock defences but Pep needs to unleash the attacking talent of the team now. Today wasn’t the day to do it - until we went behind - but we need a kickstart now and fiery wingers like Doku and Savinho are exactly what we need. Somebody who tries something other than the tepid side to side, stand your man up and pass it backwards brigade. Doku did more today in half an hour than a lot of players have done in the past month. Fair play to him and he even showed a bit of fight in his play. Tenacity. Just lacked end product but at least he got HIMSELF into the position where that was the only thing lacking.
I think we need Grealish centrally. It’s a breath of fresh air to see Pep try it today and to suggest after the game that it’ll be a common feature going forward. Somebody who can go up a gear, past players but also have the ability to dictate the tempo and be cute with his passing. He should’ve been played there way before today and hopefully it’ll be the start of a new role for him in the team.
Haaland. Has spent more time this past month laughing with his markers than he has trying to put them in their place. I get his service is limited. I get that’s frustrating. I get the service he does get is shit. But he needs to do more than mope about with his head down. And he needs to stop lurking at the back post. That’s two domestic games running that he’s played against a back up CB (Ben Davies and Joe Gomez) and two games running that he’s failed to make an impact on the game. He’s bullied out of games too easily. Today if the ball went to the left, he’d peel off to the back post which was patrolled by Van Dijk but because he’s not confident enough to beat him, he peeled off even further so he didn’t have to go 1v1 with him. He needs to make the limited service he gets into something rather than doing the same move - which fails - over and over and over and over again hoping for a different result.
On the positives. We showed a bit of fight in the second half. We suffocated the dippers but then that was obviously their own game plan for a counter as much as it was us upping our game. Dias is back. A few ropey moments, sure, but his leadership is a necessity to get out of this rut we’re in. It was good to see him dishing out a few bollockings - it’s exactly what we’ve been missing. A player forcing others to be accountable for their mistakes.
Ake hugging Salah instead of sticking up for Bernie pissed me off as well. Same with Akanji having a laugh and joke with their players while 2-0 down and no sign of coming back. Haaland too. Proper winds me up. They’re supposed to be your enemy for 90 minutes - the team that’s about to rip the crown away from you - but instead you’re treating them like mates. Does my fucking nut in.
Get top 4. Rebuild. Go for the cup competitions but more importantly, get rid of the deadwood. Keep the ones worth keeping (Gundo will always be handy, Walker won’t be etc) and start again. That dippers team was full of energy today, the exact opposite to us and it showed. Get players in that want to prove a point. Not insist on continuing with players who have already proved that point and haven’t got it in them to do it again.
In Pep I trust.
