I called it a while ago, only half jokingly. Ange’s FBs at Celtic tended to invert into midfield and push into the inside channels. White has played LB occasionally and is actually a midfielder so trying him there isn’t the worst idea. Nice left foot on him too. The questions would be around his defensive qualities and pace.
Interesting that Reguilon gets a start. I really don't get why he was ostracised like he was. Never going to be Roberto Carlos but at the same time was a decent option who offered a real attacking threat down that flank. I hope there is a way back for him as he is superior to Sessegnon in every way. In fact the latest long term injury to the latter might well be that way back to some game time.
Been training for like 2 days hasn’t he. So probably just being phased in. Ndombele is the more interesting exclusion.
Yeah I saw Ali Gold he went down but that he continued training. Maybe Ange gets a sense of the constant little knocks and ‘half-fit’ times with Tanguy and sees beyond the initial clearly positive impression in training.
Corner given away by a stupid GK clearance. Can he not kick with his right foot? Where have we seen that before?
The on-ball stuff is really nice to watch. Lots of one or two-touch, ball is moving fast. You can clearly see the FBs inverting into midfield and then pushing high for an underlap or overlap. Off the ball we look awful at defending crosses. Some of that might be defensive shape after the ball resets from a corner, both times the West Ham player hasn’t been closed down properly and that’s resulted in a cross that we’ve also defended poorly. So work to do there.
Plus ca change! Early days, but it looks like we still have serious defense issues. Some of them pretty basic!
For as atrocious as our defence is, our forwards and midfielders couldn’t finish a sentence at the moment.
A mix of good and bad. Some of the play has been very easy on the eye. Solomon looks really bright. Defence is Spursy. Midfield and forwards probably wouldn’t score with two goals in front of them. Vicario looks like he’ll be a quite literal Lloris replacement, good shot stopper but let’s not talk about his kicking - which was something we had initial concerns with upon news of his signing.
