Defensively we did quite well and in midfield new signing Christian Poulsen showed he has pace and strength but I don’t believe Lucas alongside him is up to it.
Although Ryan Babel got the goal he did little else and there was no threat up front until Fernando Torres came on. I would have started with Torres and then taken him off if he was tired in the second half.Torres puts fears into opposition teams and he would have put the Turks on the back foot from the start. As it was we didn’t really play with any aggression until the second half.
Another mistake was letting Joe Cole take the penalty. He admitted he hadn’t taken one since he was 13! Torres was on the pitch at the time and he’s a natural goal scorer.
It’s fair to say we didn’t get much luck and the disallowed goal was harsh. A 2-0 win would have been a fair reflection on the game. I think 1-0 should be enough to get through but to ensure that Hodgson will need to play a much stronger team in the second leg.
At least the likes of Gerrard, Kuyt, Johnson and Torres should be fighting fit to face City and if we battle like we did in the second half against Arsenal I can see us claiming a valuable victory.
