Fonte will be fine to start against Watford. It's on a link a page back. Great ball, great pace, great finish.
Just got back to the car. Decent first half, some of the attacking play was good, Redmond looked lively although he kept the ball too long at times and lost it. Second half ran out of ideas when Tadic went off. The only thing that slightly worries me is we only really looked dangerous when putting good balls over the top for Long to chase. Highlight for me - VVD going on a rampage in midfield, winning the ball back on halfway, knocking it past their centre back and sprinting into the box, couldn't quite pick out long in the middle though. On another day Redmond could have had a hatrick. Shout out to the Bilbao fans in the very top of the Chapel end, I was sat in the Kingsland and could hear them.
Just got back as well. A lot, I think, to be positive about. Redmond looks excellent. Fantastic feet (better than Mane's?). I thought Pierre-Emile Højbjerg (copy and paste!) looked classy. Midfield looks excellent. I agree we didn't have a lot of ideas second half, but we seemed to be happy to play for the 1-0. Never really looked threatened. Not sure about Pied. He got back well a couple of times - but he had to as he was out of position. Still playing the diamond formation. But Redmond basically just wanders whereever he wants!
I think a lot will be on Tadic, Redmond and Long this year. None of the other front men particularly impressed me.
Having said that hasn't Claude come with a reputation for attacking football. Saving all the tricks and flair for the Watford game. Typing with fingers crossed and looking forward to seeing a good performance at st Mary's in 6 days.
Last two seasons it was on Pelle, Mane, Tadic and Long. All of whom were new to us at the same time. In both of these seasons, Pelle or Long took 95% of the front line role. The others were used wider or deeper. We basically played two seasons with just two centre forwards.
No pretty much dominated the game, just second half ran out of ideas. Plenty of passes along the backline and switches of play though. A bit like the Espanyol game
I also think Austin looked far better today than on Wednesday, got involved in some of the play. He's just not a harassing forward like Long, and won't be running in behind, at all. But then I thought he wasn't very good on Wednesday.
In answer about the sound system, if anything it is even worse than last year except in the Gents toilet.
AtBilbao didn't play many of their best players until the 2nd half so it wasn't a real test, first half we played pretty patterns with no apparent result, didn't see much of Dusan at all, he doesn't seem to know what role he was playing. Impressed with Hojbjerg again, Matt T was putting in a decent shift, the rest seemed at ease with it. All of the substitutions were seamless and didn't disrupt the play at all. Pied looked decent enough, not afraid to tackle, overlap and crosses well. VVD was clogged by Aduriz and I hope not injured. JRod did get a couple of gallops in at pace so may be getting back up to speed. We deserved to win and I doubt Fraser will have a quieter afternoon, our defence didn't offer him any opportunities to shine. I still don't understand the diamond system but if it gets results I won't complain, but we still need a regular goal scorer as soon as possible.
