This was a rare opportunity for those of us in the United States to watch a
full game, so I was intrigued to see how the team looked. These are my
take-aways:
1. I was surprised at how committed to the passing game the team were. Again
and again we passed it out of defence, even when under pressure. Evans has to
take some credit for this. Of course, this approach also revealed the fact that
several of our players are not the best passers in the world (or even
Yorkshire, I suspect). I got tired of watching the ball passed straight to the
feet of opposition players. Oh well.
2. The team was well drilled (i.e. well coached). We were playing a team in the
top half of the Premier League, yet they never looked like scoring. Did
Silvestri have a serious save to make? I don't think so. Again, credit to Evans.
3. Wootton is useless as a right back. The goal apart - and he should be
rightly embarrassed by that mistake, as should any professional footballer - he
offered nothing going forward, and in fact slowed our attacks by always looking
to pass back or sideways. This defeat has to be seen as a direct result of
selling our top quality right back and not replacing him. If Wootton is the
best right back in the squad (what about Coyle?) we are in trouble.
4. Our team has no attacking edge. None. We lacked pace, guile and brute force:
no target man, and in the absence of such, nobody making smart runs and nobody
making defence-splitting passes.
Cheers!
Sean
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