Watching it over again on MOTD just now, and Alan Hansen stated that we should have had two penalties - one for Rose dragging down Jelavic and one for Rose kicking Naismith in the back of the legs after the ball had gone. I don't agree about the Jelavic one because it looked to me as if Jela was looking for it: it was as soft as Arsenal's one against Norwich last week, but watching the replay a couple times I can't see any reason why the Naismith one wasn't straight red and penalty. Shearer of course disagreed, describing the Naismith / Rose incident as nothing more than a "coming together", but Shearer is a moron and a hypocrite. When even Alan Hansen, who hates us with a passion, says we should have had a penalty, there's probably something in it.
None of this however detracts from the fact that we played with such languid disinterest that we didn't deserve to win; Howard, Distin, Coleman, Baines and (to a lesser extent) Heitinga were solid at the back - the replay shows that the Heitinga yellow was incorrect because the striker runs into his back. Coleman and Baines tried to get forward but had no real support as Pienaar was woeful and Mirallas simply doesn't stay on the right very often. But other than Baines and coleman, we had very little in the way of a threat. Felli and Mirallas gave it a shot on the odd occasion they got the ball, and they were constantly trying to get it, but otherwise we had nowt.
Gibson was anonymous, Osman looked as if he was still knackered or possibly even carrying a knock and Pienaar put in loads of effort but his execution of basic skills was way below the required standard. As a result we lumped it forward to Anichebe WAAAAAY too often. On the odd occasion we put the ball into Mirallas' or Fellaini's feet with them heading forward we actually looked good, but we simply don't do it enough. Eery fast break was neutered by Osman or Pienaar coming to a halt, turning 360 degrees and then playing it back to Distin, who then gave it to Howard who would in turn launch it downfield. This is NOT percentage football, it's being so lacking in invention that we'd rather give the ball to them and hope they make a mistake. The stats on MOTD say we had over 60% of the possession, but I'd guess half of that was Heitinga, Distin and Howard passing it back and forth waiting for someone to make a run or offer themselves up in space.
As for their goal: with the benefit of the replays I believe that the Baines pass was no more at fault than Osman suddenly deciding to stop running, turn 90 degrees to the left and expecting Baines to read that. Baines put the ball a yard ahead of Osman to run on to, but as he played it Osman decided that running forward onto a ball shows far too much attacking intent. We ask Baines to get forward at every opportunity and the first step in him doing that is playing an infield pass to a CM, but that CM needs to continue the forward momentum of the move otherwise we do not force the opposition to move, and Baines will simply exhaust himself bombing forward but not receiving return passes.
In conclusion: We need some creative midfielders who are happy with the ball at their feet and willing, and able, to take on a man and beat him. We need this WAY more than we need a striker, because this will improve the quality and quantity of balls played into our strikers. Jelavic was a God last season and I'd give him until Christmas to rediscover that, but we need some better midfielders to help him.
