EFL and FA Cup thread

That was ridiculous control with his head. Why doesn't Garnacho start more?

First really enjoyable game of the season and some promising performances.

It was head and shoulders the best performance of the season. Completely dominant and controlled. Can't remember the last time we had a game won before 60 mins and could afford to bring on youngsters etc.

Gore with a nice cameo in midfield, thought he looked tidy.

Hopefully he's good, but not too good for the next year or two and we can nab him (Irish qualified - dad is Irish).

May have been poor but we finally took advantage of that and controlled the game. We have not done that for a long time.

Pellistri was generally positive but there's a serious halo effect at play here. Loads of my mates saying he had a great game last night. He had an ok game, he has a huge issue physically. Almost any time physical pressue was applied he lost the ball or allowed the defender to get a touch on it or just bully him off the ball.

Conversely Garnacho is much more physically able, fair enough he's had an extra year in the first team but I never saw as many issues with him as I do with Pellistri there. Again I'm talking about the physical side. It's so important in the Premier league, particularly in a game where we have less control, that would be a bigger issue.

I don't know about a great game, but he was decent. His final ball and touch in the box was a bit lacking, but he mostly progressed the ball well and tracked back, covering a lot of ground which allowed Dalot to be progressive too and that basically directly led to the first two goals (the cross, the corner both came from Dalot pressing forward).

I think the other stuff will come with confidence as he gets more starts, which seems likely now. I don't think it was particularly a physical thing in general last night, although not to say it didn't happen a couple of times.

I don't think I'm in the not going to make it camp but he definitely has shortcomings that I think will be exposed if he starts a lot of games. Completely agree re extra touch, he had a coupe of half chances in the box but took an extra half touch to set himself on a couple of occasions and got easily blocked.

He certainly deserves more playing time in the coming weeks as he did put in a huge amount of energy last night and took up some great positions.

Won't last long with this lot

I did say I thought it would be a different picture by the next international break. 

Obviously a few games to go but hopefully the improvement continues. We're at least getting some players back into the squad in important positions but lets see how we get on versus a full strength Palace at the weekend.

Again, how have they spent a billion on that line up?

I can also totally see them breaking their goal draught!!

He was definitely your best player against us.

No VAR in the cup, so absolutely no refereeing decisions will be made.

Whst will Pep blame this time?