I couldn't be arsed commenting after yesterday's disaster, but this point still stands out for me. The folk round about me were screaming at the ref for not giving a freekick for one effort, but Duk was bearing down on the box and chose to throw himself to ground in an attempt to win a meaningless freekick. We were at the point in the game that we needed him charging into the box and taking shots, and it was a pathetic, lazy decision to go down on each occasion - completely lacking in responsibility. I'd be having a right go at him this week in training if I were Robson.
He didn't lose us the final of course, the result was on the cards before the subs as they had significantly upped their game and we struggled. It was a fairly awful game to be honest, one that we didn't deserve anything from. That is the difficulty with Robson's approach I guess. He mentioned that we had a few opportunities in the first half, and I totally understand what he means. The way he has set us up in these matches, we need that pass (like the Polvara vs Frankfurt one, and countless Clarkson efforts) to be made perfectly and at the right time for the run of the striker. There were probably 2, maybe 3, occasions in the first half where we either delayed or chose the wrong pass (Hayes' fucking dummy!). Shots on target is, therefore, a largely meaningless stat for us, because it's actually the pass to create that chance that is key for us, and the one that gets us the goals. They knew what was coming though, and had clearly done their work in training to keep the centre backs close together and ready to turn when our strikers made their move. They were significantly more switched on than the recent Pittodrie game. It was all a bit disappointing, and boring really. Thankfully we'll beat them at Hampden in May.