by LFC2007 » Sat Jan 16, 2010 7:42 pm
In fairness, we played quite well given the players we picked. You couldn't have reasonably expected a team that contained none of our recognised creative players to play good football or make too many chances. It was a team that was setup to keep it tight and try and nick something on the break, which was successful until about the final 10 min's when we ought to have done more to prevent them getting near our 18 yd box.
I thought our defence did especially well considering how shaky it's been thus far. Kyrgiakos was in his element out there (he'd slot right into that Stoke team btw). Lucas did surprisingly well considering he isn't the biggest, while most of the others did their jobs well, which was basically to put themselves about. Within the confines of our strategy, the major problem was, IMO, Ngog. He was our main striker and he couldn't hold the ball up for sh!t (or, if you like, he did nothing). It may not be his fault that he's not good enough but it was a major factor today, IMO.
Certainly if he was doing his job to a decent standard he probably would've stayed on the pitch, which, in that final 10' where Stoke were pressing for an equaliser could have helped to ease a bit of the pressure on the defence. Just imagine if Crouch were there....
, when we were crying for creativity.
