Too little, too little, too late.
Ah, well.
Ironically, that our squad limitations are only showing this far in is a testament to Poch's wondrous skill. To do what he's done, with the sh*t available to him, is phenomenal. But, honestly, the summer and January should be case studies in stress testing - in deliberate neglect, because you know you can. You know you have had a tiring summer, know players are injured, know the backups are all crap...and you do nothing. You even sell a first-team midfielder, just to worsen the stress, and *still* sign no one.
This might be the closest we'll ever get to the big stage, and our utterly cheapskate ways and squad limitations might doom us at the death. Ironic.
I hope Jan's okay. That's my big takeaway today.
I hope he's okay.
Other than that, we tried hard. I'm mildly hopeful for next week, because Son will be back, but it's an almost Herculean task, because they will score again. We need to score at least 3.
And we didn't even look like scoring one, so, what can you do. I hope. But that's it.
Hard to be critical of anyone tonight - they gave it absolutely everything. Trippier, Wanyama, Lucas, Llorente...they're poor players, playing poorly, but my GHod, did they try their hearts out.
As Poch says, they're heroes.
I just wish they were better footballers.