He faced a very dangerous attacker who has given him fits in the past and kept him pretty quiet. I had to be reminded yesterday evening that Martnelli even played. And in addition his passes created our two goals.
I didn’t see the game just MoTd highlights. What stood out from that for me was two things.
One Martinelli spent much of the time working closely with Timber to shut down Salah. It was only when Timber started struggling due to fatigue that Salah started isolating him.
Secondly, Robbo’s side was targeted by Arsenal who I think pushed an extra player wide. Mac appeared caught in the middle as to who to pick up leaving the left side of defence a bit more exposed than usual.
One of the things I am looking forward to seeing is how Arne does against teams second time around, because he strikes me as the sort of coach who will learn from his encounters and develop effective plans to counter them if faced again.
Watching Bradley with NI is not the same as watching him with Liverpool first team. You don’t play as a right back in isolation, you play with a team structure and teammates that can significantly boost your ability to contribute.
Would you have the same impression of what you have of our prime Robbo had you keenly observed his time with Hull City? I suspect not.
Similarly, going by England matches, TAA is a far inferior player than he actually is.
Yeah though I’ve watched all his games for Liverpool too. He’s great but he’s no Trent (yet)
He had 3 woeful passes in that 2nd half and it just SEEMED with how bad they were that he had thrown the toys out of the pram and couldn’t be arsed as he is going.
I have highlighted the seemed as that was my thought at the time, because all 3 passes were poor especially from what we know Trent is capable of.
Maybe some of us are putting 1 and 1 together and getting 3 with all the speculation.
Yes, there’s so much wishful thinking about youth players who come in to the first team. Only Trent and, to an extent Jones and Elliot have established themselves in the last decade. In that time there have been dozens of ‘next big things’.
Hopefully Bradley will come good, but it’s just as likely that he won’t. We certainly shouldn’t be betting on him to seamlessly replace TAA.
Sorry to be a pisser but seems a bit hard to reconcile these …
I have absolutely no respect for the English language.
Weekend