Good assessment, drastic improvement all round, I want Shinnie and Knight at that level of intensity and more every gameLet's get the stats out of the way first. They had 59% of the possession, we both had 12 shots and they had 5 on target to our 4.
At half time I thought we were deserving of our lead as we had done more with the possession we had than they did with their share. I also felt they had resorted to fouling as their major tactic to stop us and they conceded 18 to our 8 over the 90 minutes.
What a goal it was from Waggy to give us the lead. As he shaped up to take it I remarked that their keeper was too far left and was inviting Waggy to go for the top right corner. As the ball was about to be struck he moved to his left, Waggy's right, in anticipation of is little ruse working. Waggy smashed it to where he had been before he moved. The bluff backfired.
After half time there was a period of 20 to 25 minutes where they made life difficult for us and it was all down, IMO, to Knockaert, who is still a very good player. On 64 minutes they had the ball in our net..... it should have been ruled out for the 2 handed pull on Davies' shirt that prevented him from jumping for the ball. It was that which allowed the ball to get through to Yates to knock down for Taylor to prod home. VAR would have ruled it out for the pull. I also think that Taylor's left foot and left shoulder might have been offside at the point Yates nodded it down but by then the not given foul had already occurred. Not a goal IMO.
After that we picked up and they no longer ran the show as they had done so far in that half. Then there was our disallowed goal. Correct decision IMO. Waggy's presence in the position he was in was forcing the keeper to take account of him and that is why he was deemed to be interfering with play.
Had the ref got that one decision right and disallowed their effort, it may well have stayed 0-1. Not unhappy with a draw away but 0-1 would have seen me ecstatic all weekend.
Based on this performance, Bielik, Ibe and Rooney all have a long wait to get back in the side ahead of them. Whose place would you give Rooney? Not Shinnie or Knight on that form. Not Waggy on that performance. Based on that 1-3-4-3 formation there is no other place that would suit Rooney as he doesn't have the energy of the other 3. Playing him in any of those positions would reduce the team's synergy.