saintant

It wasn't a second XI per se - Alexander Arnold, Gakpo, Nunes, MacAllister, Kelleher and Elliott have been regular first teamers which is over 50% of their starting team.

Good point but as someone else said, he made a very theatrical gesture to indicate no foul had been committed which shows he saw it very clearly.

Lots of fans pointing out that we do not look fit - BBD is one of the worst offenders and looks to be carrying too much timber. Again, this was a fault of the coaches in pre-season.

Yeah because they've both been regular starters haven't they 😁

Amen to that.

Compare our fitness to say Bournemouth's - we're way below their standards and there is no excuse for it. Watch how quickly Bmuff win the ball back after losing it. We've been physically trained to play Russball most of which is at walking place - in the Premier league you have to be able to compete at the high tempo the game is played at or, as we've found out, you'll be cannon fodder.

He did struggle a bit tonight. To give him some slack he cut a frustrated figure in the first half and, because we were so poor, he seemed to be trying too hard to do it all himself. If the side start playing better and with more intensity going forward I think we'll start to see the best of him. He's very young but is clearly an outstanding talent.

Can't argue with much of that as it is spot on.

Doesn't mean there aren't fitness issues and most seem to think there are.

Yeah, thought he was one of our better players tonight and put a shift in.

Lots to agree with here - good post.

Very good point 🙂

Tall Paul and Sulemana look to me like two players who might have something about them but they've needed more game time which RM never gave them. Nothing to lose now - give them more minutes on the pitch and see what they can do - we're not blessed with forwards anyway.

Lovely assist from Fernandes for Archer's goal. 🙂

I wonder if Hooper would have given that as a foul if it was done to Jotta at Anfield. Hmmmmmmm.

That last 35 minutes was all we ask from our side and it was brilliant. At last we showed fight and aggression and got in their faces. We got the ball forward quickly and gave it a right go. The podgy little guy in blue bottled that decision and he's a cheat!

Bring on Big Paul and chuck everything at them.

Wow...we woke up!

GGGGOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLL.......AAAAAARRRRRCCCCHHHHUUUUURRRRRGGGGGHHHHH.

A lot of it is lack of fitness - clear as day watching them cover the ground compared with us.

Christ, no changes - another clueless coach.

We look a nothing side, poor all over the pitch. We fail to mark or close down making it so easy for our opponents and this is a basic requirement. I guess we all knew but there is a massive rebuild needed to make a side that can compete. Might as well throw TP on as stick Archer up front on his own and expect him to do something. Very disheartening and the fitness level thing is clear for all to see. At least we haven't done too much tippy tappy at the back.

Never seen a player score from the bench 🙂

Assume it'll be a back five looking at the team.

Ok, hadn't heard that.