I think there were a lot of positives to be seen at the game on Saturday, ball retention and organised build up play was a pleasure to see. Exciting to see so many new faces in the team, all of which played well.
Martin still scares me playing at CB, his ball retention is worrying, a couple of times he hesitated too long, played a couple of players into trouble and played a blind back pass which resulted in a chance for Brighton.
Ze Germans did well at CB and seem to have formed a good partnership. Husband I thought was very energetic, always available and really hugged the wing. Wildschut played really well, he was very good offensively and defensively, I think WB really suits his game.
The Reed, Vrancic and Maddison combo looked really good. Reed mainly focused on sitting in front of the defense, breaking up play and keeping things ticking off very effectively, but it was good to see him burst forward to with Maddison or Vrancic dropping in. Vrancic looks like a good player technically and looked to have good strength, also not scared of trying an audacious lob from 50-60 yards. Maddison was really refreshing to see, so much energy, always looking for the ball and very good technically, great vision as well. Even though he was getting chopped to bits by Brighton players he wasn't fazed.
Jerome looked good, I'm not his biggest fan but he played the system well and was good at running the channels and bringing other into player, similarly with Watkins, he looks quick, strong and what a strike! Oliveira was good as usual, unlucky to see his whipped shot not go in.
All in all for a team with so many new faces it was a very accomplished team performance, nobody had a bad game and we dominated possession against a team playing premier league football in a few weeks.