I'm not too bothered about the goal-conceding. These things can be ironed out in training,its all about fitness at the moment. Aquilani was impressive, he was working the keeper and he was corner taking accuracy was excellent. Much improved performance when on as a sub by Shelvey. It was also nice to see Raheem Sterling get a cameo.
He was replaced. The only comfort in Aquilani moving back to Italy is that it is to a foreign league and not to one of our rivals. I'm desperate to see him stay this season.
Carroll, Hendo, and Downing all came off. Ngog, Sterling, Aqua came on. and then it was the Aqua show, either KK this is why you need to keep me, or here I am AC/ Fiorentina come get me.
Not that easy KPR, it takes more than just training together, these games were supposed to be where our line gets tightened up and it hasn't. I understand we have had a different line every game but 3 goals every time is going to set in and then it becomes a mental game and believe me that is an incredibly hard mental wall to get over. I hope I am proved wrong, or see improvement with the Valencia game.
Every game we're leaking goals and every time someone says it'll be alright on the night. Well, it's not far off now and I'm beginning to get first night nerves. Something better improve pdq in my opinion. Can somebody steal Aquilani's passport?, if he goes it'll be a real loss.
You really are a bunch of cackling old women! There was nothing wrong with Carra and Agger at CB. The culprits for the 1st goal were Johnson and Spearing. Johnso was never tight all night and certainly lacked the pace. When the ball was played into the centre Spearing should have been were Lucas would have been - hence Reina's reaction. The penalty was a joke but then you just have to accept it. The 3rd was purely down to Flannigan getting attack-happy and leaving acres of space behind himself. We really do not need to rush out and by either/or a CB or LB - we do have enough cover! It really showed that lucas was missing. There was very little solidity in the defensive midfield. Some of that was probably due to Spearing and Adam not having played together. However it did mean that they has loads of space to acclerate into. I felt for Carroll tonight. He was asked to lead the line against a strong defensive pair with one arm tied behind his back i.e. he was not allowed to go to war with them. Even more importantly for him he had no strike partner to lay anything off to. However, when he was served with crosses the threat was present. As for Aqua I was delighted. I doubt that, if he stays, he will be the first starter. However, he did show that he ahd the flar and the vision to come on and change the nature of our attacks. All in all a good workout against a side that were match-fit.
Bloody 'ell dave. Are you a fifth columnist trying to instil complacency? How many goals per game do we have to ship( hope you like that one) before you will admit it at least needs looking at? The issue isn't whether we'll be better when we have our strongest line-up, but whether we can cope when we haven't.
Ask yourself this. When we were down to the bare bones last season were we leaking goals? The answer is no! This pre-season we had not played the same back 4 for even 1 hour - everybody was 'given a run'. We do have the players and the reserves to cope. But if somebody becomes available at the right price then OK buy.
Whether people want to admit it or not, there is something wrong with defence. To let in 3 goals in each pre-season friendly, means that something somewhere is going wrong. There are a number of excuses such as: 1. We're playing teams that are still in the middle of their seasons, so are fully match fit. 2. We're playing defensive pairs that aren't used to being paired together. 3. We're playing more youngsters etc.. It still doesn't excuse the fact that if we were to play like that against Sunderland then we'd concede another 3 goals.
That's true. And if we play a different keeper every game we'll also be reading a lot of critical threads. I dread to think what'll happen to Kenny if he plays 4 FBs against Utd! At least he'll be substituting 10 players at halftime though, so phew. There are far too many factors to determine where we are. Trips to the Far East sapping energy levels of unfit players; playing good sides like Gala when they're ahead in fitness; Valerenga already into their season; unsettled lineups and important players still missing. And all of these teams not lacking motivation to have a go at one of the world's top clubs. Last summer we lost to Rapid Vienna and drew with St Gallen, Thailand, Tranmere and Notts County, all away. Kenny got two losses and a draw when he came back. We then had 12 clean sheets from the remaining 20 games. The only defender we've lost since is Konchesky.
i think you need to go read kenny's comments guys. the there are common denomenators in every game. 1 is simply work rate. simply put the players are not closing down at the required rate all over the pitch. 2 is simply stupid basic errors messing about with the ball or being really badly out of position. the point above was made whe nwe had lots of injuries were we not conceeding last year under kenny... simply put neither of these points were occuring then. Rather simple i think. The midfield need to get a lot snappier, we miss suarez's ability to move for a pass but also to work hard and close down (unsung so far) If we get our players working with much higher intensity in the games then we can improve radically, i for sure can't say what the training preseason is like but it is rather logical to say players are holding back energy for training sessions that in seaosn they would put into the games. As an older guy i recall all kenny's sides started slowly and build steam as the season went on so i guess we can expect that here.
I did notice a distinct lack of pressurising the vikings high up, particularly particularly in the first half. This improved in the second, as did our overall performance. Also, the lads didn't read the pace of the pitch well in the first half particularly. There were a lot of overhit balls. The General is right as well. The only defender to have left from last season is indeed Konchesky.
You feeling the pressure? I was agreeing with you! If we play like that we will have problems against Sunderland, just as we will if Kenny treats the league like the friendlies. You know he won't.
Sorry, I thought it was a sarcastic comment. On to the point at hand... These defensive problems (cutting the bullshit) coincided with Steve Clark taking the assistant manager's position and Keen taking the first team coach position. I think perhaps this has something to do with it, because when Clark came in he did a brilliant job sorting out our defence.
We definitely need a new LB, thats a given. But our CB's are good, don't forget yesterday was people like Reina, Agger etc... first run out since March/April time, playing against a forward line thats 17/18 games into it's domestic season, they were always going to be rusty. With a new LB and more training, I expect the defence will be sorted out in time for Sunderland. There's no doubt we now have a top notch attack, we just need to close the gaps in defence.
