Postives:
Even though most of you only have criticism for yesterdays performance, I would say that we played REAL football for the first time in a loooooong time, and we fully deserved to win. Besides 3 or 4 times awful defending, two of them causing goals, I think we did really really well. We fully deserved to win. If we had been a bit more lucky and efficient in front of goal, we could easily have scored 4 goals, plus the 2 penalties we were robbed from.
Many of you complain about DP recent performances, but I actually believe that in the last two games, he has been one of, if not THE best player. Yesterday his set pieces let him down though, but taking into account that he is 36, and therefore really slow, he shows such great intelligence and technique that he is our MVP. If Matri learn to postion himself, as he did most of times yesterday, I think DP and Matri could pose a real threat in attack. (Even though Matri missed a couple of sitters, he has already had more chances than Amoooori. Lucky? I don´t think so..)
Also, we showed great fighting-spirit and at a period when both Melo, Machisio, Aquilani and Krasic offered them selves off-the-ball, it was like watching Barca...ish;-)
That tells me, or at least I would like to think so, how important team balance/spirit is, so if DN can keep that up for the rest of the season, I am hopeful that we will end on that crucial fourth spot.
Ohhh. On last thing. Despite what some of you said, I thought Saliha%¤&¤ was really good when he was subbed. Maybe DN has finally acknowledge him as being the best choice for RB? (Btw. What is up with almost everyone praising and hyping Sørensen as our RB? He has great potential, but come on, he is still currently worse than Motta. It seems that just because he had some good games in the beginning and because of his age, everyone is loving him. Well.. He is not, and he is a CB too. Forget him, and let him get experience somewhere else than on our first team)
Negatives
What about that double sub? Sissoko killed our game, but maybe there was something I missed? I read that Matri had a cramp, but I sure didn´t notice it!!
Anyway, the Sissoko sub alone is unforgivable.
I read an article today on Goal.com "killing" DN and his 4-4-2, and I somehow agree.
The whole season we have played 9 against 11. Our fullbacks sucks BIG, and I believe that DN at least once should have experienced playing a 3-man defense without FB. (I know that there could be various problems, since Krasic e.g. doesn't track back that often, but playing 2 FB is a waste of space!!)
Why not go Gung-ho, and at least play some attractive football as we did yesterday!
If DN is our man for the future? I think he is the best we can get at this point. Our real issue is our board, who won´t realize that if you don´t invest, you won´t win.
Lastly, I am afraid that yesterdays lose may have ruined all the spirit that was build up for yesterdays match, and that all the positive things we say yesterday, will be a one-time-only:-(
Thanks for listening;-)