This is painful. Our midfield has been garbage. I've not liked Merino as a number 8. He's always invisible. Nwaneri doesn't look like a 10 to me. Martinelli is been dire. Nobody is trying to play Gyokeres in.
Sigh was a lot better after 65 mins when we made the substitutions. I know its only Pre-Season but were not looking sharp. On the plus side ... Holy **** Max Dowman is insane.
Really poor Odegaard looked worse than last season when he came on Wrong decision 100% of the time when he has it in key areas. If we don’t get our defence aligned this team might struggle for top 4
Is that OG, pen, set piece header, pen as four of our six goals? only two open play goals in the four games? Christ this season will be as painful as the last. Still can’t create or score.
Sorry to say that this season i have low expectations given the preseason and what i am seeing from the signings. None of them look like they can improve us.
Don't you always, Monsieur Negative. We've had a great Pre-Season in the past followed by disappointing Premierleague performances. Hard to tell.
I have been very positive for a few years, Bear, but I am really unsure about these signings. Maybe it's just them getting fitness, but i would expect them to be sharper with two weeks to go to the PL kick off. Perhaps I will be pleasantly surprised after our first 6 games, which is a really tough start. I am warming to the idea of Dowman being ready sooner, though. He looks superb and based on pre season, probably deserves significant 1s team minutes. He's probably the bright spark in an otherwise dire pre season so far.
Pre season means nothing tbf...its just about getting new players used to the culture of the team and getting match fit. Remember us winning all our pre season games in 2008. Final game was a 5 nil win against a really strong Roma team. Went on to lose 6 and draw 2 of our first 8 league games BTW...what was the penalty shootout for????
Not quite sure why Zubi and Rice are getting so few minutes together. positives are that Gyokeres looks good up front and Madueke looked good when he came on. If we get Eze then him and Madueke will sort out our LHS between them. And for **** sake just play Rice, Zubi, Odegaard, Saka, Madueke and Gyok at the weekend. Let’s see what those six can actually do together. apparently random Saudi club has just bid £50m for Martinelli. Get rid now. He’s ****.
Yup pre season is just that, pre season. Get the players up to match speed. Give players some minutes, try a few things out. Writing off our season based on a couple of pre season losses is alarmist beyond belief tbh.
I managed to make it to the game yesterday, it was dire for the most part. My takeaways: 1) We are so predictable in our play, its always the same, attack down a wide side, if its Martinelli he will try to go outside and put in a **** cross with his left foot or try to cut inside which will inevitably be shut down because he is double teamed. If its Saka he will try to go don the outside and put in dead clipped cross with his right foot or will try to cut in onto his stronger foot with more success than Martinelli. 2) We have no attack or thrust straight down the middle. Think about a Vieira striding out with the ball, past their midfield, the CBs need to engage, he then had the option of beating the CB or passing to a wide player. it meant their defence had more dangers to worry about. 3) We hardly play any through balls. Loads of the Villarreal attacks came from through balls, we dick around all day and wait for them to have 10 players behind the ball and no space to run into. 4) Gyokeres' runs were not seen and if they were the negative pass was always played, thats not playing to Gyokeres' strengths at all. Not having anyone creative centrally will mean Gyokeres gets starved of the ball because its always in a wide position. 5) We rarely if ever switch the play, nobody plays that long diagonal or cross field pass, its always slow slow slow, transition from side to side. 6) Villareal had some incredible passing patterns, some of which were very risky but they scythed us open time and time again with it. Certainly not predictable. Nwaneri was brilliant in the first half, best player, Dowman was brilliant in the second half, best player. Mosquera looks like he will be incredible. Also, we went to 3 at the back when Mosquera came on then switched to 4 when Zinchenko came on, I was pleased to see we are willing to change it up a bit.
Off to the game on Saturday, hopefully get to see a decent runout of what will potentially be the side to play Man Scum the following week. COYG!
Much better today. Gyokeres's 1st goal (proper strikers header that) Zubimendi is absolutely class. Probably the lineup we see against United. I expect Arteta will change things in the 2nd half.
