Hoedt plays first team football (well will do when he leaves), which is my point about Danso. Him being 20 doesn't mean he is for the future.
They are more than good enough when Pierre plays with them, it is all about the chemistry not individual players.
**** line up.....Stephens should never start....ward prowse and romeu didn't play that much preseason yet both start together....and Hojbjerg our captain not starting !!!
Sadly though, if plan A goes tits up, we get plan B and this ****, not really good relying on one player to make the other two better.
And once again, JWP is NOT a defensive midfielder. Ralph was forced to play him there today because of Højbjerg’s illness.
Agree. But firstly, I do think it can happen when we play back four. Those three, plus five defenders, can't make up eight of our 10 outfield players. And secondly, it goes to show how weak we our in CM when we lose one of them. Having failed to replace Lemina, I now hope that no-one comes in for him.
Relegation beckons then. Or not. Maybe a shade early to say. It'd be nice to make a good start to a season for a change though. Maybe next year then.
I mean, we will be better with Hojbjerg. And probably Djenepo. Team needs a little time. But even with all that, gotta say this was kind of a **** performance.
On TV tonight, there will be a ridiculous and comedic performance, at which you have to laugh, or cry. But if you don’t fancy Bridget Jones, the edge of reason, MOTD is on BBC1 at the same time. I’ll pass on both.
I thought the defence was (for us) decent up until the first goal then the defence just seemed to start panicking and melted away.
Team chemistry is crucial IMO, Rom is never effective just playing with one other in the middle, he is better playing deeper and breaking up the play. JWP and Pierre in a central 2 would be more effective and has been in the past.
So you think he's likely to be at his peak ability then? Weird, I thought the majority of players peak at about 24-28. Danso may genuinely have the potential to be the next VvD, but even if he is, he's not going to be at that level right now is he, or a club far bigger than us would have bought him. Same goes for Valery. He's good enough to start despite being young, but he's not a world beater/difference maker just yet in terms of the difference between him and Cedric. The reason he plays is to unlock his potential such that he will play at a far higher level in the future. We may hope lots of things for Danso, but I wouldn't expect them straight away.
One game doesn't indicate how the season will pan out, but does tell us that we aren't a great side...we have to really work for every result from now on. And we have new players that need to bed in. I think we will score goals, but need to put them away when on top because we aren't invincible. So nothing changed really....we all knew that.
Not convinced by starting two up top. Weakens our midfield, and we really didn't have much by way of supply to the strikers. Understand that it's useful for initiating the press, but it's hard to press Burnley given that they have no qualms about booting long.
Well, pre season bubble burst! We had some moments in the first half, but not sharp enough. Clearly missed Pierre's bite and composure. Not sure what else to say, other than I hope Danso is brilliant.
I thought that Saints started brightly but once Burnley started dictating the style of the game and we both went to aerial long ball then we were less effective. We crumbled after conceding the first goal. Hopefully we can move on quickly.