Well that was a sobering evening 😳

Probably best that I couldn't get Canary Call to work on BBC Sounds and I could try to forget it all!

Obviously there was the mitigating circumstance of injury and Covid, but you still expect a basic level if effort and competence from those who were available to turn out.

With the exception of Placheta (for periods) and Pukki (zero service to work with) everyone deserves all the criticism they receive.

Cantwell and Gilmour were both absolute passengers but I'll leave it at that! I'm sharing Daniel's thoughts about their abilities at the moment.

I thought we were crying out for Dimi on the left, Williams was pedestrian and offered nothing going forward.

McLean was like a fish out of water in the advanced role and Lungi looked better when he dropped to CB, rather than at CDM.

Good to see Byram back, but very rusty... and in midfield? Eek!

Villa didn't look like much, but hardly needed to get out of 1st or 2nd gear. All too comfortable for them and the goals looked atrocious but I haven't seen them televisually yet.

We can just about compete with a first choice XI but the squad is thin and looked anything but resilient.

I suspect this is already a season of what ifs... what if Normann remained fit? What if Rashica hadn't picked up that injury? What if we'd never wasted a loan place to Chelsea waifs and strays?

Time for bed, said Zebedee 😴

OTBC 💛 💚

Posted By: Worthing Yellow, Dec 15, 02:40:45