evissy

Delap is the big buy for the season and I think he did well coming on from the bench. Bench which isn't blessed with number 9's. Essugo was given minutes at a tail end of a game which was already in the bag. Essugo is also more like Caicedo in terms of his profile. Santos is a bit more like Enzo although their profiles don't match to me like for like. And we have no idea what kind of impression Andrey has made in the team so far. Something we just don't know.

There have been 2 games he could have featured in. Let's not go overboard on this. As much as I'd love to see him play we have time. Hopefully it is against this last game of group stage. I feel if we started Santos and lost it would have been a bit harsh on the boy so I get why he hasn't played.

I would have loved to see him play both our games but it was very logical. First being he's played zero minutes under Maresca in a game and trained with him a couple of weeks. Even Lavia's played only a handful of games under him despite being together for a full season. If the game went to another direction I think he might have featured. Reece playing in the midfield you could argue is less logical. But in general I feel Enzo got that game wrong starting with selections. Don't mind coaches try different things but against a top Brazilian side that went wrong. Jackson finished the job for him basically.

Would be absolutely amazing beating Bayern. That alone would work wonders on the squad and the club. Maybe this place would be a bit more bearable as well 😅 We need to earn that game first though. I think beating Bayern and then facing PSG would be lovely. Not very probable but man's got to dream. Why else would we use our valuable time on this...? 🤔

Just a quick reply on the topic: I think in general when you have a ton of new and especially young players and a new manager in a new league you need to concentrate much more on tactics and be repetitive in most aspects of the game. If you don't you have no fallback on where the players can lean onto when the gut or the instinct is overshadowed by tiredness or an experienced opponent who wants to stifle your football and creativity, you will lose those games and start to slide. I think this is something that happened with Lampard after a brilliant stretch of games in the season where he was sacked. When Di Matteo took over from that Portuguese whose name I always forget he said the idea was just to keep the spirits up which he did brilliantly. AVB! The squad was so experienced and knew exactly what to do no matter who the coach really was. Not to take anything away from Robbie of course. Just an example which might not be perfect but if you let Palmer slide on defensive duties in this squad Madueke starts asking the gaffer why doesn't he have to defend and so on. Some coaches could do that but I think Enzo is from the Italian School of coaches where team comes first. Always much trickier with young lads in that sense.

Like every attacking/progressive midfielder you need cover from DM/DM's and defenders. Brilliantly drilled and experienced sides usually do this very well. Best example to me is Italy's side that won the Euro's few years back. They covered Jorginho who then had the pleasure of running the show with some space and time and did it brilliantly. Unlike Jorginho Enzo is a bit faster and has the eye for the goal and has a great passing range. This is why his price was so steep. I am sure someone would have couped him up for 90-120m a bit later. The club decided we will heavily invest on Enzo. To me that investment looks fine. He is naturally not finished article yet, far from it. And the group around him are not there yet either. Not sure if some of them are staying beyond him. I love his character on the field and are always excited to see him start. I actually back these youngsters and genuinely hope they do well (not sure who wouldn't want that) and are invested in them. Like with the coach I have patience and are willing to see the arc of the story where time and experience does its work and we see these lads reach the levels that were invested in them. Not all investments will work out as we know but I think Enzo will.

This is public knowledge? Knowingly?

Bad day at the office to say the least. Beaten by an experienced side but without Jacksons idiotic red I think a draw was in the cards. Win the last match and we are through.

My word Jackson. Horroshow.

Jackson is off 🤣

2-1 Flamengo

No. Those are basic measurements. That team I can't type again plays in the Vulvian League. They use minutos instead of minutes there.

1-1

Game against Flovidance FC on minute 2,5 or 5,6. Not sure

Nothing to do with position this time. He's done that same mistake on the right side as well.

Sanchez been very solid after those two miss placed passes first half.

James 😐

My word Cucu. Hit that.

Liam with a forehead to bullocks move 😅

He had good games for us this season. Latter stages as well

Colwill shouting to Sanchez there.

So far Palmer's been invisible.

Down to great opponent and our hastiness I think

This is where you see the limitation to our game. When the opposition has the ball more we are not very good at breaking lines even though there are tons of space. We basically can play the one set style. Experienced sides like Real could play any style of football which made the very hard to beat.