An absolutely shambolic performance from all staff (this includes players) related to the match day/pitch side parts of the game. I've been up since 03:30am tossing and turning thinking about the game, and I still can't wrap my head around it. I would have preferred to lose the game 3-0 than to lose how we did. It's utterly disgraceful from everyone involved, all of them need to have a look at themselves.
Onana: Another calamitous performance and of course at fault for the goal. Anyone that's defending him and claiming that 'he couldn't have got to it' seriously needs to give their head a wobble. It was yet another horrendous performance from the keeper that cost us £55m, while his replacement plays in a UCL final in next week.
Mazra: Zero impact, did nothing of any significance. Failed to link with Amad or any of the right hand sided players at all. Complete non entity.
Yoro: Played well. One of the few that can hold his head high this morning.
Maguire: Partially at fault for their goal. Done well to silence Solanke, but that's not exactly a difficult task is it. Solanke is a wealthier mans Hojlund.
Shaw: Get out of this club now. I cannot stand the sight of this waste of space. He's been at the club for a decade and has spent half of that time on the physios bench. He's a calamity waiting to happen. He gave the pen away in the Lyon game and in this game he gifts Spurs the winner. I want this roach out of the club as a priority.
Dorgu: He put in effort, he attempted to work the left hand side as much as possible but unfortunately, due to a shocking team selection from Ruben, he had absolutely no assistance from Mount. Dorgu get's a let off, in the same vain as Yoro.
Casemiro: Looked leggy (as he has done for large parts of the season) and didn't offer that much. He held his own against an opposing physical midfield 3, but nothing spectacular. We needed his experience and courage last night and it wasn't there.
Bruno: Absolutely and categorically shocking performance, but this is not solely on him. He is not a centre mid. In no way, shape or form, is Bruno Fernandes a CM. He is an attacking midfielder, so a 10 or an 8. Amorim's decision to put Bruno in the middle of the park next to a leggy Casemiro, against a physical Spurs side is quite frankly mind boggling. Bruno gave away so many passes last night, more than usual, and finished the night with 69% pass completion ratio. That is absolutely shambolic. He was also as fault for their goal as he gave the ball away due to the presence of Spurs midfield trio. I'll say it again, he is not a CM. So this performance is down to Ruben, again.
Amad: He was direct in parts of the game, but also so lacklustre in many other parts of the game. Tries too much sometimes, and he needs to learn (or be coached) that sometimes the best option is to just get the ball into the f*cking box. Stop with the constant feints/dummies/stutter steps. Get the ball across the 6yrd box. It opens up so many more opportunities for a goal, whether it's a tap in, a fumble into the box, an own goal, deflection, ANYTHING. There was a point where he was charging toward the box, got into the box, and then just stood with the ball at his feet dillydallying around, turns around and passes the ball BACK out of the box. This is ineffective and useless. No danger whatsoever.
Mount: Absolutely shambolic. Another cardio session for #7 (lmao) with zero impact whatsoever. This is his fault as well as Ruben's as he shouldn't have started the match full stop.
Hojlund: Do I need to bother with a write up for this man? I truly believe that he'd struggle to get into the Oldham Athletic first XI.
SUBS: They had little to no time to impact the game due to Ruben's incompetence so I won't waste time writing up on their performances. The game was screaming for control up top and on the wings, and that was seen quite literally with Zirkzee's first touch, which opened up Garna and the overlap of Dorgu.
RUBEN AMORIM: I don't really know where to start if I'm honest.
- Team selection right off the bat was abysmal. I understand that he can only piss with the cock he's been given, but starting Bruno as a CM against any form of Spurs midfield is completely mind boggling and I am still struggling to understand what he thought this would achieve. Starting Mount as the L10 is another bizarre decision. The guy is perpetually injured, and you start him in our (and YOUR) biggest game of the season (your biggest game of your career) and as expected, he offered nothing. Starting Shaw at LCB is again bizarre, another favourite of the physios room, starting in the biggest game of the season.
- Game plan and approach: Absolutely shocking. He seemed to veer away from his desire to find the overlapping wingback and instead focused on long balls into our smallest man on the pitch (Amad). The entire first half was littered with this, there were little to no attempts to play down the wings (quite literally what the system is designed for) and instead focused on a possession heavy trap which is meant to lure the opposition into the press and then open up one side of the pitch. He didn't do this once, if at all, something that we should've looked to achieve when it was 0-0. Instead he opted for long balls into our physically weak forwards, with no one in front to receive the lay-off or one-two. Complete disaster class from him in this aspect.
- Substitutions (or lack of): This was one of my biggest gripes with Ruben last night. We are 1-0 down in a European final, with a poor first half under our belts to go with it. Why on earth did he wait until the 72ND minute to change it? It's catastrophic in game management. The game was screaming for Garna/Zirk to enable the link-up and help with the overlapping and overloading of the wings, yet he chose to wait until the 72nd minute to implement this. It's absolutely shocking. With every second that ticked by, was a second that we would not get back to allow the subs to impact the game, and this was a massive detriment to us. Immediately with Garna and Zirk on the pitch, with Zirk's first touch, he links up with the midfield and they send Garna off down the wing for a good passage of attacking football. If they would've been brought on earlier we could've started with this earlier, and continued to push toward a goal. He left it so late there was no time to make an actual impact. I cannot overstate it anymore than I already have about how poor this is from Amorim. Ange had 11 white shirts behind the ball, defending a shithouse goal, they weren't even looking to counter, all we had to do was throw the kitchen sink at it, but Ruben decided to be pragmatic. The fact we still had 5 defenders on the pitch well into the 80min mark is also baffling.
Overall, I'm devastated that we lost the game in the manner that we did. Spurs didn't win the game, we lost it, and the fault of course lies with the incompetent players (but we know they're poor) but mainly with Ruben. He allowed himself to be outcoached by, lets be frank here, the worst coach in the Premier League currently, and it's not good enough.
One positive I'm taking away from it is that these cnut players are not getting their UCL bonuses next season and I'm overjoyed. They do not deserve it. The fans do. They don't.
