That was a very worrying performance. Shocking thing is it came out of nowhere really and at the time I didn't really know what to say, was just very surprising. Performance was very very bad and if we play like that again we're going to be in some real trouble. Hopefully it won't so I'm not going to needlessly dwell on the future like that but you do wonder just how this has happened.
As has been said, ten of the eleven players started against Arsenal and put in a very good performance. Yet today we were terrible. Sloppy passing, lazy defending, lost out on every second ball, aimless going forwards for the most part, weak crossing, and the forward line did not connect at any point really. I didn't even think Huddersfield were that good really. They looked to press the midfield two like Watford had but Neves and Moutinho just seemed quite complacent on the ball and cost possession far too frequently. Otherwise, Huddersfield were organised but hardly seemed like world beaters - we just made a string of errors that allowed them to threaten. Surprised we only lost 2-0 to be honest as I felt it could have been 3 or 4 by the end.
Hard to find positives overall. Vinagre was brought more of an attacking threat down the left and had the beating of his man quite often in the first-half. MGW looked positive and tried to bring the ball forwards. Jota was OK when he came on. Doherty, Boly, Cavaleiro, Traore, Moutinho - awful. Neves was poor too although not to the same extent as the first bunch but the reality is nobody had what could actually be considered a good game, Coady was passable.
Watched the goals back now and the first is a real mess. Doherty gives the ball away with a directionless pass, has no idea what to after so gets caught in-between Durm and Billing, then he lazily trots back for Durm to glide past him on the overlap put in a cross which they score from that Neves needs to clear. Second one starts from Traore giving possession away cheaply (muscled off the ball much too often) and then a silly foul from Boly leading to a FK which Patricio simply has to save. Watched it a few times and I don't think Neves did much bad in the wall, he hardly turns away. Curious what Costa was set out to though as he seems to just be standing there.
The Traore debate has been reignited (as it does most weekends) and most of my points have been made but I'm still not keen at all. He set up one chance for Jiminez but otherwise did nothing at all. He runs down blind alleys, his output is inconsistent (and that's being generous) and his decision-making is truly abysmal. This is our record signing, we paid quite a lot of money for him, yet the situations where he works are very niche. If you spend the money we did on Traore yet find it very difficult to justify him ever actually starting a match he does not warrant the fee. Looks like a parks player most of the time.
