Koumas provided much needed energy when he came, as he has done in preseason, so deserved a go and did well.
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Yeah, I mean I don’t even think a prime Robbo would have been able to match that pace. It was insane.
Positioning however was more my critique when watching it unfold.
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We have to make a mess in order to truly clean up…and all that.
And boy did our leadership create a long lasting mess since we won the league.
If there’s one glint of optimism it’s that whereas that second goal of theirs would have completely killed us last year we somehow managed to keep plugging away.
Tha manner of it though … omfg … Wissa shouldn’t even have reached the halfway line never mind run all the way to the edge of our box unchallenged. As many others have noted we **have ** to sort the midfield out if we want to be taken seriously. I’m beginning to wonder just where and how Wirtz fits into this team.
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Good:
- Jacquet looks to be the future key CB for our club in the next decade
- Munoz is fucking rapid and more effective than Rio on the right
- Gakpo is on fucking fire…
Bad :
- The midfield pivot is weak as fuck. Playing 2 offensive minded 8s is suicidal as fuck. Gravenberch pussying out of a shot and giving the ball away while the team is not set is what led us to concede the first goal. The second conceded goal is what happens when Gravenberch ventures too far up and Szobo was caught on the wrong side. Nobody especially Szobo took the initiative to put in a bloody tackle. A specialist DM is sorely needed. It doesn’t help that both of the current midfield pivot’s idea of progressing the ball is simply running with it.
- Rio is poor on the right. He is a Gakpo regen. Why are we fucking up his career like that?
- Our full-backs are so poor with the ball. Frimpong has no idea what to do with it and Kerkez fluffs his crosses.
- Wirtz is just physically not suited for this league. His upper body strength is no good…
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Andoni Iraola on if he had the control he liked:
“When you concede two goals, overall we had good moments of long phases on the ball but the first one it was more difficult to defend as he’s a fast player… second one we had the numbers to defend it, we have to try win the ball, first one great run and the mistake for that one is not finishing the play [from Gravenberch].”
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Definitely a work in progress here. The new players, particularly Jacquet, impressed, as did Koumas. There were far too many stray passes and this is something that should improve with time.
I’ll take the 2:2 draw, but I was disappointed that Isak didn’t take the penalty to turn boiling Geordie piss to plasma.
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Wirtz is talented no doubt but he just doesn’t fit/suit us and the league.
Me and a mate were talking saying how many prem teams have flair players nowadays that just float about? They are more athletes than players now.
Cherki at City maybe? But he dont start .
The prem league is no home for flair players unfortunately.
Its all about stamina and running. So when you have a wirtz / cherki it feels like you have 10.
Isaks just a busted flush. Hes had a world cup and preseaon and still looks way off it.
Nah, it was better this way—imagine if Isak had missed.
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Full backs looked really sloppy. Wingers slow as hell and lacking creativity. Way too open in the middle. Few options on bench…
Apart from that, we were alright! 
(I think there’s enough for Iraola to get a tune out of anyway)
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Crying out for a 6…dont understand why the young kid whose been great in preseason didnt come on.
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No chance. He was awful all game. He wouldve missed 100%
Who didn’t manage to get anything else out of Kerkez all game and I don’t you can attribute losing a 70 yard foot race down to bad defending.
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@Liverdinner Andoni basically said the first goal doesn’t happen if we finish the move (Grav not shooting). And the second goal we had the numbers but we “didn’t defend properly” (Szobo).
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Yeah they were largely at fault.
I think the first goal was a bit more than just Grav not scoring though.
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Also Gakpo is the only front player who looked like doing anything today from those that started yet people want him sold.
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On Jacquet, overall a good game, looks very good on the ball, however, he was lucky in one counter where he got his angles and body position wrong and was saved by a poorly weighted pass.
Expected from a young player.
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He’d have missed
He would have.
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I saw that one.
He was facing the wrong way instead of being positioned and having his body to run towards where the pass was going to go
But otherwise very good.