Written by kirsikka
Big games call for big decisions, and AI wasn’t afraid to make them. Brooks returned to the XI, back on his own youth team stomping ground, and Diakite was given the Linda Hamilton role to stop the T-1000. Kluivert and Milos dropped to the bench. Meanwhile, there was the welcome sight of Evanilson also being fit enough to make the bench.
Man of the Match against Manchester City
Adams
Adams
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Truffert
Truffert
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Senesi
Senesi
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Jimenez
Jimenez
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Someone else
Someone else
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A visit to our perennial House of Horrors around Halloween was enough to worry any AFCB fan, even in our vaunted form of this season, and so it was to prove.
The impetuousness of youth is sometimes a blessing, sometimes a curse. Today, Kroupi was a touch too eager as we carved open a tap-in for him in the first minute, but with loads of space, clear sight of the defenders and no need to he’d strayed offside. What a start it would have been and may have rattled them. Instead, it was the warning shot they needed.
Our setup was a sort of hybrid that didn’t look well organised at the start. The high press was much more restricted in its use as we tried to be a bit more circumspect. However, somehow we weren’t covering the space in the middle third, which meant they were able to break forward into unchallenged areas.
I’m not sure what was going wrong, but I am certain that whatever we planned for, it wasn’t that.
It cost us soon enough. A simple ball at the halfway line saw Diakite a few yards too far forward. Senesi got sucked into going toward the ball, which was flicked on to Haaland, who now had a clear run at goal. Obviously, he ran through and scored.
We equalised with a corner, where Brooks was very cute in his gamesmanship. He grabbed the keeper’s arm but let go before the jump so he couldn’t be accused of interfering. It did enough to put the goalie off; he fluffed his punch and Adams was there to tap home.
Back in it, but Man City kept carving us open with the same move of flicking the ball to the free man as soon as they saw Senesi make a move to challenge. It soon led to their second goal.
Senesi stepped up, leaving Haaland in space. They played a simple ball over the top to him and with Truffert dawdling way too deep, he was clearly inside. Diakite was too far away to cover, so he raced through to slide it past Petrovic from an angle.
It happened another couple of times in the first half, and there is clearly an issue of communication there. Whatever triggers Senesi to step forward has to see a reaction from Diakite in matches like this, or we’re going to get taken apart by this kind of movement.
Fortunately for us, Petrovic saved the third one and the fourth was cleared off the line by Jiminez. It may have been only 2-1 at half time, but let’s not pretend that it couldn’t easily have been more.
A bit of a tactical re-brief at halftime saw us look more comfortable, so whatever it was does appear to be fixable. Hopefully, we can master it in time.
The good thing is we were only one behind and looked like we could get back into it for the first 15 minutes of the second half. Then came a crucial moment.
Jiminez went down injured under a challenge. With Evanilson and Kluivert stripped off and ready to come on, rather than make the sub immediately during the injury break and also take off the Spaniard, AI opted to give him a couple of minutes. I’d maybe question the physio team here, as he was well off the pace.
We paid the price when he was a touch slow off the mark getting back across to cover a man, meaning he was too late to get in a challenge. That meant the Man City player had time to take a shot, which squirmed under Petrovic.
We made the triple sub, but the damage was done and, in truth, the game was over.
Sure, there were off moments here and there, but it mostly petered out as they settled for the win without risking too much and we struggled to lay too many blows. Tavs was unfortunate not to score a close-range effort that took the smallest of deflections off a defender, about the only real danger from us.
I don’t think we can argue that we deserved much more today in a game where we didn’t fire in quite the same way as usual. That said, it took one of their best performances of the season so far to put us away. Usually, they’d canter to victory against us; today, they had to raise their game. Don’t lose sight of that.
Selected Player Watch
—– Diakite —–
Turned out to be a bit more Linda Blair than Linda Hamilton, and he may need an exorcism to get Haaland out of his mind after today. Ignore the price tag, he doesn’t control that, and give him time to adapt to the PL and I think he’ll come good. Although there are some worries about the combination of him and Senesi at times.
—– Adams ——
On a tough day for many players, I thought he mostly did his job well. I’m not sure the gaps in the midfield were down to him and seemed more to do with the way we were set up.
—– Jiminez ——
Continues to impress. Hopefully, it’s just a minor knock and he’s back next weekend.
—– Truffert ——
In a season where, so far, he’s had pretty much universal acclaim will have to hold his hands up on that second goal. Lagged way too far behind play, keeping Haaland onside.
—– Kroupi Jr ——
Learning experience for him out there. Should have stayed onside in the first minute, and he’ll know his over-excitement cost him a goal and a chance for us to put them under some early pressure.
AI and Tactics Watch
How do you analyse a game like this as an AFCB fan? Is it in the context of who we are, where we are right now or with realistic expectations in mind? All three would give you a very different reading of events.
The positive for me is that they looked to kill the game when they went ahead. Against previous incarnations of AFCB, they would have carried on relentlessly, looking to score four, five or six. This time, Pep erred on the side of caution as in the times they did show ambition,n we equally looked like we might get one back. He wanted no part in a basketball match against us.
That’s a measure of progress right there.
The downside is that, ultimately, they picked off our defence fairly easily and with simple moves. In fact, they could and should really have scored more in the first half.
Partnerships take time to build, and it was evident out there that not everything is synced between Diakite with Senesi yet. In hindsight, was it an error not to give them more gametime together last week? The three points against Forest say no and I’m comfortable with that, but it does show the importance of that understanding. They clearly targeted flicks if someone saw Senesi jumping forward, and with Diakite often a fraction behind covering that space, it was enough to tear us open repeatedly.
There’s no shame in conceding two goals to Haaland, but the impact of him and Mateta in recent weeks against this defence will have been noted. It was always the worry after the summer transfer business that big, powerful forwards would cause us problems. Fortunately, there aren’t too many as good as those two out there, but we should expect trial by the biggest striker lump available in many matches to come.
In terms of the tactics, it was interesting that AI tried to derisk our play compared to normal. It wasn’t the snarling, in-your-face, 100mph high press trying to discomfort them. It was far more measured, with only occasional and targeted unleashing of the beast.
Did it work? Not really. They played it out from defence fairly easily when we stood off them. Whereas quite a lot of their worst moments were when we did step in and give them both barrels. Of course, there’s danger in the high press, we all know that, so maybe an element of caution is needed. I don’t think we got the balance right today, though.
All that said, it was away to Man City. Just who do we think we are to have an expectation of a result there? Let’s ground things in reality a little here, no matter how well we’ve played recently.
I’m enjoying the season immensely and today won’t put a dampener on that. No doubt the time of year and this result will see the return of the forum ghouls this week, but let them feast on rotten flesh. It seems to be where they take their pleasure. Meanwhile, I shall be looking forward to next weekend with hope…
…to a match where Dracula will be on the sidelines and Mings the Merciless (possibly) on the pitch. Seems like Halloween may be continuing for one more game.
Your say…
Neil Dawson added…
I’ve watched us play a low block there, a back six low block there, go at them all guns blazing and a mixture of all of those in one game.
The result remains unchanged, although at least on the last two visits it’s been a two-goal margin. They have the players and coach to take you apart, however you play and do it to most sides (apart from a weird blip) in the last ten years.
We lost two world-class centre-backs and replaced them with two that aren’t as good and maybe never will be. As they settle in, we’ve conceded 4/3 and 3 against three top sides. This isn’t really a surprise and they’ve looked pretty outstanding in the other games.
Yes, you can look today and say we should have defended better and Kroupi should have scored by staying on side and should have squared to Tavs when he hit the side netting. Maybe Eva would have, maybe he wouldn’t, maybe Milo would have sprinted past Haaland and brushed him off the ball and we’d have kept a clean sheet..: maybe he wouldn’t. We don’t know for sure, but what we do know is that we’ve never managed the levels some people seem to expect with any of our teams before.
Hoping the two injured players are both just dead legs…
It could be worse, people, Newcastle just had the same score at abject West Ham. Imagine the meltdown on here…. People would have wanted Diakite extradited.
Looking forward to Villa already. That will also be tough just to warn the nervous! – To join the conversation, please click here.