We improved on and executed our "first half control" much better today. That said, I don't know why we even seem so intent on this recent gameplan anyway. We seemingly refuse to play football for the first half and instead focus on just locking down a game.
It worked today, and our immediate response to conceding was excellent. It won't always go to plan though and I really don't like this tendency to waste or at best, neutralize, such large chunks of the game. Like I always say, it's like walking an hour late into a 2 hour exam. You leave yourself with such little time to perform and such little time to fix any errors should something go wrong.
One thing's for sure, it won't work against better teams. Just see our record against "big" teams this season: in 6 games against Lazio, Milan, Real Madrid x 2, Atalanta and Napoli, we have 1 win, 1 draw and 3 defeats. Utterly disgusting record. This strategy of controlling and neutralizing our opponents simply won't be enough to win the league if we can't raise our game against any team in the top 6.