Ade's been on compassionate leave. His brother died at the end of July, with the funeral a couple of days ago. EDIT: or in the next couple of days (?)
We are looking in really good shape. Especially with Sandro and Kaboul back and maybe even Vertonghen as well. I just want this Bale thing sorted out one way or the other by next weekend so we can focus on the league with no distractions.
Boring second half. Walker's runs were just about the closest thing to a highlight. Still, brilliant to see Sandro and Kaboul back Palace here we come
Lots of positives to take from that Soldado Kaboul Sandro Daws Less worried about our defence now, though these set pieces need sorting asap.
Good overall. Maybe even very good. We played at a very high one touch tempo, and even though we tended to **** up when in the presence of defenders, we're likely to get better at it, and it's certainly entertaining, Spurs-type football. Controlled midfield very well. Walker was good. Kaboul looked sharp. Chadli does look like a steal. Gylfi kept beating his man and getting fouled. And then Hudd's grace and athleticism made me think of my dad a couple of times. But he might have had the best pass of the game. Disappointed we didn't see Carroll. Naughton at least as disappointing as Rose.
Well that pushed the definition of friendly a little, didn't it? Got a little bit nasty, compared to the usual way these things are played. Decent first half but the second died on it's arse. Really disrupted by substitutions and some cynical, physical play. Did Defoe touch the ball? Good to see Dawson, Kaboul and Sandro back and all three debutants showed touches of class and composure. Far from a perfect pre-season but three points against Palace and all will be forgotten.
One of the (few) highlights for me second half was Huddlestone getting the ball in a tricky area and playing a beautiful ball over to the right wing. I really hope we don't sell him. He still has it in him to change a game, as we saw vs Man City. And by the looks of this game we may need to find Plan Bs to open up teams this year (again). Main thing about the game, though - seeing Sandro and Kaboul back. That is massive. I'm also trying to convince myself that Benny not being on the bench is more a sign that AVB knows what he's gonna get from him and he just wants to have a really good look at Rose this pre-season. Still not seen evidence that Rose is an improvement on Benny.
Don't want to judge the game too much, as it was only a friendly. But, if that was a competitive game we'd be talking about the need for someone with more ideas in midfield. Without bale there was no spark, which (aswell as the subs) made the second half pretty boring.
...And I think that Huddlestone is hugely under-valued right now. We'd get 5m for him? We'd get more for Livermore and is he gonna change a game when we're 1-0 down to Chelsea or Arsenal?
With you 100%. Midfield was tidy and dembele looks fit again, but with that line up we were looking for Gylfi to unlock the defence and as the commentators pointed out a couple of times he picked the wrong options. He had an ok game though. I'm excited by Lennon/chad out wide, but chad needs a better working relationship with whoever the LB is, that should come though. Appears we're not quite ready for the season again, but it could be worse
Let's start with the shameful moments of commentary... * Calling Bale "want-away" during the line-ups with no reason to say this * Banging on about Bale leaving constantly throughout the match * The inability to tell Paulinho and Dembele apart (apparently it isn't just Alf Garnett that thinks all black central midfielders look the same...) * An inability to work out which midfielder was playing where at numerous intervals * Clarke Carlisle sounding like a bigot in his hatred for that "foreign" zonal marking * Mistaking Dawson for Vertonghen (even though Vertonghen wasn't on the pitch) * Saying that Stewart's late cameo meant we'd be selling Naughton * Numerous replays of Huddlestone colliding with one of Espanyol's players, but none of Huddlestone being scythed down by one of theirs *deep breaths* *counts to ten* Today seems to have been mad hair day - Lennon with his beard (which shows he was growing the goatee a week before growing out the rest), Bifouma's tribute to Grace Jones, plus one of Espanyol's players seemed to have the fully Johnny Bravo going on. Also, it was very distracting that Diego Colotto was a dead ringer for Dylan Moran. Good to see Kaboul and Sandro coming back and slot right in, and we looked a lot stronger defensively than we did against Monaco - part of that can be put down to the players who did feature this time (Dawson and Paulinho being obvious candidates, the introduction of Kaboul and Sandro also helping), and we looked more fluid going forward, especially with Soldado taking on the defence.
It was **** though, to be fair to him. I don't like it much when a team's practiced at using it, but our lot were all over the place.
He followed it up with a rant about zonal marking. Mark Lawrenson also frequently does this (although, supposedly, he's going to be less prominent on MOTD next season - problem is Alan Shearer will be even more prominent in his lack of tactical or fundamental knowledge...) And, as I said elsewhere, Rooney will miss the Community Shield with injury. Does that mean ITV's dullards will be saying he's leaving at frequent intervals?
Given how **** it normally is and the teams involved, they probably will talk about Rooney for at least half of the game. I doubt they'll mention him every time Man Utd make a substitution, though.
What are ITV doing? Covering the Community Shield and pre-season friendlies on ITV 4 I'd prefer re-runs of "The Sweeney" or "Carry On Camping."
