[QUOTE="Steven Toast, post: 17699960, member: 1001346"]How good do you have to be to reach the quarter finals of the conference league? Or beat the likes of Sevilla and Dynamo Kiev in a European competition? They might not be Man City or PSG, but they're not exactly soft competition either and the fact that they're in the second qualifying round says more about Turkey's coefficients than it does about the club itself. It probably has underperformed domestically, that's a fair comment, but it's not like we were dicked by a fourth division team or even a team from Moldova or Lithuania.[/QUOTE] Of course they're not, I'm not arguing they're aren't superior opposition, they clearly are and their forwards made the difference. But I do think the champions league monicker is overblowing it. Of course we did beat a genuine champions league club at this stage last year with much of the same squad and again, far from complete. Perhaps I just feel the difference in performance, nous and result is stark. Either way, the gulf in standard isn't/shouldn't be the schooling that we saw last night. I'm sorry, it reminded me of Shota. No lack of endeavour but all that work getting in good areas undone by rank defensive naivety, without ever really threatening consistently enough to really have them worried. They could have got out of there with greater respect with a more pragmatic approach IMHO.
Overall, I think TW can be satisfied with how things went. Certainly the first 40 minutes the rotation of positions as well as playing higher up the pitch, bodes well going forward. To keep a team like Fenerbahce quiet for the most of the first half, bearing in mind that was their 5th warm up game, and play most of that time in their half, it just came down to the lack of goal scorer's on our part against them who did have players that can score. In the end we ran out of legs, but that is to be expected, but I thought Fleming did okay when he came on, as did Sincere Hall, who may well play a part this coming season. Vaughan looks very light weight when he came on, though Hall looked more robust and handled himself better.
Not seen any of the game. But I have just read this match thread from start to finish. Here’s my quick take on the game: Negative: We lost 5-1 - Not ideal for attracting players or for confidence. Positive: We lost 5-1 - This will highlight the weaker areas and mistakes are good in the process of learning/improving. To summarise, there’s no point analysing the result as it really does depend on how you look at it. It has been a funny read this match thread though. We sounded like something Brazil would aspire to for a bit, and then on the next page, Leeds. Overall, the only thing we can be sure of next season is goals (someone may have already said this). My excitement has not faded. If anything, possibly increased, as the result will likely act as a catalyst to get players in. This obviously needs to happen soon, and I’ve no doubt it will. UTT.
Your optimism has increased because we lost 5-1? There's an awful lot of nonsense on this forum echoing Acun that entertainment is more important than results, it isn't. Make no mistake, for the half decent press and some of the tidy possession, if we defend like we did yesterday we'll be in for one hell of a long season. The defence is the area of the pitch too where it's considered we need the least work but it was abject.
The word because in your first sentence shows you haven’t properly understood or read my post. The second bit confirms it. It’s strange how positivity can hurt some people. I would apologise and say have a nice day as that was not my intention, but that might make you even more annoyed.
61% possession and 4 shots on target to their 6. We lose 5-1. That tells me they were clinical and we were not. This season's going to be a rollercoaster.
I read your post and it was complete stupidity. Scratching around for positives is all good, but it was a pretty good reflection on where we are. The club over the last couple of months has been alarming, there's been an exodus of players, staff and now McVities but that will no doubt get brushed under the carpet too. Until we get a number of good recruits in, I don't see much to be positive about.
Simons was higher up than usual too and got quite high at times on the right. For a lad that started out as a centre half, he did pretty well
I thought we had got Giles to play as a wingback Omur played in midfield last season Longman is a forward
Giles didn't play as a wing back, he played as a left winger, Omur did play out wide last season but only because we had Carvalho, he's supposed to be our No.10 and Longman's no striker (he's averaged three goals a season in the Championship).
