Agreed on most points here. Though we had 6 shots on target and they had 9 (official stats).
However, the culprit of the demise was that tragic and stupid WBY miss, where it was easier to score than miss, when the result was 1:1 and we could’ve then put 2-3 more past them.
I understand that our players are professional and all that, but beside the unwritten rule where if you don’t score and miss a lot of chances, you end up conceding (most of the time), or how it goes in boxing if you don’t finish your opponent off while on the ropes, they can come back stronger and knock you out, I also know the feeling having played football semi-professionally in the youth squads of my country and then playing Futsal and mini-football also. Whenever your team mates miss a lot of chances, then frustration will be present. Frustration will lead to thinking that you simply cannot score and then it evolves to anger, then anger to loss of concentration and ultimately you end up out of balance and losing. It affects the whole team, frustration is a MF.
Last case we had that was in the first league match vs. Espanyol. Muriel missed a ton of chances and then out of frustration Banega got the second yellow. It may affect a couple of players or most, but in 11 a side if only 1 is affected it can lead to disaster, let alone 2 players or more.
We struggled to overcome Maribor, all other victories have been by narrow margin, we still haven’t played a top team, except for Atletico. Only 9 league goals.
In other words, we are a bit crap.
I don’t mind losing if we don’t deserve to win, but this is a top squad and it’s not coming together.
In yesterdays game, why were some of our best players on the bench? Navas, Correa, Mudo and Muriel? (no forget that, Muriel is not going to make the level this season).
Now we need to avoid the death spin, or it will be bye bye Berizzo.
Our opening fixtures were not too challenging so we got the idea the team could be pretty good, the only tough fixtures were atletico away, bilbao away and (to an extent) liverpool away and we got 1 draw and 2 losses from those three.
The following run till December is far tougher and could be used as a benchmark to set our expectations for the team this season.