Okay, I'm going to shoot from the hip and say that what I saw today against Stuttgart was pretty appalling with the season due to start next week. The consensus of opinion of people around me was that we'll be lucky to come away from QPR having conceded just the five!! I kept my views to myself but in that first half I could see their point. I can honestly say that I saw no sign whatsoever of the style that has served us so well to date. I am open to correction but I failed to spot even one playing triangle during the game. We coughed up possession all too easily when we did get the ball and Stuttgart were giving us a real chasing. By half time they had scored twice, hit the post, forced Vorm into a couple of fine saves and had a couple of efforts narrowly off target after slicing through us. In turn, we managed one effort by Sinclair when he cut in and fired over the top (no surprise there) and Danny dragged a shot wide on the turn after 44 minutes. There was no shape, no skills, no fight, no fluency, no movement off the ball, no support of the man in possession and I doubt we managed to put three passes together before losing the ball. During all this, 30 or 40 Stuttgart supporters were making more noise than our 9,000 plus. I have heard more life at a funeral wake than I heard from us because I think everyone was just gob-smacked at how bad we were. As for team spirit which I started a thread on, I saw De Guzman shouting at Michu and Leon doing the same to De Guzman. There were angry gestures and clearly all was not well. And my mood was not improved when in the car on my way home, I heard a Radio Wales presenter mention that there is dissent amongst the squad about the training methods. Not good news, folks. Thank goodness the second half was much better and we started to look like a team but I wonder how much of that was down to Stuttgart having become complacent and were cruising. Despite Stuttgart's equaliser we actually should, undeservedly, have won it because earlier Dyer had missed a gaping net, after rounding the keeper, when it was easier to score. However, I always had the feeling that had this been a competitive game, Stuttgart could have gone up several gears had they wanted. Performances? Leon was superb, the player we know him to be. But he was fighting a losing battle without his buddy Joe because Michu was just not getting involved. He was playing just behind Danny more or less as a second striker and only occasionally drifting back to midfield to help out. If that was supposed to be De Guzman's role, he didn't succeed either. He sprayed some passes and had some neat touches but Joe Allen he was not. I have to say that it was glaringly obvious that we needed a Joe type player in there to help Leon and to pick up the pieces. The one good thing for me was Chico Flores. His attitude was great from first to last and he is a real warrior. He competed for everything and it was refreshing to see after the lacklustre performances from many of the others. That said, Stuttgart's goals all came through the middle, so maybe Ash can take a look at himself. Kemy looked tidy and composed again when he came on and Routledge bettered Sinclair's display. If Man City want Sinclair, I'll be happy to take their money and go with Routledge for now. So where are we at? It seems to me that we have abandoned tika taka and abandoned the ethic of trying to pass teams to death. We no longer control the ball or the game as we used to. This is all well and good if we have another system in place but in the last two games we have done neither. We didn't look too bad against Blackpool but we will be playing far better sides than them. Better quality Premier League teams will muller us if we don't sort ourselves out - and sharpish. At the moment we seem to be caught between two stools and I wonder if this is what is causing dissent in the ranks. I had actually hoped that we would continue our passing game with a few improvements to make us more incisive up front. It seems to me, however, that we are going for more penetration without bothering with too much build up. Great if it succeeds but I suspect that after the last few seasons this will prove alien to many of our established squad. Let's see how it pans out.
Agree with the above completely Ivor, was quit worrying first half, but whatever Laudrup said to them half time in the dressing room worked, so for me he's doing his job, though his touchline presence was almost none existent, which is something I don't like, and hope that changes, with regard to the new signings, Chico looks the best, and is a good transfer, De Guzman I'm not so sure of at the minute, but Michu looks to be a good transfer too. Schechter getting his debut, was a surprise, hope he pushes Graham well. Stuttgart had us on the ropes first half, and our midfield was none existent, thank goodness for Leon! I like Okazaki, he looked good warming up before the game, and looked good when he came on too,, would love to have him playing for us. Stuttgart were by far the better team! Thought that it was a great show of humility and respect, when the Stuttgart players and coaching team went over to their fans, and shook hands with their supporters, and chatting away, that really did impress me, maybe our players can learn from that! By the way we were shocking first half!!!....................
You're forgetting that Stuttgart are a lot better at possession football than the majority of teams in the Premiership. The pressed high up the pitch and were very comfortable with the ball. They will be playing Europa League football next season. We will still out-pass and control the possession against 75% of the Premier League teams. You're not giving Stuttgart enough credit. You have raised some valid points though and I'm interested to see how the training methods story continues. But can we keep the doom and gloom for the season? We haven't played a competitive game yet and an article of this nature is already doing the rounds. It was our first real test in pre-season, and maybe we should have planned this game a couple of weeks ago so we could have learned from it and put into place some solutions - but despite the first half, I'm still optimistic for the season!
I don't think this article is doom and gloom at all, but very much candid and relevant considering the upheaval we've had, what do you expect fans to do, dismiss what their eyes are telling them! lets leave the political correctness out please, and lets debate what Ivor has soundly pointed out!..................
Phill - a few examples of what I view to be 'doom and gloom' comments. I realise that not everyone will agree. And sorry if I'm being controversial, but I just feel that this thread is an exaggeration of the what actually happened today. "abandoned tika taka" - I saw plenty of tika taka today, less than normal, but still plenty. Hardly think that the use of the word 'abandoned' was merited here. "abandoned the ethic of trying to pass teams to death" - I don't think abandoned. Didn't we actually criticise the amount of pointless passing we did last season at times? It appears you're damned if you do, and damned if you don't... "...there is dissent amongst the squad about the training methods. Not good news, folks." - Chinese whispers? I am anxiously waiting to see how this story develops though. "I saw no sign whatsoever of the style that has served us so well to date" - No sign whatsoever? Were you at a different game? "I am open to correction but I failed to spot even one playing triangle during the game" - I correct you, I saw loads. Leon always involved as well, I must say. "During all this, 30 or 40 Stuttgart supporters were making more noise than our 9,000 plus. I have heard more life at a funeral wake than I heard from us because I think everyone was just gob-smacked at how bad we were." - It was pre-season. From my experience of many pre-season games at the Liberty, it's always very quiet. It's easy to make noise if you've travelled all the way from Germany for a one-off game. "We didn't look too bad against Blackpool but we will be playing far better sides than them" - You're giving way too much credit to the Premier League. Blackpool just missed out on promotion last season, and we know from experience that the bottom half of the Premier League is no better than the top 6 in the Championship. I did agree with some points. The middle two paragraphs about Stuttgart getting complacent in the second half, Leon being excellent, and needing to plug the Allen gap were especially constructive.
This is what really concerned me, regarding losing Allen!! and Britton was trying to hold the midfield together, but De Guzman was poor, and no where near Joe Allen's quality, let's hope De Guzman had an off day, otherwise we've had it in the midfield, and Agustien is not Allen either! at this level you need a Bodde midfield general!..............
There was no resemblance to the passing and possession team of last season, that was very clear in the first half, and pretty much the same in the second half too, I didn't see any of the slow and patient build up with tika taka, but more of rush and chase, and we are no good at that. Play like that and we'll get murdered at QPR, I can only put it down to the players being rusty, but when you have too many player changes, this is what you get, it's all too easy saying we are better off with the £15 million, but we really did miss Joe today, hell I hope DE Guzman lives up to his Fifa ranking!................
For goodness sake!!!!! It was a pre-season friendly! The whole point is to use these games to gel. Yes we were poor first half, but I thought we were very good in the second half. Stop getting hysterical. One pre-season friendly and all of a sudden you're throwing stones already. Give them a chance, why don't you.
Oh yes! Pre-season friendly?? Don't make me laugh, think I caught the yellow card in the air a few times, and did I see Dyer getting his usual fouling, friendly my arse, no such thing! hysterical? more like good observation, lets tell it as it is aye..............
Like most of you I was very dissappointed with the first half display, but very encouraged with the second. Stuttgart have had, like all German teams, a much more intensive pre-season and clearly came here to win the game well. Felt that we came out in the first have thinking it would be a freindly kick about, whilst Stuttgart saw it as a competitive match and caught us cold; they were 100% committed and didn't approach the match like a freindly - argueing with every decision that went against them and putting in some horrible tackles. Whatever Laudrup said in the break - it worked - we were a different team in the second half and thought that when Agustien came on he totally changed the game. Routledge was also far more effective than Sinclair who, in my opinion has gone; applauding the crowd when he was subbed and shaking hands with everyone when he went back to the bench - seemed very much like a farewell to me. So I am still optimistic for the coming season - Stuttgart were a very organised team who are well established in the Bundesliga and we came back form 2-0 down to win the second half 3-1. As I said at the beginning of this post - Stuttgart have had a pre-season that has been far more intensive than ours and obviously didn't approach this game as a freindly - they wanted a Premier League scalp. Think this was an excellent test for us and was truly a tale of two halves - will be interesting to see which team shows up against QPR.
DPJ ok let's tell it as it is. We were poor first half, very good second half. We outplayed them for most of the second period. We have three new players that have to get used to each other. We scored another 3 goals. Laudrup is still on the learning curve. Dyer was excellent as was Chico. Great goal by DG. 9000+ fans for a friendly. Is that too positive for you?
bigkidderz, I accept you have your view but I stand by what I said. Of course there had to be SOME triangles and SOME possession because they are the basics of the game. Every team produces triangles and has possession at some stage of the game otherwise they might as well not be there. My point was that we used to base our entire game on those principles; now we do not. This equates with style. Do you honestly believe that what you saw from us in the first half in any way resembled the style of play that got us where we are? I certainly do not. We looked like a rag tag lower league outfit trying to hang on to the coat tails of a far classier team and not succeeding. Our players were arguing with each other and there was a deathly silence from the fans in that first half. A contrast with the second half when we came into the game and the East stand found their voices for the first time. As for the question of team spirit, I think that it amounts to a lot more than "Chinese Whispers" given the number of sources that are raising it. Look, kidderz, everybody will have their view on a performance and I respect that so I'm not going to labour this post. But, for me, what we served up today was not acceptable - particularly that first half when I saw players openly squabbling, something I have not seen in our team for a very long time. A very big improvement is needed if we are to avoid some confidence sapping defeats in our early games. I believe it is possible but for sure, there is work to be done.
...........You forgot to mention though, that without Britton (what a legend aye), we would have been annihilated!...........
I can't wait to see people go into meltdown when they have a reason , watching the way some have melted down these past 5 seasons for no reason . Enough's enough !!
campion, there's being positive and there's being ostrich-like. We all agree that the first half showing was abysmal and that we were better in the second half. That wouldn't be difficult would it? I think we caught them cold in the second half as they took their foot off the gas but when we went in front they had no trouble in pegging us back. And remember that Stuttgart made a whole raft of changes in the second half that would have disrupted them. You have no idea how much I want to be positive but first and foremost I am a realist - and I DON'T mean a pessimist. I call it as I see it but have no problem if other people see it differently.
I remember people saying the same things when we lost to port talbot last year on vital. People getting hysterical for nothing. These are games to bring match fitness nothing else. I didn't see the game as I was up in Wembley but the important ones start next week not this.
Ivoralljack, I want the best for the swans too. We agree on the essential details - v poor first half, much better second half. Where I disagree is your extrapolation. Today is part of the journey, not the end-of-season cliffhanger. We should be more patient as fans sometimes. Give the team a chance to breathe.
