Bologna had 5 shots on target, Maignan had to save all of them. They hit the bar as well.

If we 'chose' to play that way it's a very, very risky strategy and better teams than Bologna will have a lot of joy against us. I've heard this termed as 'game management' by more than just X about that match - it's high-risk and the day it doesn't work guys like you will whine at the lack of ruthlessness and how terrible a manager Pioli is. PS, earlier in this thread you in particular wanted him to 'get fired'.

As for Reijnders... got an assist, perfect passing, even managed a couple of shots. A promising start for him, he'll hope to keep producing that against better opponents.

I'm not saying it worked particularly well, because we're not that great at ball possession when we're leading by a couple of goals or more. But we cannot attack for the whole match with the same intensity, we just don't have it in our current DNA. So we try to kill the pace of the game by sitting deep and giving the opponent more room for manoeuvres.

I don't agree with it, but it is what it is. As now we have more quality upfront, I'm hoping that with more time and preparation we'll improve on it.

Obviously game strategy, concentration etc. are not the same with different opponents.

You don't need to be good at ball possession - you only need to be good at scoring goals. In the first 10 minutes we were, but whether by design or by Bologna swarming us, we didn't offer much after that and we were threatened many times.

As I say, better teams will crush that.

Look at Villa v Hibs in the Conference League the other night - the Villans came to Edinburgh and didn't stop after 0-2, they kept going. Got 5. The gulf in class (in theory) not hugely greater than Milan Bologna.

If you're good you have to be ruthless. If you're capable of scoring 5, score 5. Don't stop at 2.

One thing we seem to agree on though - we don't agree with it!

Pulisic 1-0.. good counter attack

Good Assist by loftus cheek

1-1 what poor defending

Great goal

But once again, a completely sh!t goal to concede.

Concentration levels at zero. Everyone standing around and not marking their man. So frustrating!

2-1 Giroud via harsh var PK..

Grioud. Good pen


Tijjani is class btw

Well without the hand flick on he wouldn't have been able to clear it

Harsh because it wasn't deliberate, but it did deviate the ball when we were attacking

Theo needs to shut his mouth btw.

That's already 2 yellows in 2 games. We can't afford to have him keep getting suspended for accumulation

What a goal theo

This is a striker finish

THEOOOOOO



Just when I'm mad at him (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

I trust we'll improve on that with time. We definitely need to get better defensively and it's really something collectively that the team will have to keep working on.