Fowler Scores the Penalty to salvage a point for Pool
Sheffield Utd did very well for their top flight debut against Liverpool in the EPL season opening match. They weren't over-rawed by the atmosphere & did their job well. I thought they were the better side in the first half.
The starting line-up by Rafael Benitez baffled me, why was Crouch & Finnan on the bench instead of in the starting line-up? We could have had more options upfront with Bellamy & Crouch. Besides, Crouch should be on a high after scoring 2 goals in the England international friendly. Maybe Benitez wanted to rest Crouch for the CL game next week.
Fowler looked jaded & tired during the game, was expecting more from him though. He missed a few good chances in front of goal. Fabio Aurelio seems to have fitted very well with the rest of the team; the only blemish of his good performance was his lapse on concentration - resulting in the goal from Hulse early in the 2nd half.
Riise & Carra were both substituted early in the first half due to ankle injuries. Both are doubtful for the return leg in Kiev for the CL qualifier against Haifa. Let's just hope they recover in time for the away game at Chelsea 3 weeks from now.
Not the best start to the new season, a controversial penalty to salvage a point against the newly-promoted side. We can & will do better!!!!!
You Never Walk Alone !!!!!
2 comments:
I agree with you that Crouch and Finnan should have played. On current form, it seems everything Crouch touches will turn into goal, so to drop him came as a big surprise to me! I always think no matter how much you want to rest your player, you should NEVER DROP players who are in a rich vein of form. I knew Sheffield U will provide a tough challenge to us as this is their home game, 1st game of the season. Imagine if we have played them in their 20th games of the season, I guess by then they would have been demoralised by poor results... But a point is still a point, let's pray for 3points against West Ham this Sat!
More puzzling was the abscence of Alonso in my opinion. With Crouch out of the lineup, precision passing was needed to free Fowler and Bellamy, and we know Xabi is the best in the business.
At least we squeaked through in the CL group phase. Time to knuckle down and conerntrate on the Premiership though.
Man USA are already creating a gap at the top!
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