Well, that goes down as a bad start to our Europa League campaign after losing at home at Real Sociedad. It was sluggish from start to finish and I think Erik ten Hag will be disappointed with the vast majority of those who played on the night.
La Real won the match 1-0 – thanks to a dodgy penalty call, which we will discuss later in this post-match reaction piece. They didn’t deserve the win but celebrated like they had won the Europa League at full-time.
Without further ado, here are my three observations from the 1-0 defeat against Real Sociedad.
Just a setback
Erik ten Hag named just a few players from his starting XI in tonight’s line-up, so you could say it was our second-string team tonight. The primary starting team won’t be affected by this result, so I don’t see it as a setback for them, but it will be for those trying to claim a spot in the team. Only Anthony Elanga did himself a favour in the first-half.
VAR disgrace
The match was turned on its head when VAR failed to do its job in the second half. Lisandro Martinez had dived to block a shot, stopping it initially with his knee but the ball rebounded onto his arm prompting a call from the referee. It was never a penalty because the ball deflected off his knee first, yet VAR deemed the referee’s call correct after a check. Real Sociedad can count themselves lucky.
Cristiano Ronaldo struggled
Ronaldo missed the pace he had years ago tonight. On several occasions it let him down against Real Sociedad and I don’t think he has made Ten Hag’s decision to bench him more difficult. He needs to improve.
What we have learned over the last few weeks is that we are now defensively very sound but apart from hitting teams on the counter attack we are very poor at creating chances for our strikers .Only Christian Ericksen seems capable of opening up defenses which is a worry .
The VAR is a menace. It gives disgruntled opponent’s (referee) opportunity to have their way.
I blame the coach for fielding Ronaldo as the point man where midfielder and strikers see him as pointman,by floating him the balls but failed to see he was being police by three defenders. He would have play him as a decoy.
Ten Hag is to blame. You can never overhaul a winning team. The changes to the first 11 were just too much that’s why the team lost its rhythm. Never change a winning team, it’s that simple.