Very important win, we did play awful overall but what ultimately counts are the points and we sure got away with all of them, noteworthy in large part thanks to a solid defensive performance and contribution from just about everyone, especially considering we didn’t even attempt to do anything else for majority of the game.
It's a long bow to draw to say that we wanted to defend a one goal lead like that for 80 minutes. First ten minutes we were clean and accurate with the ball. I don't think we strung more than two passes together in our own half after that. Such a weird game. If we were to win the league playing like this I wouldn't complain. But jesus, the overall skill level of this team with the ball is so far below what it was 3-5 years ago.
that's from a few weeks ago, but the point stands: in this league, fiorentina is a direct rival and an effective team. this was an immense win. ugly as it gets but immense. giving them the ball, then keeping tek at one very good save is prime flawless defending. i'd of course prefer some more control and these narrow wins always make fans shit bricks, but who cares now. what a win.
MikeM has had two main squeezes in Serie A over the past half-dozen. First he throated Sarri until he proved to be a dismal coach here. And now he throats Italiano because mad possession, endless crosses, and a million long range off-target shots are football hipster love languages.