I must confess I’d had quite enough of this game before the last one went in, and had already retired to the study in search of a military revolver. Without a doubt, this was an abysmal business from start to finish; a festival of hospital passes and general incompetence.
If we look at the third goal – in stages- it becomes evident that it had less to do with the sending off of Japhet Tanganga and more to do with the slow witted-ness of our new boy Emerson.
In the break, Emerson (12) is further up the field, which is fine, as I made the point in my reaction – had he been playing for a decent side, then he may have become an interesting attacking asset. However, the problem was that he was far too slow sensing the danger.
Worse yet, Joe Rodon follows the Eric Dier playbook and instead of staying with his man and instead opts to head towards the ball.
By the time Emerson has caught up and got the goal side of Édouard, the shot had already been released.
Must do better, but then Barcelona only paid £8million for Royal, earlier this year.