My thoughts tonight from a very cold Wembley.
I think a one goal win for Emirates Marketing Project was probably fair even though we had our moments.
Overall I thought we played OK against the team that I feel are the best in the league but we were let down by a few individual poor performances, with Trippier’s being the worst of the lot. It takes some doing to make Sterling look like Messi but Trippier managed it with aplomb. Dier came a close second to Trippier for worst player I thought, it was almost like having ten men, the game completely bypassed him with him being too slow and ponderous to have any impact for us whether attacking or defending. Moira was also very quiet, while Walker’s final ball going forward for Emirates Marketing Project was generally poor tonight, he still had Moura in his pocket defensively yet could get forward and attack at will. We are FAR weaker in the full back positions than we were a couple of years ago when we had Walker and Rose in those positions with us having lost a lot of explosive pace and width as a result.
Originally in live play I thought Kane had spurned his one on one through a bad touch, but watching a replay the touch was actually OK and it was just brilliant goalkeeping, both in terms of starting position and pace to get out to Kane. It looked to me as though Kane should’ve had another even easier one on one but was given offside even though it seemed to me as though (I think it was) Mendy, who was terrible all game, playing him onside?
In terms of our bright spots, I thought Winks was fantastic when he came on. I would’ve liked to have seen him replace Dier much earlier in the game. I don’t think Dier can be picked in these games against teams full of quick, technical players. I thought Sanchez was the pick of our back 4 for the entire game both in terms of his positioning and his challenges. Ali looked far more threatening than Moura playing from the left, again I would’ve liked to have seen him on earlier to give Walker something else to think about as Moura gave him no trouble. I thought Lamela was our best player over the 90 minutes and it was a shame that he missed a sitter near the end of the game with really bad technique. He is great at getting into goal scoring positions but definitely needs to work on his composure in front of goal. Sissoko also had a good game, winning the ball and generally carrying it forward well.
Going forward from here I would like to see us playing only one of Dier, Dembele or Wanyama (with the latter being my preference if fully fit) with Winks starting alongside him in that Modric kind of role. We can then perm three of five out of Eriksen, Ali, Lamela, Son and Moura in front of them (although I wouldn’t mind seeing Son get at few games at CF while Kane has a couple of weeks off).