The team looked slow and unimaginative again. Neither secure in defence nor sharp going forward. Too many obvious passes, too many times when it just got punted at Russo presumably looking for magic when she's actually surrounded by three defenders. Leah Galton is a shadow of the player we saw under Casey Stoney.
I've no idea why we persist with taking short corners, the ball almost invariably just keeps heading backwards when we do, and by the time we do put it forward either our tall players who'd been sent up have retreated again or the opposition have pushed the offside line up. Presumably we do better with them when we try them out during training.
We were moving a bit faster in the second half but there's something missing. I don't know if it's just exposing the weaknesses in the squad - though personally I would label Batlle for example as an upgrade and Russo a terrific player if you can give her a ball she can use.
That said, Marc Skinner says he knows he's changing our playing style in anticipation of upgrading it for the next level, by which I assume he means ready for the Champions League rather than a quiet life in midtable. Ok, maybe it's just nostalgia, but I miss Stoney and I think players like Galton do as well. I'm also hoping we've got the training ground etc sorted out for them now, because I hate to think that the basics are still lagging behind our opponents as well.
