Loose ball in the box Hugill outmuscled the defender and clipped it into the roof of the net close range
Thanks Dunc. I just saw the replay. Nice touch on the chipshot by Hugull. if only Teemu would learn to do that.
Great to see the new players and all looked good. McCallum looked very composed and confident at LB, moreso than Xavi in the first. Mumba was both confident and dynamic at RB. Both would hold their own in the Championship. Similarly Dowell looks to be good competition for Stiepi, who played an excellent through ball that was well put away by Teemu. Skipp was combative but a bit rough around the edges whereas Sørensen looked very skillful and solid. Was very impressed by Sinari, at WR this time and his clipped pass set up Hugill's goal. He comes alive as soon as the ball nears the area and outmuscled the CB before lifting over the keeper. Placheta's pace was there to see but he also has close skills to beat players. Much to be excited about.
OK but if Tettey didn't play CB which midfielder wouldn't play to make way for him to get some game time. I wouldn't worry too much about friendlies there's a hundred and 1 reasons why things are done and winning the game is never high on the coaches priorities.
Didn't everyone look "rough around the edges" (not helped by the pitch and length of the grass)? Main thing for me about Skipp was his obvious understanding of the role of DM pivot. That's something we have never had, and have suffered from the lack of.
I agree Robbie. Sinari looked good WR and worked well with Dowell and Placheta to produce a lot of mobility up front and all 3 looked like they've been playing together for some time. Sinari's clip pass created the chance for Hugill who took it with aplomb.
I'm not myself taking much notice of the GA 0. The opposition has been chosen with a view to restoring confidence levels and engendering a feel good factor, not to test the strength of our defence. Apart from the arrival of Skipp, I haven't yet seen anything to allay my scepticism on that score.
He just likes to argue I think I don't care if we scored 9 goals and didn't let in any , I would of bla bla bla etc
Interestingly, Skipp doesn't agree with you Robbie: https://www.canaries.co.uk/News/2020/august/oliver-skipp-norwich-city-dynamo-dresden/ I agree with Oliver that the communication and teamwork has been very strong in these matches. We're working to integrate 10 new players after 10 days of training and that looks to be happening. The teams we're playing have had more time together without as many new players to integrate. Our team is doing everything asked of it.
On the contrary, Rick, he does agree with me: "It's not a competitive game but I think it brings a lot of confidence into the team. After last season, it's been important to get wins under our belt ....... it's only pre-season ........ the real games start in a week or two ....." Exactly. Given our defensive shortcomings over the last three seasons, it would be criminal if DF hadn't "really drilled that into us, that he wants to try and keep as many clean sheets as possible." Talk about stable doors and bolted horses! The real question is whether DF himself is prepared to make the necessary adjustments to his approach that will radically improve our defensive record in league matches. Clean sheets against toothless opponents in a series of training exercises means little or nothing. When I see our competitive GA averaging less than a goal a game, then I'll start to take all the bullish talk seriously.
What Skipp is saying is that it's pre-season games rather than league games. We all know that, but have we ever kept 3 clean sheets while scoring 11 goals before in a pre-season? I doubt it and that's what's remarkable. Having seen this game it was evident that we were effective in attacks without having to overcommit the FBs in both halves with different line-ups. You dismiss the opposition as 'toothless' to deny our effective defending because that's the way you want to see it. You completely ignored all of this: "It was a good team performance. "We moved the ball well and followed the manager's instructions. Another clean sheet is a big thing as well, the manager has really drilled that into us that he wants to try and keep as many clean sheets as possible. It makes it easy when you've people behind you constantly talking. I think that over the three ganes I've played with various different centre-half pairings but each have talked me through the game as a unit, making sure we don't get counter attacked. Things like that help ensure we keep the clean sheets. Three in a row, we can't really ask for more."
Hugill: "When I came on the first thing I wanted to do was give the centre back one for shoving over Teemu in the first half" Feel we've been missing a bit of that.
I stick by what I said in my original post: "I'm not myself taking much notice of the GA 0". The totally justified criticism of our defending over the last three seasons has clearly hit home, so of course we are hearing a lot about it from DF and the players. There was some talk of changes addressing the issue before the season resumed and look how well that went. It's just talk and practice matches at the moment; I'll start taking notice and handing out the plaudits when I see the clean sheets accumulating in the league.
