Sunday, March 4, 2012

What we've learned from the game against United

After a painfully humiliating defeat against our bitter rivals Arsenal, my expectations were a lightning reaction from the team and a change in tactics. Harry made a few changes today and tactically, you can't blame him for anything today, we were not afraid to get a little bit physical, exactly what was needed after a pretty poor display against Arsenal. After another defeat, I can rightly say we were clearly unlucky.

Extra-pressure was on Modric today who had to fill in the boots of the absent Bale, but he kept going to the middle, though this allowed some extra space for Benny, who had an absolutely outstanding game today.

Though BAE was at his best today, a special praise goes to Livermore, who fought like a lion in the middle of the park which saw us keep the possession of the ball most of the time, ensuring us to control the tempo of the game and play the game our way. We were very dominant throughout the game, but again lacked the finishing touch. Giving Saha a chance and leaving Defoe on the bench was an obvious mistake when Defoe was introduced. He didn't have time to make much impact, but his finish in our salvation was brilliant and cold-blooded.

Friedel barely had anything to do in the whole game, yet he went to his net for the ball 3 times. Stats clearly do not show the end result of this game, when you take a look at the possession of the ball (54% on our side), goal attempts (11:6) and unfortunately, I cannot find areal play, but that's where our domination is obvious, since United players barely left their half of the pitch.

With Arsenal now 4 points behind us and 11 games left to play, it is pretty obvious that we have to pick up ourselves and bounce back with a win against Everton next weekend.

1 comment: