GWT: UCL 2020-2021 Week 1

[RainyCityHockey]

Tough way to concede for Gladbach

Yeah, but a win would've been a bit too much for us IMO.

Still, nice way to come back after pretty mediocre performance until that penalty for us.

 

[Live in the Now]

Also, about Fabinho, he is definitely better than any fourth CB we could have. The problem is that with these injuries and him not being in midfield? There's some struggling going on there. If we're playing a game and Thiago, Keita, Fabinho, and Henderson are all not starting in midfield, we're fortunate to play well enough in midfield to win.

I would go so far as to say I would rather see Fabinho-Gomez as the first choice the rest of this season than any other pairing. Fabinho's recovery speed here was great and I feel like he'll only get better in the position as the season goes on.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Xavi?

 

[Wee Baby Seamus]

Robertson was ok in spurts.

I think the 5 sub rule should be Europe wide.

It is except in England, where smaller clubs rejected it because they thought it'd favour the big ones.

 

[Live in the Now]

Xavi?

It rained pretty hard and the pitch was bad tbh. He also said Mane picked up a minor injury due to it.

There were some other moments where Ajax players couldn't control the ball like they would on a normal pitch, so I think it's a fair complaint.

 

[Lambo]

Bavarian Empire

 

[YNWA14]

He deserved the luck considering he saved his team in the first half.

He did? Dunno about that. He definitely was shaky early but kudos to him for calming down and playing solid the rest of the way.

Thought aside from a couple of chances the whole of defence played well. They seemed to really come together not sure if that’s going to keep up in van Dijk’s absence with both Fabinho and Gomez playing out of their comfort but they’re good enough I think with Matip filling in to handle it. The midfield was not great and neither was the offence but hopefully shake it out and move on. Got the win so that’s good.

 

[Rob]

Midtjylland really outclassed by Atalanta. Probably just going to get worse for them.

 

[Savant]

Also, about Fabinho, he is definitely better than any fourth CB we could have. The problem is that with these injuries and him not being in midfield? There's some struggling going on there. If we're playing a game and Thiago, Keita, Fabinho, and Henderson are all not starting in midfield, we're fortunate to play well enough in midfield to win.

I would go so far as to say I would rather see Fabinho-Gomez as the first choice the rest of this season than any other pairing. Fabinho's recovery speed here was great and I feel like he'll only get better in the position as the season goes on.

This happens every time Wijnaldum and Milner are in the same midfield, but with Henderson limited to 45m, Fabinho at CB, and Keita not recovered from Covid yet, they kind of had to. Fabinho at CB is fine with me. The health of Matip and Gomez is what scares me Need to hang on until January. Jones wasn’t ready for it today, but I could see him getting another shot against Mid’land. Rotation and planned subs are here to stay. It is outstanding and completely moronic that the PL didn’t go to five subs.

 

[Savant]

Adrian is a disaster but he did well when they were shooting the ball at least.

Gomez and Fabinho played great. So did Minamino and Jota. Rest of the team sucked.

Took 14 minutes for Adrian to pull an Adrian today. He does it every game.

I agree with the rest of this assessment.

 

[les Habs]

So, Militao a world beater on here is playing Otamendi like. Never has put in a good shift for Madrid. They guy sucks. We here a lot of Garcia/De ligt but were are the people who praised this clown?

For starters, to say he's never put in a good shift for Madrid is false. There's stating your case and then going overboard.

I appreciate your point about players getting praised while others are dismissed though. I think everybody does it to some degree, but some clearly more than others. Anyway, he looked amazing before joining Madrid. That said I don't think it was the best move for him. He's not played regularly enough and I say it all the time, it's not easy for most players to play really well if they're not playing consistently. Prior to today's match he played a whole 45 minutes this season. And breaking into the starting XI of Madrid when you've got Ramos, a healthy Varane and to a lesser extent Carvajal in front of you isn't easy. Of course there's also playing so well you can't be ignored, but then that isn't easy and even if a player does their manager still might ignore them (IE Puig). And I wouldn't blame the player or Madrid too much. You see this with a lot of big clubs including Barça and I think it's difficult to balance too much talent in a side. That said we've seen managers who could have done it much better too.

As for today's match, I didn't see it and won't watch it. I will say that clip that somebody else posted was rather damning. Still if you look at his stats per Whoscored, he had 7 tackles and 2 interceptions compared to Varane's 3 tackles, 0 interceptions and own goal. I'm the first to say that stats don't equal performance, but his stats in this one are actually pretty good.

Militao is only 22 and still has plenty of time to come good. As a Barça supporter I hope he doesn't, but I'm not counting him out just yet.

Xavi?

I know, right? Imagine if that was Xavi. You'd have a page of moaning about it.

 

[Fighter]

If you told me Kolarov was 57 I would believe you

Conte's logic: let's give up Godin (world class defender even if he had lost a step last season) and let's get a wing and play him CB. Worst Inter player so far... Conte is a POS.

 

[robertmac43]

Brutal for the kid:

 

[StevenF1919]

Would absolutely love to see PSG get sent to the Europa League.

 

[les Habs]

It’s a good mentality from Pedri and from what I’ve seen he’s been pretty good. Very promising.

Forgot about this one.

Yes, he's looked good so far. Not perfect mind you, but for a 17 year-old playing that team and not being a starter I'd say he's done really well. I'm just happy that he seems very grounded and that he really seems to be a fan of the club. He'll never be a La Masia product, but a homegrown Spanish player who seemingly grew up supporting the club is probably the next best thing.

Another consideration for me is Koeman's confidence in the player. One the hand it's great that he's not afraid to player a youngster like that because he's good enough. On the other it's baffling considering how good Puig has been before Koeman became manager and more so after Koeman became manager. In the preseason matches I saw, where both players played, Puig clearly made the bigger impression and clearly had a bigger impact on the team.