26 Sep 2019 08:33:33
How do you think the kiddies got on last night ED?

{Ed001's Note - they did ok, nothing special, but good enough to get through and that is the most important thing. They need games under their belt. The worry was that Gomez and Lallana, in particular, struggled badly and they are meant to be on the fringes of the first team.}

26 Sep 2019 11:01:55
I thought that also Ed, Lovren didn’t seem to cover himself in glory either mate did he. Do you think it might be a case of getting match fit for them senior players who played last night? What’s your thoughts on how Ox and Nabby performed?

{Ed001's Note - Lovren was ok, a couple of errors early on which were most likely down to rustiness but he carried Gomez for the rest of the game. It is just a chance to sharpen up the fringe players, but it is worrying how far off their game they were. Gomez showed absolutely no awareness whatsoever of anything that was happening around him. He never looked. Ox was fairly decent, he kept the game ticking over and made a few good runs. Did give the ball away a bit much, but that was in the opposition third trying to make something happen. You have to expect that ball retention drops in those areas unless you just play keepball. Keita looked like a player coming back from injury and struggled like one. When you throw in basically a second team, you are going to get these kind of performances. The problem is if they perform like that when called upon in the first team. That used to happen with Rafa's reserves because they didn't play reserve games and so had no match sharpness at all. It was that which cost us as much as anything under Rafa.}

26 Sep 2019 12:26:38
This isn’t a player bashing here cuz we did win at the end of the day so can’t be all bad. But I agree on jo. He’s not getting back in ahead of matip playing like that last night. I really like the lad and hope he gets back to he norm game ASAP.
Lallana just doesn’t offer anything for me anymore and is just taking up space that a kid could do.

26 Sep 2019 12:52:14
No reserve game's Tris how come?

{Ed001's Note - they didn't in Rafa's time because they were not willing to play in the reserve system at that time. Rafa didn't like them to either as it was uncompetitive then. He felt they were better just training with the squad.}

26 Sep 2019 16:10:44
Lallana was asked to play a deep midfield role, and that is definitively not the role he is used to. I don't think it is fair, to judge someone playing in a position that obviously doesn't suit him. With Keita, Ox and Lallana in midfield, it was down to Lallana to play the deep role.

26 Sep 2019 17:35:00
Lallana is finished for me, I’ve said it since the start of the season.

{Ed025's Note - i,ve said it since he signed drogie..