We lost the play from the O'Neill substitution. Not saying O'Neill was the cause but from that moment we started to play defensively and lost control.
Geria looked to me like he spoiled just about every pass forward - bombing away to nobody or to a Bahrain player. I really rate Geria but his attacking impact was poor most of the time this game. Still did some good things attacking but less effective than he should have been.
Cacares just did not have a good game. Seemed too far back to use his skills to create danger but also looked to be shakier on the ball than I have seen him. Lost the ball a lot more than his skill and touch normally holds - I guess that is being exposed to a higher level in international football but he did slip a lot and being played deeper (as someone else said earlier) is not his best position.
Miller scares me. I really liked the good stuff he did and was really terrified of the bad stuff he did. I actually think he hurt himself doing another flop when he should have kept his feet and he landed sideways on the ball. Looked very ginger after that.
As soon as Popa started to micro manage I was worried. He gets up at the edge of his box and directs traffic and you know he has switched to the "defend our lead" mentality that has seen him engineer a loss from a winning position before.
We played a much better style of football in the first half so that is a good mark for Popa. I do not agree with Goodwin on the right - again it is not putting players where they do their best work. That same Arnie/Popa trade off that hopes to jag a goal in one moment at the expense of 90 minutes of better play.
Bloody unlucky to concede those two goals although Burgess' touch was awful. You can't have a CB giving the ball away in that position.
Very happy to see Yengi doing what he was doing all game - continued to try and take the game to Bahrain when we got the ball forward. Still too little drive across the entire team for 90 minutes which has to count as a mark against Popa.
Ref did a fantastic job all game - except I can't understand how little extra extra time he added when there were stoppages in the 10 minutes added. I think he had a plane to catch maybe and just wanted to get away from the BS tactics.
We had 3 points at our fingertips and dropped it - ending up lucky to scrape a point. That's football but how bloody frustrating and enraging to see two freak moments ripping the life out of supporters.
Still - I count that game a continuing improvement in the refreshing of our squad and game style.
Geria looked to me like he spoiled just about every pass forward - bombing away to nobody or to a Bahrain player. I really rate Geria but his attacking impact was poor most of the time this game. Still did some good things attacking but less effective than he should have been.
Cacares just did not have a good game. Seemed too far back to use his skills to create danger but also looked to be shakier on the ball than I have seen him. Lost the ball a lot more than his skill and touch normally holds - I guess that is being exposed to a higher level in international football but he did slip a lot and being played deeper (as someone else said earlier) is not his best position.
Miller scares me. I really liked the good stuff he did and was really terrified of the bad stuff he did. I actually think he hurt himself doing another flop when he should have kept his feet and he landed sideways on the ball. Looked very ginger after that.
As soon as Popa started to micro manage I was worried. He gets up at the edge of his box and directs traffic and you know he has switched to the "defend our lead" mentality that has seen him engineer a loss from a winning position before.
We played a much better style of football in the first half so that is a good mark for Popa. I do not agree with Goodwin on the right - again it is not putting players where they do their best work. That same Arnie/Popa trade off that hopes to jag a goal in one moment at the expense of 90 minutes of better play.
Bloody unlucky to concede those two goals although Burgess' touch was awful. You can't have a CB giving the ball away in that position.
Very happy to see Yengi doing what he was doing all game - continued to try and take the game to Bahrain when we got the ball forward. Still too little drive across the entire team for 90 minutes which has to count as a mark against Popa.
Ref did a fantastic job all game - except I can't understand how little extra extra time he added when there were stoppages in the 10 minutes added. I think he had a plane to catch maybe and just wanted to get away from the BS tactics.
We had 3 points at our fingertips and dropped it - ending up lucky to scrape a point. That's football but how bloody frustrating and enraging to see two freak moments ripping the life out of supporters.
Still - I count that game a continuing improvement in the refreshing of our squad and game style.
