HazzaJet 253 Posted August 15, 2021 Is it shameful for a newly promoted team to lose their opening game 3-0 to regular Champions League/PL title contenders? No The first two goals were a bit lucky as the ball just happened to fall kindly for the scorers. To be honest I think we did quite well considering this was a squad that had to cancel two of their pre-season games due to Covid, had some players out injured in pre-season, and also had several players who had only arrived back from Covid on Monday. From what I’ve heard it sounds like some of our players made quite an impressive performance, and here’s my points defending some of the players: Hanley - got injured in the Euros and missed the whole of pre-season through injury and Covid, only came back on Monday Gibson - picked up long term injury towards the end of last season and only made the last two friendlies Giannoulis - only made the last two friendlies due to injury Rashica - made the first three friendlies which were against lower level opposition but missed Newcastle due to Covid. Only came back on Monday Cantwell - made most of the friendlies, but was out with an ankle injury last weekend Pukki - got injured in the Euros and made the first half of the Huddersfield friendly, but only made the Newcastle friendly as a sub as had only just got back from Covid Sargent - was only signed on Monday so missed all the friendlies and with the exception of Rashica, has only just started to get to know the rest of the squad Giannoulis and Rashica sounded good considering they were making their PL debuts against one of the strongest teams in the world 1 down, 37 to go. I’m not going to be disappointed if we don’t get anything from our first 4 games. Might possibly get something against Leicester or Arsenal but I wasn’t expecting anything yesterday and am not expecting anything at the Etihad next weekend either. Playing strong opposition early on in the season might also give some of our new signings some valuable experience ready for the games against weaker teams 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Yelloow Since 72 54 Posted August 16, 2021 (edited) 20 hours ago, king canary said: There was a moment yesterday when Rashica got free on the left hand channel with Pukki next to him and he put a cross in but absolutely nobody from the midfield had got forward to offer an option or a late run. I don't think you necessarily need a proper 'number 10' for that but you need one of Rupp or Lees Melou breaking forward. Maybe McLean the best option for this? This is the key to a 3 man midfield. I'd prefer for it to be Lees-Melou breaking forward as he has pace and the ability to score from around the box. Has Rupp even got close to scoring yet? McLean could also do that when he's match-fit again. Edited August 16, 2021 by Yelloow Since 72 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
