Days like this are what you buy a £5 million striker for.
They are also what some people buy Valium for.
Let’s not kid ourselves on; that was stressful.
The consolation I get from having to go through that is that more and more of the Sevconuts would have been tuning in as that went on, and I like to think they’d have been at peak viewing numbers in the moment Ajeti smashed that ball into the back of the net. A graph of the viewing figures would have seen a steady incline for most of the game, a steeper one after 75 minutes, peaking at around 83 … and then falling like a cliff-face.
Followed by much cursing. There must be a chart, somewhere, that measures that?
Man, that was poor otherwise. I mean, there’s not much to write about it. Lennon’s team changes left the system intact and United did what they were always going to do and put eleven men behind the ball for most of the game. They packed the penalty box knowing our whole playing style involves getting the ball down the flanks and whipping it in.
And teams have it sussed. We are predictable. Who needs leaked team sheets when you can set up to stop the world’s most obvious tactic? Play two up front, as we finally did, and everything changes. It took us far too long to get there today.
I actually thought the whole team looked flat and lethargic. Too many passes were lazy, either over-hit or underdone. Taking Forrest out of the team today will have given him a short, sharp shock. I think Callum McGregor is badly in need of the same.
Elyounoussi is one of my player of the year hopes, but he was awful. Christie did what he does and shot from everywhere, most of them wildly optimistic. He works damned hard, but needs to make that final pass more often … he is a little greedy.
Eddie toils against those packed defences, because of how we play. Stick a partner up there with him and the defenders don’t know who to mark. Putting the ball into his feet and letting him look for those little openings … I mean, it can work and it has worked because he has the skills to pull it off … but it’s exhausting watching it and on days like today it’s a fool’s errand.
Still, we’ve got three points out of that, but it was poor fare and the whole team looked flat. But with the game winding down we stuck on the £5 million man and he did what strikers who cost that kind of money do. He bagged us a winner.
So job done for another match and it’s onward to the next one.
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