Thought we played okay for the first 25-30 minutes but then faded towards the end of the first half, and pretty much camped in our own half for most of the second.
The contrast between the two starting 11’s boiled down to Isak and Joelinton against Girona, vs Harrison and Osula against Brest. Not a dig at Harrison, who looked out of his depth having likely never played opposition of that quality, or Osula, who has been bought for his potential rather than his ability, as well as only been in the door 5 minutes, but it’s a reminder that we are still fragile in key positions.
Thought we were excellent against Girona yesterday, and defended well today, giving a lot of promise once you combine the two 11’s, as well as adding Tonali into the mix, for the season ahead, providing we don’t face another injury crisis.
Worryingly still a pretty poor window so far, you could argue keeping Bruno and not letting PSR incompetence cost us with Gordon (as of now) being let go, adds up to more than signing two new players. However, if we have any aspirations to get back in the top 4, I think we are a centre back and a right winger short, and injuries in one or two positions are going to leave us really struggling to break teams down. We have kept Bruno, Gordon and Isak this window, but if we are not knocking on the door and arguably qualifying for Champions League football by the end of the coming season, we will be starting the summer window needing to replace before we even contemplate strengthening.
I get we can’t just spend willy nilly, this isn’t Football Manager, and all the other tropes, as well as being a realist, but we have needed a right winger for over 3 summer transfer windows now, I don’t get the blind spot here with recruitment, and I also don’t buy into the fact the right player hasn’t become available. If after 3 years you can’t find an upgrade for Almiron or Murphy, then you probably shouldn’t be recruiting for a Premier League football club. I’d also add to this, to be chasing a centre back going into the week of the first game of the season, when we have needed one all summer, is more evidence that things have been poorly organised behind the scenes, if we really wanted Guehi, and didn’t want to derail his Euros, why not put a bid in the day after the final and get it tied up then?!
Obviously I will be stoked if we can get Guehi this week, but I thought the days of last minute deals for key players were over, hopefully the club can regain some composure off the pitch and we can have a season to rival our Champions League qualifying one, lots of positives from pre-season, just a super disappointing window so far which is dampening my expectations a little.
