thought we had a poor game. a very nervous second half with lots of wild aimless clearances and mishit passes that gave the opposition another chance to come at us. our problem in the second half seemed to be that we failed to hold on to possesion. when you're 2 up, the trick, i thought, would be to hold on to the ball and move it around patiently. when you have the ball the opposition cannot do anything and if they get frustrated, you can probably hit them again. instead we give the ball away by the third pass with the players hoofing the ball away almost as soon as they got it. seems to me to be a poor idea at the stage.
we scored two goals (with a bit of luck) and riise's shot was nice to watch. but while the midfielders showed again they could score, our strikers......they just seemed a little slow of thought and low in confidence when given an opening. nice attempt at the bicycle kick by crouch when he came on, though. keeping him fit would be important.
nice to see kromkamp play for a full match. quicker than josemi certainly though not yet showed himself to be as solid as finnan. too early to tell. glad to see him come out of the pericard tackle in one piece.
momo's first touches were poor again but at least he was full of running as usual. but i felt we defended too deep and gave them too much space in the midfield. xabi was anonymous for most of the match. carra was uncharacteristically nervous at times and reina still flapped a little at times but not really tested. in my opinion, only stevie g, riise and hyypia did well. ciise wasn't too bad too.
well, on to the next match.