My thoughts from last night;
1. Tactically martinez is terrible. starting Kone in a role he dropped him out of for being ineffective a few months ago, before going back to that tactic is just signs that he has no other way of playing. The tactic doesn't work because Kone spends his time going centrally, leaving a huge gap on the left hand side. This then limits baines role in the team because he has to then cover the space, meaning he cannot get forward as much as he should be. How after so long of this tactic not working, can martinez just decide to change things?
2. Not resting players. See here is a thought more than anything else. We play 4 games in what 9/10 days? Luakaku and ross will play in all of them, why? People question why these players are innefective or not looking interested yet they play 90 minutes every week without any time off, considering they are young, that takes its toll surely? Last night would have been a perfect time to rest rom ahead of tougher games, instead he will be asked to perform that role another 3 times by next weekend, so when he turns up at wembley looking a little 'cant be arsed', that's why.
3. The standards have dropped so much, from not needing to defend a lead vs west ham to hanging on against a side who is amazingly worse than us was shocking. we should be beating palace even with 10 men, we did it against a much better west ham, so why does the team then have to put everyone behind the ball against a team who for all intents and purposes may not have scored even if they were still playing? apart from one counter, we had nothing going forward after that, not suprising really.
4. 2 years ago palace beat us to hamper our chances of 4th, the fact that we were hanging onto a draw against them to stop going 15th should tell you all you need to know about how the future pans out for us now. the good thing is that this is ending his time here, but at the same time, i wanted us to show something a little more passion or fight to the game, not fear.
Overall i dont think the red card should have made a difference, it didnt a month ago so why now? It is games like this that amaze me how bad we really are, 3 wingers on bench and choose to play none, ask lukaku to essentially take on the whole defence by himself with no-one near him by the second half, no resting of key players ahead of bigger games to play, not changing tactics to suit the team, just not playing with any passion.
I had a little conversation on here before the game about not caring about the result, then we get to see that. That is why i don't care about the game right now, its just going through motions, its players just not wanting to get injured before the summer now, the ones in the shop window are there already even if they play badly. I just think that despite all of the negativity or positiveity you can have now about cups, the biggest harming factor will be the fact the same team and players are playing every single game without breaks even in April so even if Martinez gets it spot on in the semi final, chances are the team will be knackered by the end of it to even be able to keep up with united.
they are my thoughts anyway, also McCarthys first red card in 200 or so games, thats not quite the same as mirallas 2 red cards this season alone.
