So, Shaw and Højlund out, and at once we're back to where we were before February - a hard slog against a bottom half team, with the result plausibly able to go either way. This time it went the wrong way, as occasionally it will when we're not a better team than that.
It's starting to become more visible I think who the players are who carry the team, in the sense of elevating us to the sort of side that mostly doesn't end up in that kind of slog against teams like Fulham. Garnacho I think showed yesterday he's one of them. So, in a way, did Højlund, through how the attack functioned without him. Casemiro and Maguire I think plainly aren't. Then there's a few who can play well enough when the team is functioning, but who won't be the ones to elevate it when the key cogs are absent - Varane, Dalot and yesterday at any rate, Lindelöf, who actually had a pretty good game. Mainoo at his age will be inconsistent in that role, it is to be expected.
The ones who would have carried us not long ago are Bruno and Rashford. I've been a big defender of both, but I really am starting to get a bit worried. While Rashford has been improved lately, he doesn't dominate the occasional game anymore. It just doesn't seem like enough. I'm not ready to give up on him, but it's hard now not to think that if there's a good offer, it should be seriously considered. And Bruno - he's still providing more than anyone offensively, and he works hard - I don't agree at all with those who think he's been less than good this season. But - what is worrying me is that it's now been a clear pattern for a while that he goes long stretches of games without really having much impact at all, and then it comes in bursts - usually in the last quarter of the game. Is he proactively pacing himself? Or has the inhuman gametime of previous seasons caught up with him? In any case, it's a concern.
Final observation; EtH open to criticism for his dispositions yesterday. I don't know what he sees from Forson in practice, but I do know what I've consistently seen from him in games, including the preseason: Pretty much nothing. I don't understand why he's preferred over Amad, who's looked promising every time he got minutes. But beyond that, his first substitution (McT and Eriksen on for Casemiro and Forson) was obviously ill-considered: We immediately lost our grip on the game, and didn't regain it until he made a further adjustment bringing on Amad for Mainoo.
Anyway, so much for CL qualification. At least much of the competition for the final certain EL spot (6th) dropped points too.
, imagine that being a worry after everything
