No one can say they are surprised. A dignified defeat was all that was wanted tonight and we got it, 4-1 is acceptable when we were fearing five or six goals. More important, Messi lost another year of his career we will never get back. There was little doubt that player by player, Barcelona had a better starting eleven than PSG tonight, however we know it’s not the case tactically or psychologically. The opponents just had to wait for that to make all the difference.
I’m not going to criticize Piqué when PSG would be four goals up vs Barcelona with Umtiti on pitch. He hurried back from his injury to help the team and things would’ve been a lot worse without him on pitch. Araújo being out was unfortunate.
Dembélé’s big miss has cost us again, a two goal lead at home and things would have been very different. Our penalty was quite soft, thankful for that to be honest.
Dembélé and Mbappé both run at defenders for ninety minutes. The difference was that PSG’s back line have better positioning and cohesiveness. It’s why I criticised Koeman last week, he hasn’t been able to craft a reliable defensive formation and it’s more than the sum of its poor parts. A good system can make declining players perform better.
Koeman finally comes out good for Everton. He made Moise Kean look great.
Most of these footballers are finished and our coach is an embarrassment.
