Those two halves taught us so much

[General]

Hang on. I'm not saying people are wrong in wanting Iwobi centrally, but it's a bit harsh to have a dig at Lukic.

Lukic, who's played for us and been reliable (including against Man City I might add), came into a first game post injury and was thrown in at the deep end and asked to perform. He wasn't at the races, and Marco should've probably eased him in against easier opposition, but to blame Lukic as useless and disregard him so readily is a bit immature.

Granted there seems to be substance to playing Iwobi in the middle, particularly given some of the talent we have on the wings, but don't forget AFCON is on the horizon and we'll need a fully fit and raring to go Lukic who can compete.

Perhaps Berge can keep his current playing style alongside Lukic.

This could be more of a tactical thing that a personnel thing

[Whitesideup]

Maybe ...maybe not. Of course the discussion is hypothetical. I agree with the sentiment and have long thought playing Lukic and Berge together compromises our creativity. It has made us more solid though.

But there is another side to the coin .. the opposition. Maybe, just maybe, the way they played particularly in the first 30 minutes, meant we needed to be more compact and simply limit their chances. (We did create a good couple of opportunities on the break as it was, and ESR had a good chance well-saved.) So yes, tweaking our structure gave us more attacking verve but we were 50 minutes into the game, and maybe the City bubble was bursting, or at least leaking a bit. That may have helped. And to boot then the psychology of the game seemed to change with our self-belief growing and their confidence evaporating.

I think we look better with more creativity and like Iwobi playing more centrally (who is imo probably our most important player at the moment) especially as Chukweeze is looking extremely sharp and we have other wide options. It will, or would be, interesting to see if we started that 11 against Palace, an 11 that scored 3 against City in 30 minutes, and play with the same energy and conviction   if they could take Palace apart. You'd like to think so, but football doesn't work like that. It's a funny old game. (But I would settle for being 3-0 up at half-time.)