Mulgrew has played a couple of nice diagonals to GMS that have threatened to cause them problems. And a couple of terrible crossfield passes from Mulgrew that have been lofted to Lustig in hisown half that have caused us problems.
We arenāt reacting very well to their clear plan to break quickly. Getting caught ahead of the ball and weāre not putting them under anywhere near enough pressure.
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Thank fuck for that.
Johansen corner and Bitton runs to the near post to head home powerfully from 5 yards.
Corner actually came from one of our better passages of play with GMS showing good feet a couple of times to tie up their full back and then Bitton picked Lustig out with a lovely slide rule pass in between that full back and the centre back.
Lustig has been useless tonight. Relieved to get the goal, should be able to get another couple. Thought Bitton was poor for their goal after Boyata was too casual to begin with. GMS is getting the ball in space and should capitalise as the game progresses.
Armstrong close with a spinning volley after a cross from GMS. Nearly everything positive weāve done tonight has been through Mackay-Stephen.
The Bitton goal:
Yeah heās been poor alright. He looks like a first timer down playing astro in the YMCA on a Monday night. Every little bounce is taking him by surprise.
Not sure on Bitton for their goal. He certainly got done at the end but need to see the first wider angle again to see how committed he was in coming across. He may just have been beaten by the timing and couldnāt quite rescue it.
A problem we frequently had last season was the two centre backs being caught out wide on the same side. One going out is dangerous enough but if Boyata gets beaten we need a midfielder or full back to be covering him there and not have the other centre back leaving the middle entirely. Obviously VVD wasnāt helped by Boyata failing to react and Lustig being out of position but he needs to stay inside the ball at a minimum and force them wider, not get beaten inside.
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Lovely strike from Charlie. GMS with quick feet again to set it up. Thought Charlie would hit it first time because it was a nice weight on it from Brown but that was a really clean daisycutter.
Ah lovely. Superb strike by Mulgrew. Very nice passing build up with GMS showing quick feet and sharp touches.
A very Scottish type decision against GMS there.
Griffiths for Armstrong.
And Griffiths nearly scores a minute after coming on latching on to a Ciftci header but pokes it wide.
Boyata with the trademark Braafheid interception with your back defending there.
Chance for GMS but keeper saves well. And Griffiths blazes one wide. Griffiths has had 3 or 4 half chances since he came on. Heās linking well with Ciftci but Ciftci didnāt do much before Griffiths came on.
Chances flowing now. GMS slips Ciftci in but he drags his shot badly wide. Looks a bit frustrated.
Rogic for Ciftci. Mixed game for Ciftci. Tried to put himself about as much as he could but didnāt look like scoring and didnāt really do enough when the game was more in the balance.
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GMS involved agian. Johansen the key creator again with a lovely ball to GMS who squares it to Griffiths to tap home.
Gordon, Mulgrew, Griffiths, Rogic, GMS, Johansen: boring thing I just noticed - we have more left footed players on the pitch than right footed players at the moment.