A korner turned?

After the frustrating way we lost to City last week at this time, we’ve subsequently bounced back with a scrappy and ground out but creditable 1-0 win away at Sunderland midweek, given their stellar home record this season and followed that up with a much more comfortable and convincing 3-0 win against Brighton yesterday in the FA cup, to keep our hopes of silverware this season alive. Brighton have been in desperately poor form recently but they’re still a PL team and so the draw could have been kinder. As it turned out though, it’s likely a game against a pumped up lower league team would have been a tougher game.

The game started in an all too familiar and frustrating fashion, where we do absolutely nothing for the first half hour and Brighton had the better of the early exchanges, which the stats showed as they had twice as many shots as us and three times as many on target in that period, although Alisson was never too threatened in goal. I must admit I was surprised Alisson started the game, which probably is indicative of the pressure Slot has been under, admitting in his pre-match presser that he’d been having sleepless nights trying to pick his team for yesterday.

One positive I took from the first half was Kerkez performance. I’ve been critical of him at times this season but his form has improved in recent weeks and I thought he was outstanding yesterday, particularly in the first half where he was a bundle of energy at both ends of the pitch. I was pleased to see his fine work rewarded with an assist, as just before half time Jones made a brilliant diagonal run into the box to latch onto Milos’ cross and guide the ball into the roof of the net. I’m delighted to see our new LB finding his feet and showing the form that led us to signing him in the first place. I still stand by my opinion though, that Slot could’ve save both himself and the likes of Kerkez and Wirtz a lot of unnecessary pressure and scrutiny by easing them into the lineup and letting them gradually adjust but what’s done is done and at least we’re now starting to see the best of these players.

I had hoped Slot would have given Ramsay a runout as he did in the Carling cup but he opted for a senior midfielder again as Szoboszlai, Endo and yesterday Jones have shared the duties through our multiple RB injury crises this season but to be fair, they’ve all been excellent in their own ways when called upon to fill in at RB this season.

Jones scored the first yesterday, before Dom continued his fine scoring form with the second and the pick of yesterday’s goals, latching onto a lovely cushioned ball from Salah to emphatically smash the ball past the helpless keeper and into the top corner, once again prompting comparisons with the man who used to wear his number 8 jersey, the legend that is Steven Gerrard. Those comparisons are fair but I did like how when asked about the Gerrard comparisons in a post match interview, he shut it down, advising the interviewer that he was writing his own story and I love that confidence that you can see he’s absolutely brimming with at the moment. For me, McMOTM was a toss up between him and Jones, with Kerkez running them close. Jones got the official MOTM so I’m gonna go with Dom for the more important 4KK McMOTM.

In attack, we finally saw a glimpse of the Salah of old yesterday as he was lively throughout, provided a lovely assist for Dom, before winning and subsequently scoring the penalty to put the game beyond doubt. If he can find some form for the business end of the season, that would be a big bonus and give us a much better chance of winning something and securing a CL place.

Elsewhere in attack, Chiesa struggled in the somewhat unfamiliar CF position, although showed his usual endeavour and work rate. Gakpo did some good work, the highlight being the ball out to Salah in the build up to Szoboszlai’s goal but I still think we need an upgrade in that position. Gakpo rotated well with Diaz last season and their respective strengths complimented each other quite well as they rotated the position but I feel when Gakpo starts every game, he’s just too predictable. The club may not want to block the progress of young Rio however, who looked lively when he came on and was desperately unlucky to have a well taken goal ruled out for offside in a game with no VAR, when in the still pictures he looked on but thankfully it was academic in terms of the result.

So job done then, through to the next round of the FA cup and we reap the benefits of our strong finish to the first stage of our CL campaign with a full week off now and so a welcome opportunity for Slot to get the boys on the training pitch and hopefully iron out some more of the creases in our game, starting with us not just giving away the first half hour of games, as we seem to do every week.

There will be a lot of frustrated players in the squad right now. Mama will have at least expected both cup competitions to be his I would imagine, Ramsay will undoubtedly be looking to move on, especially after Slot’s comments about him and Curtis must be getting itchy feet as well, especially as his form has been excellent this season when he’s played, yet he still barely gets a look in. Robbo will be away and it’s likely Endo, Salah and Konate will follow him. Plus, I’m not being funny but if you’re a talented young player who’s reached the stage in your development where you’re ready to be breaking into a first team, then as long as Slot is in charge, you wouldn’t be confident in getting an opportunity so the likes of Danns and McConnell may look to move on in the summer. To that end, despite the £450 million spent last summer, we could be looking at having to spend similar sums again this year, as we face another summer of upheaval.

Whether Slot is still in charge come the summer remains to be seen, however he’s done his chances no harm this week and there’s certainly positives to be taken from the last two games, both in terms of results and performances. Now we need to find a level of consistency that has eluded us so far this season but a full week on the training pitch after back to back wins can only be a positive you would think, so onwards and upwards. Walk on!