McCreadie

After tonight, I finally understand what Sarriball is and have solved all the confusion. About 20 mins in, we got a goal kick. Rudiger goes to one edge of our penalty area and stands about 2m from the goal line. He then starts shouting and waving his arms furiously at Christensen, who is right across the other side of the penalty area standing about 5m from the goal line. Apparently, AC standing 3m further forwards makes it very much easier for Malmo’s press (they are all lined up on the edge of our area for our goal kick, ready to pounce!). All through the first half, we are (for want of a better term) dicking about with the ball in the first 25m from our goal, almost exclusively right over at the sides of the pitch. This is great fun. The Swedish postmen and locksmiths press like mad and force us into numerous errors. Azpilicueta receives the ball in countless impossible situations. We cede possession many many times. In the second half, the pattern continues until postmen get very tired. Then bang! Counter attack at pace. Giroud. Goal! So there it is. Joseball and Conteball were “you have the ball and we will nick it 25m from our goal, counter attack at pace and score”. Sarriball is much cleverer. It is “we dick about with the ball in our own defensive corners, until somehow you fail to dispossess us and then we counter attack at pace and score”. Its genius. The only problem I can see with this, is if we try doing it against professional footballers rather than assorted grocers and IT consultants.

Quite a lot riding on this game now. Not sure that Sarri has the balls to risk CHO from the beginning, even if its the easiest way to get the support back onside. What I would be surprised to see, is Kovacic coming on for Barkley after an hour :-) Expect that RLC will probably start and finish...

Devil's advocate here, and I am not making a personal comment, but I can see the stadium unrest turning against RA quite quickly. We will get past Malmo, but it is difficult to see us getting anything out of the City or Spurs games, other than another 2 painful defeats. If you pile a cup final defeat and a home defeat to Tottenham on top of where we are, that is going to potentially create a pretty toxic atmosphere. On the other hand, we might win them both...

As Sarri has made it through the day, it is probably reasonable to assume that he will be in charge for the next 2 games. The club needs to be a bit careful here. Could easily see this turning quite ugly, quite quickly, which is really the last thing we or our absent owner need.

Why on Earth would he come here?

Feels very much like the day that if became when.

He doesn’t have to fire her, he can just move her to a different business

Next...

Bit weird this, but I miss that turn more than anything else. The receive-the-ball-facing-our-defence-and-with-one-deft--touch-change-direction-and-be-seamlessly-attacking turn. These days it seems to have become the receive-the-ball-facing-our-defence-trap-the-ball-look-at-the-ball-walk-around-the-ball-pass-the-ball-sideways-amble-off-to-a-place-I-am-unlikely-to-get-it-back turn.

Let's face it, there is so much wrong with the team, how the hell else is Sarri supposed to remember everything he has to say at half time?

I've reached a consensus. Zonal is a truly abysmal concept. Mark the opposition players, track their runs, get in their bloody way. Everytime I see a zonal defence, I see players standing around looking accusingly at each other, while the keeper picks the ball out of the back of the net.

Some big ifs here. There are 4 or 5 teams left in the EL that we are unable to beat currently. While it was nice to see Utd lose midweek, we are not PSG.

Wasn’t exactly the stirring, inspiring reaction to last weekend’s humiliation, was it?

Even in 2018 it would still have got you a van Dijk, an Isco and a new contract for Hazard.

200m doesnt go far these days does it. That's pretty underwhelming right now.