Luton Town (A) | PL | Post Match Thread

Very pleasing attitude and desire 2nd half.

Thought Rodri was absolutely outstanding today. Leadership, “not having it” ness, grafted his bollocks and off and put himself about like it mattered.

Being just 4 points off the top, as poor as we’ve been the last few weeks, tells me the rest of the contenders are shit. I’d say we’ve been approx 65% of the team we were last season.

No more fucking about now.
 
IMG-20231210-WA0012.jpg

I had a feeling Pep would press the reset button & go back to basics, & so it proved with a flat back four, but with Kovacic partnering Rodri, as opposed to Rodri playing single pivot with a No 8 & a No 10 ahead of him.

We did everything right in the first half bar score, & I couldn't believe it when Luton got the first on the stroke of half time.

Luton made this a proper fuckin scrap, & their capacity crowd in their small, tight stadium made it a cauldron of fire. So much so, Sky kept apologising for the bad language the cameras picked up, but I don't know why? It's a blummin football match after all... ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠⊙⁠_⁠ʖ⁠⊙⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

The main thing I noticed which I've not seen since the season before last was our physical ability to match & go above the opposition. This used to be standard for us, but since we changed from a false 9 to having a target man, it's noticeable this side of our game has ebbed away.

Strangely, we've been defensively vulnerable this season, & although we didn't get a clean sheet, I thought we were far more solid, with far fewer individual mistakes.

Today was Gvardiol's best match in a long while, & it's about time Dias began to show the player we know he is.

Rodri's ball control is just something else, & we're not the same team without him.

I'm seriously made up that Jack's scored two in two, but I really wish both he & Kovacic wouldn't hold on to the ball so long which just slows down our play.

Midway through the first half, our rapid one/two touch football was a sight to behold & was twisting Luton inside out. However both Jack & Kovacic were guilty of holding on to possession, or were taking too long with the pass which kept breaking our rapid rhythm.

We did what we needed to do & it was a relief to return to winning ways after late goals costing us recently, & our insipid display at Villa.

Villa were good, but nothing we've not faced before. That loss was more down to us being off the pace in every respect, hence it coming as no surprise that Pep pressed the reset button & returned to basics.

Haaland being out probably helped us in that respect, which isn't a slight on Erling, but him & Julian both playing has been a bit hit & miss lately, so for now I'd prefer one or the other.

We've Palace up next who always cause us problems regardless of our form, so hopefully we can overcome them before we jet off to the World Club Cup, which seems a pointless mid-season hindrance to me.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top
✖
  AdBlock Detected
Bluemoon relies on advertising to pay our hosting fees. Please support the site by disabling your ad blocking software to help keep the forum sustainable. Thanks.