What do we focus on after this? The awful first half or the fightback after the break that turned it around and sent us back to the top of the league? I think the answer has to be both. While ultimately we went home happy after what turned out to be one hell of a day for us, we can’t just dismiss how bad the first half was.
Thankfully Slot will be able to analyse that first half knowing that it didn’t cost us anything because he was able to fix things at the break and the players found a way to get a really hard fought win. Of all of the take aways I have from this - good and bad - the most significant is probably that Slot was faced with a big test at half time of this game and he came through it.
During the half time break that was the topic of conversation underneath the Main Stand as I chatted with John, Steve and Ralph. The first half had been absolutely woeful, really disheartening to watch and it felt like we were in real trouble. “Slot has been outreached here, he needs to come up with a solution to turn this around”. That was the gist of what was being said, and that’s exactly what he did.
He downplayed it of course, he always does. He isn’t one for talking up his own achievements and he more or less dismissed his role in the second half comeback and said it was basically just the players upping the tempo and intensity. Obviously that was a big part of it, but who was it who got them doing that? And who was it who changed the set up to get Trent into midfield to free up Gravenberch to have much more influence on the game? That was Slot.
I could nit-pick here and ask why it took until half time time to move Trent inside, but I’m not going to as I’m sure there were reasons for that. The bottom line is we needed a solution and he found one. Other things played a role too of course, including the crowd and the improved showing from the players, but without Slot doing what he did that doesn’t happen.
Recommended Comments