- Jul 21, 2005
- 4,488
- 3,896
It was things like that yesterday that cost us a CL spot under Jol. Three points bagged up and ready to go and just pissed away because Redknapp didn't change tactics or personnel when they were required. Of course players are culpable but the manager gets paid to make the necessary changes when things need changing, and they clearly did.
Huddlestone had been a passenger for loads of this game. And into the last 15-20 minutes Defoe and Crouch were as well. Jenas in for Crouch or Defoe would have been the logical thing to do.
And I have no problem with Defoe's inclusion or performance, but I have never liked him as a penalty taker. Great chance to recoup the three points we'd pissed away wasted because he panicked and just wacked it. Come on, you've got to do better than that.
I agree entirely with this, the Jenas change was an odd one to me, i felt Niko was still doing a job. Plus perhaps with Crouch off, we'd have got the ball down and tried to play out of trouble rather than hoofing it back to them.
I really felt we just stopped pressing them at about 70mins. Our midfield stopped shutting down and it really allowed Everton to build some pressure. I still feel the goals were preventable and were a bit shambolic from our perspective but our inability to drive on from the centre of midfield and retain possesion really cost us yesterday. 2 points lost.
If you try and look at the positives moving forward, Villa have a tough couple of games coming up, we have have Wolves and then a big one at Citeh, a couple of good results there and all will be forgotten. Let's not forget either that the scum have dropped a few points too. I think the key is that we learn from that 2nd half performance.