With Xabi out of the side our distribution was poor today. There's no doubt the squad is much stronger now, but he's our only playmaker. Without a short ball to Xabi as an option, we resorted to hoofing it long from defence too often, though Agger at least is willing to stroll out with the ball and get forward. If Xabi's not playing I think we need Stevie in the middle alongside Momo, which shouldn't be a problem now Pennant can play the wide right role. Rafa got it slightly wrong today I think, though to be fair his options were really limited after the 2 first half injuries. Bit of a reality check though, given our optimism for the new season, and we really need to improve for Tuesday. Failure against Haifa doesn't bear thinking about.