I knew we'd lose after learning the Dippers rested most of their players on Wednesday, & it was confirmed when I saw the team sheet today. Further confirmation was the way we played in the first half. We gifted them the match.
What the fuck was Steffen doing! :-| We were off the pace, showed little desire & looked like we didn't want to be there. Grealish, Foden, Sterling, Jesus, Bernardo, Zin & Fern were terrible in the first half. Being 0-3 down was bad enough, but not putting in the effort???? WTF!
The second half started well with Jack's goal, but the onus was on us to pull it back. Being 2 down was gonna be hard enough, but I feared Steffen's fuck up was gonna be the deciding factor, & so it proved.
We gave it all we had in the second half & pulled two goals back, but were never gonna recover from 0-3 down. We had 2 clear cut chances to score, Jesus's being the best but we blew it. This is where a clinical world class striker comes in.
Over all Aké was my MoTM with Stones not far behind. I've a feeling Pep has rationalised that if there was a match to lose for the rest of this season, this was it. Now we've only got the Premier League & Champions League to concentrate on & I'm OK with that.
After Wednesday, today was always likely to be a step too far, & so it proved. )(