Isn't Ugarte highly rated and normally a starter for them?
That aside, the reason I'm ignoring the opposition is because to a certain extent, I think they're a little irrelevant to the point I'm trying to make.
Should we be beating Sporting if we have reserves on the pitch? Yes!
Are we getting the most out of our reserve players? Probably not.
The margins between our good and our bad performances are incredibly fine at the moment and when we disrupt the first XI, the more reserves we play, the more likely we're going to be the wrong side of that fine line. And if we are, we struggle to create any chances because of the precision required in how we play.
And this for me is down to how we rotate - we need to improve this but currently, it's an issue. And as such, that for me is the core (but not only) reason behind the result yesterday.
