Is it jist me, that game should have been put to bed in the first half,ah'm seein a pattern emergin,great first half,shit second half,or shit first half great second half,we're not puting it together for 90 minutes,anybody got an answer.
Hard to win two halves against a manager who understands what is needed to change and tries to change it with good players who understand the tweaked system.
We also have a gemme gallous midfield who can get puffed up easily and try dangerous dribbles in bad positions, classy looking if it comes off, but at that level, punished by good team.
Had we finished some of the big chances in the first half I think they may have crumbled more.
Also, when momentum changes in a home game due to good tactical switch, pin pointing weak links in opposition shape, then the weaker points can be pivotal in confidence shifts.
Couple them all together
over confident swagger in the engine second half
good change in shape from other team
Big home crowd to lift the home players
And poor execution of own good chances
Our final pass choice at that level is often wasted
Their keeper was excellent in game
And our midfield, who are all excellent players started getting caught out of position too often and struggled to raise their awareness defensively.
Bitton hasn't had enough game time in midfield to be instantly effective.
And for me Frimpong was struggling defensively against their wide left in defence.
Overall I thought we played very well for an away tie.
Just didn't bury chances we probably should have done better when they came.
Got out of jail with penalty save.
All in all I think their manager done good job switching his shape and making good changes.
And we didn't respond well
Our passing and shape in first half caught them out.
But their reshuffle and change shape pinpointed weakness in Frimpong defensive experience and our midfield tend to struggle to cope with overload in middle against good experienced players.
At that level I think winning midfield is very important for momentum,
Could really do with a ball winning deep lying midfielder of a higher class than we currently do, who has long range accurate passing to find the 3 forwards who tend to find good spaces but often we don't connect the pass to their good play.
Anyway, probably load of nonsense, but that's how I read game.