Not that disappointed just feel conned like I normally do with the refs (Atkinson and Mason) we have in our games.
Let's start with Pepe, looked a bit tetchy at times but in the 2nd half he was fucking superb, was a moment where he made 5 consecutive saves.
The back 4 are definately setup differently now, noticeably when we had 11 men we played higher up even with the pace of Hernandez to run in behind. Thought Agger was superb in his defensive duties as was Skrtel (though he really needs to get rid of that shirt pulling habit at corners), both were brilliant on the ball bar a few overeager passes from Skrtel, just not hoofing that ball made so much of a difference even when we had 10 men. The full backs I thought did well, Kelly got absolutely fuck all support from Kuyt which was disappointing as that was the reason Dirk was probably picked to track back Evra, but Evra and Giggs were constantly doubling up, which Meireles did well to see and cover for the time he was on the pitch. Kelly had a great game though, tried to stop crosses getting in rather than let them get in and have the centre backs have to deal with them. On the otherside Aurelio kept Nani quiet bar a few moments where Rafael was allowed to overlap. Great performance from the back 4 as a unit, they didn't concede a goal, that shit was gifted to them.
Midfield was a bit of an odd one for this game, of course with Stevie's sending off it made it a completely different game. At the start though it was a 3 man midfield, Stevie had the freedom of the pitch but dropped deep to exchange passes well with Raul and Lucas. Lucas I thought was brilliant, kept the ball well, pinging it around, and was everywhere like a duracell bunny, even getting forward when down to 10 men. Raul kind of let down the midfield unit in the second half, I think it was a good change to take him off. Shelvey did ok when he came on, but he has a lot to learn yet about central midfield positioning, he'll be on a similar learning curve to Lucas.
In my opinion it seemed we had set up as so
Lucas
Raul Gerrard
with Gerrard having freedom of the town and Raul dropping into the wide positions to cover for the scum's overlapping full backs.
Finally the 3 forward men, though we had the same setup as Rafa, I think Kenny's initial thought was that one of the midfielders should cover any runs from Rafael and Maxi would play higher up and narrower, and stay near Nando. I thought Maxi did his job very well, can't remember him giving away the ball and he was always in position to accept a pass and be a good outlet. On the other side of the pitch I think Dirk was given more work, he was going to play narrower and close to Nando but had to also cover Evra's runs and help out Kelly which I don't think he did to well. I got a bit frustrated with him in the second half as he kept losing the ball or doing silly passes. He ran his bollocks off though.
Nando actually looked up for it today to me, when we had 11 men, it looked like he just needed a half chance and he was going to do something, he ran his socks off today as the two centre backs inevitably once we down to 10 and could not press just passed between themselves. He had to be taken off just for being knackered out from chasing the ball. Did quite a few things well, other things not so well but you can see returning to this system is going to help him.
Overall teamplay even when down to 10 was about retaining possession, recycling it, moving it from left to right and back if needed to find space with either Aurelio's good delivery or Kelly's overlapping runs. We had a lot of shots from distance but nothing to threatening for the scum. You could see when we had 11 how we had 2/3 players pressing in groups and it showed as Evans and Ferdinand resorted to hoofing the ball up to their forwards which Agger and Skrtel dealt with ease.
The delightful thing was seeing both our centre halfs and our fullbacks, all who have been culpable of taking the easy way out this season with long balls, playing it short to the midfield, playing it to the wide players and being ready to receive passes all the time.
It's disappointing to lose like so but it looks good to see that we've already got out that thinking we are a mid table team and playing like one rut. Let's see how it progresses against Blackpool, hopefully give them a spanking.
I hope Pacheco gets a shout in the hole against them now Stevie's out!
I should add, we definately need a pacy player on the left hand side of the pitch, whether that be a winger or a full back. Luckily on the right hand side both our right backs have good speed and can overlap very well. Aurelio on the other side has great delivery but won't be overlapping as often. Babel was dodge today as usual, he needs to think quicker on the ball.
