Reo Hatate

Think it will be Taylor at LB. Hatate left side mid, Jota from start on left wing then Schlupp on for Jota. Think Schlupp is a better option than putting Yang as his tracking and defending isn't always the best. See what Brendan does here on Wednesday night.

 

I think he was just filing the position that Schlupp made vacant as Schlupp got used to the inverted fullback position. Amazing how well drilled this team is as I noticed a number of times Cal and Scales also filled in there as Schlupp went wondering around the pitch.

 

Despite all those "moments of magic" I won't be missing him much
Those balls cheaply gave away infuriate me far too frequently....
Also - not much use defensively

 

Similar to the Young boys game tonight, in that he looked absolutely shattered but as the game came to its conclusion he started to find, and use, the bigger spaces well.

You’d hope moving forward, he’d start to mimic Maeda’s diet and training regime to improve his consistency of performances

 

Been on his case plenty of times but he's been very consistent the last month or so. Vital in these games with his awareness to open up the play going forward.

 

Thought he was largely good, couple of frustrating passes and he was weak as * in the tackle a couple of times, but did more good than bad I thought.

 

Was decent, apart from that dangerous pass in the first half.

 

Why does he turn into prime Iniesta after 70 mins?

 

Started slowly but got better as the game wore on, finished strongly, should have done better with a couple of shots.

 

Watch the Kuhn disallowed goal to see how important he is . Capable and willing to move the ball through the midfield line and play it in to a dangerous/forward area when most would go back . Was a split second pass that got us moving. He is so creative from those deep areas. Noticed it a lot in domestic games recently , definitely gets a lot of "passes before the assist" , great at setting up attacks from deep .

 

Good awareness going forward but an empty jersey defensively.. Didn't wake up until 65 odd minutes for me..

I hate the term but he's a bit of a luxury player to have.. get away with in Scotland but not in Europe

 

He's Samaras incarnate at CM.

Undoubtedly got plenty of talent and technical ability. But lord have mercy, he can be frustrating at times and sometimes caught in possession as he seems to have lost awareness of his surroundings

 

Just goes to show how different people see games. I thought he had a good game, worked his socks off to make himself available for passes and I only recall him having one of his blind passes that just totally gave the ball away. He showed composure on the ball when he got it and tried to play out when we could.

My only criticism was he got tee’d up twice for chances he would normally at least work the goalkeeper with if not score and his efforts were both poor and if they hadn’t have been blocked I think both were off target. That’s not major criticism but at that level against that standard of opposition you need them to be on target and one of them at least to go in.

However, his recent upturn in form has been great.

 

I think he was afraid rather than asleep until the Maeda goal.. he just seemed very unnerved by the Bayern press in the first half.. understandable considering it's not something he runs into week to week.

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His mistakes can be ironed out, hopefully, I think, I pray, because by * they cause me mental pain

That said, I still cannot see him dropped. He offers us an edge with his technical ability that sadly would be incredibly hard to replace without spending a fortune.

It’s odd, final third he’s something unbelievable yet mid pitch he can be a bit loose with the ball. I think if he tries to be less creative with passes when we’re deeper and instead get more mobile with that incredible half turn with back to goal, or just play safe return balls instead of square balls inside.

During his first season I remember him being far more tenacious and accurate with nipping in when supporting defensively. Unsure what’s happened there.

 

I don't think he's helped out by Rodgers, he's always the one pressing from the front rather than the striker even when Kyogo was here.

He's got a good engine but I don't think it's good enough or he has enough pace to be doing that for 90 mins, it's no surprise teams at this level are able to just walk through the midfield since he's * and miles away.

 

He's the most creative midfielder we have by a country mile. When he does go, and I suspect it will be in the summer, he will be a huge miss. Him and McCowan are the two midfielders we have who are creative and McCowan has a long way to go in all aspects of his game to be a ready made replacement.

He's totally different from all other midfielders we have in the team. Yes, he sometimes gets sloppy and he can become inconsistent but he always tries to play the ball forward or open up the game and that in itself, brings risk.

Will hate to see him go, if he does.