Davo Prays to the VAR God Upstairs. He Ignores Him.
In among the shambles of our Premier League programme, we
get a night off from that to be a shambles in another competition, this time is
the Reserve Team Trophy. This is the game that was postponed a few weeks ago
because of the Leicester helicopter crash so going into tonight‘s game we have
the bizarre scenario of knowing that there is not a lot of point in winning
because it’s Manchester City in the next round if we get through.
Leicester, you would think, would be very interested in winning the trophy because of what happened with the chairman but of course they have Claude Puel in charge so hell of a lot of players are rested. Jamie Vardy is there though and he will probably keep our back line busy on his own.
Talking of which, we have gone for three at the back today with Vestergaard and The Hindenburg coming in alongside Yoshida. There is a long overdue game at right wingback for Yan Valery and Michael Obafemi starts upfront alongside Nathan Redmond. With our first choice midfield three of Hojbjerg, Lemina and Armstrong -it’s actually looks like quite a strong side. Charlie Austin is on the bench which is a shame because otherwise he could’ve spent the day in the gym at Staplewood trying to get fit from the injury that’s been stopping him running for the last three years.
To say that the first half was boring is kind of an insult to things that are genuinely boring like ironing or Brexit. Most of the moments that raised the pulse above that of a corpse were from us with Redmond attempting one of those knuckle-ball free kicks like Ronaldo does, only Redders hit it at the moon. He then put Obafemi away on the half way line and the youngster just went directly at goal and got through before slightly over-running it and seeing his scuffer saved by Ward. Vestergaard headed a corner over the bar but that was really all there aws to the first half. Valery looked decent if untroubled over on the right and Obafemi had worked hard. Redmond had been eye catching with his work just behind the striker.
Leicester, you would think, would be very interested in winning the trophy because of what happened with the chairman but of course they have Claude Puel in charge so hell of a lot of players are rested. Jamie Vardy is there though and he will probably keep our back line busy on his own.
Talking of which, we have gone for three at the back today with Vestergaard and The Hindenburg coming in alongside Yoshida. There is a long overdue game at right wingback for Yan Valery and Michael Obafemi starts upfront alongside Nathan Redmond. With our first choice midfield three of Hojbjerg, Lemina and Armstrong -it’s actually looks like quite a strong side. Charlie Austin is on the bench which is a shame because otherwise he could’ve spent the day in the gym at Staplewood trying to get fit from the injury that’s been stopping him running for the last three years.
To say that the first half was boring is kind of an insult to things that are genuinely boring like ironing or Brexit. Most of the moments that raised the pulse above that of a corpse were from us with Redmond attempting one of those knuckle-ball free kicks like Ronaldo does, only Redders hit it at the moon. He then put Obafemi away on the half way line and the youngster just went directly at goal and got through before slightly over-running it and seeing his scuffer saved by Ward. Vestergaard headed a corner over the bar but that was really all there aws to the first half. Valery looked decent if untroubled over on the right and Obafemi had worked hard. Redmond had been eye catching with his work just behind the striker.
It doesn’t matter who we play in defence, there will always
be those moments where no one attacks the ball and a free kick into the box was
left by everybody until Stephens took charge and hoofed it into the night sky. Out next chance was a huge one and it went
something like ‘GOAAAA….fuck…. YES…. What
the fuck?!?’ Redmond streaks away and
cuts inform the left, drives into the penalty area and smashes it past Ward and
it smacks off the bar and bounces down.
Obafemi is the only player in the penalty area who is active and he’s
waiting for the ball to come down. It’s
an open goal from 5 yards with the keeper on his arse…. Waves a leg at it, off
the studs, wide. Oh dear that’s
horrendous. That's right up there on the list of shocking misses.... Keep going lad… Would Charlie Austin have scored. No, we’re in the second half so he’d have been
blowing out of his arse on the half way line somewhere.
No Words!
Leicester have only got sporadic attacks which don’t go
anywhere in true Claude fashion and then we get the ball in the net. Redmond again bundles in from the left, beats
a defender and gets knocked off balance and the ball finds its way to Davis who
is on as a sub for Armstrong and he finishes first time and we’re off and
celebrating but the Leicester defenders are going nuts and claiming a
handball. Of course, we have VAR in this
competition so upstairs it goes and a handball against Redmond is eventually
given. At the point where he is knocked
off balance, the ball hits is flailing arm and bounces to Davis. Which part of that is ‘deliberate’ you
fucking idiots? Last week against
Watford we got a goal chalked off because of no VAR, today we get one chalked
off, not because of VAR but because the humans interpreting the pictures are
twats.
We have one more ridiculously unlucky moment when Gabbi, who
has come on so Obafemi doesn’t have to take a penalty, smacks a free kick over
the wall, crashing into the bar and bouncing down and away. Penalties and you already know that nothing
is going to go right for us.
For the first two for each side, everyone looks confident
and scores easily with Davo and Hojbjerg scoring for us. Redmond is up next and I last saw him take a
penalty for England U21s and he missed it but…. No bother this time and 3-2 to
us. Some Leicester defender with a
mullet is next, surely he’s going to fuck it up comepletely… nope, 3-3.
Who’s next? A 6 foot
6 centre back in Vestergaard. This just doesn’t
look right… just fucking smash it…. oooooooooh… keeper goes the right way but
it’s in. Demerai Gray for Leicester…. Chance
I reckon for Angus… 4-4. Fuck sake, I
don’t think Gunn’s gone the right way yet.
Cedric scored at Everton….. fuck that was close… chips it into the roof
of the net. Vardy for them… and Gunn is
playing silly buggers on the goal line standing one side, goal, easy, 5-5.
Gabbiadini.. you just know.
His walk up looks nervous, he looks nervous, side foot placed
effort. Fuck, saved easily. Mendy for them – just fucking miss mate cos
Angus aint going to right way… Bollocks!
Out we go.
Well fuck it. I know we were going to get bulldozed in the next round anyway but it would’ve been nice to go through and it would’ve been nice to have the tiniest bit of luck at some point. Hitting the bar twice, missing a sitter, having a perfectly good goal disallowed (according to the rules) and then losing a penalty shootout after scoring the first five. Not a lot going for us really. Shite and unlucky. Not a great combination.
Penalties were decent and as everyone knows, it is a lottery, the main irony being at the player that Hughes put on specifically to take a penalty was the one who missed. You could tell by the way he addressed the ball but there was a very good chance the Gabbiadini was going to miss and so it proved. You can’t really blame goalkeepers in a losing penalty shoot but I don’t think Angus Gunn went the right way once.
We of course should have won in the 90 minutes and one can only hope that Obafemi’s miss won’t come back to haunt him and play on his mind too much because it truly was fucking dreadful. I’ve seen many saying that Charlie and Shane would’ve scored in that position. Well, Shane certainly wouldn’t have done and Charlie Austin would’ve been 30 yards behind play so it’s irrelevant really.
The disallowed goal, which ironically was only disallowed through VAR, is a bit of a shambles. Personally, I think it should be a free-kick to the defending side because the touch of Redmond’s arm clearly gave us an advantage. However, the rules say specifically that handball has to be deliberate and there is no way on God’s green earth that that was deliberate so really, there is no way that that goal should have been disallowed.
Regardless, we are out and it’s Leicester who are going to get knocked out by Manchester City in the next round and not us.
As far as Manchester United at the weekend is concerned, well Vestergaard certainly put his hand up as someone who really should be playing so I see him starting at the weekend, possibly in place of Wesley Hoedt but more than likely alongside him with Yoshida in a back three. Yan Valery had an excellent debut and at least Hughes now knows that we have a proper right back waiting in the wings though Cedric will still start on Saturday and rightly so. I think that Obafemi will have a decent chance of starting on Saturday because Hughes will want some pace upfront and unless Ings is fit, then he doesn’t have much choice.
My hope is that Saturday is the day when the season turns around. I may be being slightly ridiculous.
Well fuck it. I know we were going to get bulldozed in the next round anyway but it would’ve been nice to go through and it would’ve been nice to have the tiniest bit of luck at some point. Hitting the bar twice, missing a sitter, having a perfectly good goal disallowed (according to the rules) and then losing a penalty shootout after scoring the first five. Not a lot going for us really. Shite and unlucky. Not a great combination.
Penalties were decent and as everyone knows, it is a lottery, the main irony being at the player that Hughes put on specifically to take a penalty was the one who missed. You could tell by the way he addressed the ball but there was a very good chance the Gabbiadini was going to miss and so it proved. You can’t really blame goalkeepers in a losing penalty shoot but I don’t think Angus Gunn went the right way once.
We of course should have won in the 90 minutes and one can only hope that Obafemi’s miss won’t come back to haunt him and play on his mind too much because it truly was fucking dreadful. I’ve seen many saying that Charlie and Shane would’ve scored in that position. Well, Shane certainly wouldn’t have done and Charlie Austin would’ve been 30 yards behind play so it’s irrelevant really.
The disallowed goal, which ironically was only disallowed through VAR, is a bit of a shambles. Personally, I think it should be a free-kick to the defending side because the touch of Redmond’s arm clearly gave us an advantage. However, the rules say specifically that handball has to be deliberate and there is no way on God’s green earth that that was deliberate so really, there is no way that that goal should have been disallowed.
Regardless, we are out and it’s Leicester who are going to get knocked out by Manchester City in the next round and not us.
As far as Manchester United at the weekend is concerned, well Vestergaard certainly put his hand up as someone who really should be playing so I see him starting at the weekend, possibly in place of Wesley Hoedt but more than likely alongside him with Yoshida in a back three. Yan Valery had an excellent debut and at least Hughes now knows that we have a proper right back waiting in the wings though Cedric will still start on Saturday and rightly so. I think that Obafemi will have a decent chance of starting on Saturday because Hughes will want some pace upfront and unless Ings is fit, then he doesn’t have much choice.
My hope is that Saturday is the day when the season turns around. I may be being slightly ridiculous.
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