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Comments
Second half - poor - we did not cause them enough issues or control the game enough. They built pressure which eventually resulted in two goals (albeit one was a poor ref call) - we defended both poorly.
But, that first half was very promising considering 1) the standard of opposition and 2) the limited time Potter had before the game.
A very good first half - organised, cohesive, balanced, dangerous.
Paquetá improved (other than his play acting).
Quality of the goal.
Summerville performance.
Change of player positions (Summerville, Kudus, Paquetá).
Faith to play Scarles instead of shift AWB across.
No shots conceded in opening 45 minutes.
A formation that allowed us to narrowly pressurise & squeeze Villa, without mindlessly pressing.
Negatives:
Füllkrug injury - leading to Ings.
Summerville injury - leading to Coufal.
Second half drop off - no attacking threat until the last 10 minutes.
Defensive weakness in that 5-10 minute spell when they scored twice.
Mavropanos shaky second half.
But, given the quality of opposition, the fact we were away & the fact Potter had been in charge for less than 48 hours, I have to say I was fairly pleased & impressed with what I saw. We all know the corner was not a corner, which changed the entire game (regardless if we had been under pressure - that happens in away games against Champions League sides funnily enough).
We need to get our key players back quickly (Füllkrug looks a bad one, Antonio we know is out long term). We need to see if we can get a striker & a defender in (possibly a midfielder).
But I think the uplift in performance in such a tough game, with one training session, gives us all hope of better times ahead. But players also need to up it. Paquetá did, Summerville did. Others need to do the same. It’s not all on Lopetegui & his team.
All I am saying is the players have had an easy ride from many fans. Kudus being one of the most obvious. He needs to up it, he went missing last night after the first 20 minutes. Álvarez, the defence, Mavropanos - all need to raise their games. I hope Potter can contribute to them getting better but it’s obviously a two person process. I accept Lop needed to go but these players were as much the blame.
The players are mentally fragile, they lose their heads once they come under pressure, not too much a manager can do about that
Wan-Bissaka - Mavropanos - Kilman
Summerville - Álvarez - Souček - Scarles
Kudus - Paquetá
Füllkrug
Was the team & how we started. It seemed a 4-2-3-1 on paper but was more a 3-4-2-1. Very interesting & worked a treat until the Summerville injury.
Not like he can call a time out to rally them, clearly they can help but sometimes you gotta take responsibility and figure it out yourself
Can't speak for everyone but plenty of people I've worked with panic under pressure regardless of who is managing them
Other than Scarles we don't have any kids, we have a lot of international players who are paid handsomely, thinm passing all the buck onto the manager is just lazy imo
We looked newly energised as often occurs when a new face arrives in the dugout, but also indicates Potter motivated the team well in the brief time he had with them. We did look a little better organised and that resulted in few moments of real threat in a first half in which we were the better team.
To the credit of Potters opposite number Villa came out with more intent and pushed us back a little into areas they could threaten more and in turn draw us back even further. The goal was unfortunate as it was simply never a corner. A part of me wants to moan about the poor level of officials but a part does see how it happened as it was such a poorly hit shot/cross with real movement on the ball, add that movement on the ball to Souceks attempt at it and it could look like the movement on the ball was caused by him making contact. After that I felt there would be only one winner as Ings is not enough threat and without Bowen and Summerville it was hard to see how we would take the game back to them.
All things considered a really good effort with a team that is suffering through missing attacking threat without Bowen, Antonio and now Fulkrug. We must enter the market for a striker during this window and also sort our a centre back pairing we can have a bit more confidence in one way or another. Should we do that I am hopeful we can find something to be optimistic about for the rest of the season.
Summerville looked good before going off and the two youngsters didn't look out of their depth which bodes well.
After half time AWB moved up to fill in for Summerville which to me that suggests Potter thinks AWB has more to offer getting forward
I think AWB's talents would be wasted playing as RCB in a 3-4-2-1 and would be more suited to the RWB role
If not, the WHUFC curse, OR, if so, you have to question why did we buy him ( I don't know his injury history ), but at present he seems more injury prone than Andy C....That's a shocker.
Such a shame....
Guess we'll be seeing Kudus as our new makeshift striker....