I can’t remember the last game we played this well and totally annihilated the opponent without thinking much about whether they could take any point from us. This performance had vibes of the mini-EL Sevilla.
The only downside is the disastrous performance of Rakitic. It was camouflaged by the result and our overall brilliance, but the guy is totally useless. I’d bench him for a long while and start Oliver and Jordan.
Another positive is Sergi Gomez, who is making us not miss Diego Carlos, so it is being proven again and again that our main defender and the one that makes our back-line flourish is Kounde. Sell him next season and we’ll have to start from scratch, Diego Carlos won’t cut it alone.
Navas also played well despite the overload and I’m sure everyone is noticing that whenever Ocampos plays like a proper team-player without being selfish, we play brilliantly.
We should capitalize on the superb form of YEN and Suso.
Btw Lope was quite mad at that yellow from Gudelj. Not sure what happened to Fernando and I hope he’ll be ready for the next match because we’ll be without a DM. I mean, we could still improvise something with Jordan, but that yellow was quite stupid and Gudelj did some amateur-ish errors today. Him and Rakitic (maybe Oscar and Idrissi to some extent too) are the most out-of-form players that we currently have. Others are doing well in overall, some more and some less.
I think we’ve upped the tempo in the last few games and it clearly benefits the team. But still a bit accident prone and with so much elaborate build-up it’s easy to lose concentration.
Rakitic is just a player who can elect the best ball to play in a situation, it doesn’t mean it’s a great pass, he failed 4 passes today but his good passes were well chosen. It can make a difference in a tight game. Where he fails is that he doesn’t have the ball recuperation that Jordan has, and doesn’t have the pace of Jordan or the workrate either.
Absolutely spot on - and this is the reason I’d like to see him benched and only come on sometime in the second half or so. We don’t need his good passes when they don’t contribute anything meaningful to the game, we need Banega type of passes and a Banega type of player for that position. The worst thing is that fielding Oliver and Jordan is not necessarily better than fielding Oliver and Rakitic or Rakitic and Jordan. Oliver and Jordan are performing better than Rakitic, but we still miss Banega dearly
P.S. It’s not that Rakitic isn’t used to the 4-3-3 as he played in that formation with Barca, but he is definitely not adapting to Lope’s specific 4-3-3 as it can have many variations.
Watched the second half, been a while since Sevilla could win a game in such convincing fashion. YEN really showing improvement in finishing and instinct. His mix of pace and height could really trouble defenses that was close to his best on show tonight. Suso is another player on form, he actually looks more agile now and can pick his spots to strike.
Gudelj was probably sent on to save Fernando for Valencia but was a bit sloppy, shows he is good as a backup only. Gomez is another backup who did well but is another squad player tops, sort of surprised the got the captain’s armband after Navas left but at that moment there wasn’t anyone else to take it.
Rakitic is playing safe, burden was not on his shoulders at Barca and he doesn’t want to take up the load now, I think he can be useful if a more adventurous player like Oliver or Oscar was paired with him, Ivan can do the recycling job but don’t look on him to be the primary focal point; a bit of a let-off from what most of us expected but expectations have to be lowered. I would also argue he has a better goal threat than Jordan, Joan does a bit of everything and the quality and decisiveness of his passes are really coming along but he offers a limited goal threat. That’s the only knock on him.
Heading towards the Valencia game in this form is a major boost, with most heavy-hitters out of the CDR Sevilla should take this chance with both hands.
So far so good I’d say. As long as he doesn’t make mistakes each game, he’s good to go. Someone mentioned that the passing from the back hasn’t deteriorated without DC so it’s cool.
Don’t get me wrong though as you know that I think even Diego Carlos is an average defender let alone Sergi or Rekik etc.
Really enjoyed that game today. A very professional performance with only a few minor scares but overall it was comfortable.
Still struggling to understand how the big man hasn’t taken home the man of the match award, I thought after he secured the hattrick he actually played better. He was very unselfish at times could have topped his hattrick with an assist or two.
It wasn’t too disastrous imo, but it was tough watching him today, cause he lost the ball A LOT. But i’ll still give him time. His experience shows more often than not. But i’m sure, even by his standards, he’d think that he could play better than this.
Finally!
But honestly, I’m so happy for YEN. Didn’t think it would work this well for him. I remember at times last season (even this season, lol) that he looked so raw and you’d think it’d take forever for him to get comfortable in front of goal. Still mishandles the ball here and there, but he’s putting these chances away! Still can’t believe he’s leading in scoring!
And to think we’re adding Papu Gomez to this team…
We really should work on that longish pass through the middle, it opens up a whole new dimension for O’Campos and YEN, it was incredible what they nearly created from a substandard pass, O’Campos got the ball back to YEN who could only try an overhead kick. It was like a knife stab to the heart rather than all this bashing them with a feather duster faffing around on the wing.
YEN had 5 chances and stuffed 4 of them in the bag, it seems logical we have to get the ball delivered to him a little more.
Can´t say anything of substance about the whole game as always can´t watch the mid day games. But only from the goals, just the improvements from Nesyri have been wild. The sharpness, the will to go for it and do everything to put that ball in the back of the net was really enjoyable. The first goal he gets it in, a little lucky coz it bounces of his other foot a bit too. But he was the only one anticipating and eyeing that ball as it came nice to him but still. The header goal from the corner was stunning too, great run, decisiveness and finish. The 3rd one was like a slam dunk to me in basketball. Again the perfect reaction to what happend, and the Cadiz defense with zero momentum who can´t even contest the jump because Nesyri is already towering over him.
Crystal Palace were linked with signing the bloke every season for about 15 years.
