Castiron wrote: ↑Sun Apr 18, 2021 10:23 am
Sunday morning. The dust has settled a bit, and I'm still fucked if I know how we've lost to a Steve Bruce side twice in a season, when every time I've watched Newcastle they are absolute dogshit. Fuck sake
The opening game is much more difficult to explain than yesterday imo. After losing to them at the LS I was convinced it was going to be a long hard season hoping there would be 3 teams worse than us. We pulled ourselves out of the first day malaise brilliantly and have had a season none of us could possibly have anticipated.
Combination of factors yesterday. Dawson thinking he was Gerard Pique miscontrolling a ball and then compounding his error by diving in when already on a yellow. Fabianski having his one shocker a season moment, last year's was at Anfield if you remember and young Johnson, very unfortunately after his goalline heroics a few moments earlier, losing his man for the winner. All individual errors.
But we could also see how much Rice is missed in the middle of the park. And it was also obvious that without him we only have Fornals who can dictate the play. I think we sometimes underestimate how much Rice influences us going forward as well as his undoubted presence defensively.
And the thinness of the squad was compounded as it became obvious once Noble was replaced by Benrahma we would lose what defensive stability we had left. Sorry to those who think Benrahma is the next best thing but imo the bloke is proving to be a complete waste of money. I know some will say "but he hasn't been given a run in the team". True, but until he starts to contribute more than the square root of fuck all when he does come on, he doesn't deserve the run in the team quite a few would apparently like to see.
I wonder which of the dwarf's pet agents benefited from shifting him onto our payroll.