The result tonight wasn't a surprise to me. When you play a mish-mash team then there will be times you get a dog's dinner of a performance. Pep was trying to save as many players as possible for the derby which meant players playing who you wouldn't want in the team and even decent players playing out of position.
Players like Gomez aren't good enough, Palmer looks poor at the moment, Phillips started his first game in months, Cancelo looks like he can't be arsed. You can't carry that shit at this level even if you've got some decent players out there.
Can you imagine how much the squad would be stretched having to play United or Newcastle over 2 games on top of the crazy schedule we already have? It would be a shit show.
I don’t actually think the squad is good enough anymore in several areas to juggle 4 competitions. For me, it's not a bad thing we won’t have to play a 2 legged semi within a couple of weeks or so. I’m not sure we could have coped with the schedule without overplaying our better players to get through.
Ps
Playing shit in the game before we beat the rags in the derby used to be a good omen!