I thought we were terrible yesterday. Apart from the MGW chance I can't remember us going close at all. Yes we could have had one, two or three penalties but that's deflecting attention from a very poor performance. We didn't look bothered most of the time. With 10 mins left plus added time we were passing sideways across the back, with no idea how to break down a team sitting deep. And no urgency on show at all. I thought we accepted the defeat with barely a whimper. No leadership, no guts, no commitment.
I'm clearly being one-eyed when I look at those and see two clear penalties and one that would be expected to be given.
Have the interpretations on handball changed? Because that looks a classic case of arms away from body, unlucky, mate.
And I can see the Reyna one being missed at the time, but VAR should have given it.
Only if you are really good at recruitment. And then doing the right thing with what you get. Having integrated them into an existing coherent squad, with a clear identity and development path.
You have to do that pretty much every year though as anyone who turns out to be decent has to be sold on. He played what, one full season for Brighton then gone.
(Also Brighton's recruitment isn't run by their owner's playboy son afaik).
Very lazy/stupid to suggest Marinakis Jr runs our recruitment. Yes the Lingard one seemed driven by him. (Although everyone was saying what a coup that was) but little else.
Unless you want to give him credit for MGW, Murillo, MGW, Filipe, Danilo, Elanga, Aina, Wood, Awoniyi, Lodi, Williams, Mangala,…… ah thought not.
Just as well we aren't signing unknown young South American players then, they'd have no chance of succeeding here.
Honestly, you really overthink this sometimes. You can cycle through managers until you find one that clicks. You can just throw good players into a team and let them figure things out. You don't need to be all obsessive about structure and development strategy to find a bit of success. We've done all of those things despite you insisting that they don't work, and yet somehow they accidentally have.