I thought we probably deserved the win. We were comfortable first half, scored the goal and should have scored more. We were probably a bit too comfortable which lead to a sloppy goal.
Poor first 20 of the second half, just couldn't lift it and gave away a poor goal but we had some steady momentum for last 20 or so and a couple of key subs turned it around for us. It was close, but the right team won.
Bit of a mixed bag performance wise. They all did good things, but there were some bad aspects as well. Yacob was the pick for me. I've been very critical of him in the last year or so but he looked to have a bit of spark back. For those that don't know we played a midfield diamond like this
Yacob
O'Neil Mulumbu
Blanco
It really suited Yacob. O'Neil played very well too, gave Gamboa lots of support defensively. Can't say the same for Mulumbu, he was poor, just never got to grips with playing left of the diamond and gave Davidson no support which meant that he also struggled a little. Was no surprise that once Varela came on and we went to a flat 442 with some width either side that we got things going second half.
As I said Davidson struggled a bit but needed help. He's a good defender 1 on 1 but was caught out of position though. Gamboa was better but still got caught a few times himself. But it will take them a while to get up to speed tactically to play over here.
I thought Blanco was decent. Still a little way to go to be up to speed with the physicality but he kept trying and never went too long without a touch which is the sign of a good player IMO.
Samaras looked like a good player who was very rusty to me. Males very clever runs, finds lots of space but you could see his touch was off. Not sure they would ever have wanted him to play 75 minutes though. Shame for Ideye as he looked lively before his knock, but a goal is a goal so he should be happy.
All in all a decent nights work. Most good, a few (Mulumbu and Anichebe were two) were below par but all the new lads will be better for having played a game and won.