Mate with all due respect.. what planet are you on. “Weren’t very good”?!? Look at the stats ffs: It was a clinic. Considering it’s a new manager and a totally new style we were fantastic
I honestly think if Charly had been "on it", it would have been a very different story. He has those off games though, we saw a few last season (and I don't think it's because his head is being turned. Just not his best game).
I think in this instance you're right. But on the flip side, I'm not massively worried about it because firstly we won, and secondly this is very much a work in progress. As I said as well, I do think a good game Charly would have made the difference too. We'll have a lot of games like this in this league, where we have all the possession, but the other team sits back and we have to break them down. As long as we somehow find a way to win though, that's okay. And we did last night.
Personally think Tella was wasteful after his goal in trying to re create it when there were better options available. Yeah I've mentioned a few times that Alcaraz is likely to be our best source of creativity and as you say he wasn't really on it. If he ends up going he'll definitely need replacing.
Yeah, I noticed he wasn't driving past his man a lot, but I think he was more guilty of taking on the Hollywood shot when there were simpler passes across the box that he could have made.
Clinic As I said we dominated the ball (Wednesday allowed us to do that as well), but created basically nothing. They clearly watched us last season and knew how to play against us, the difference in quality between a bottom half Championship team and a Premier league team was the difference in us getting the win. First game of the season new manager and new style are all correct, but I hope the manager/team aren’t all having a circle jerk about how fantastic we were last night, lots to improve on
80% possession, 94% pass accuracy. 23 shots against a team that were set up a defensively as possible. You may not like possession football, which is a fine opinion. But objectively it was a fantastic & dominant performance
This could be the perfect system for tall Paul. Adam and Che barely touched the ball except for the goals but we put lots of high crosses in. Hope he gets a chance when che leaves.
I might be showing myself up as some sort of footballing neanderthal here, but I've never cared too much for stats, XG, passes or possession. To me all that matters is the score* We were away, first game of the season. We won. We're top of the league. That's all that matters. We're going to have to grind out wins in this league *I'm the same when we've lost, even if we were the better side for 90 so at least I'm consistent
Was at the game last night. We scored two goals, won the game and I was there. Jinx is ended. Thought we were great first half but needed a second goal. Expected Sheffield Wed to come back into it with long balls and set pieces, much more height in their team. Manning surprised and impressed me. Everyone is having a go at AA but I thought he ran his socks off. Lots of times he made space for himself centrally, but the ball wasn’t sent forward to him from Jan or Jack. Thought Edozie got a lesson in old school full backs, jink as much as you like, he will put you down if he can. 15 extra minutes is a long time to have to keep the ball. Still undecided if I like the constant passing across the back and the ‘ to me, to you’ tippy tapping. Any road, up, we won, we won away, we won our opening game, history was made. Might enjoy watching Saints again.
And when we played them last season they were better than us We were dire and lucky to beat them then We had no striker in last nights game for 80 mins
Although, to be fair, I’m not sure “So we created next to **** all against one of the third worst squads in the league?” is particularly ‘constructive’ I think #Libby might have rattled a few peoples cages with that bit
We will absolutely need to create more chances as the season goes on. But I don't care. This was only game one. It's a new manager, a new league, and an entirely new style of play. And in that context, I was massively impressed with us. If we can be at that level after game one - albeit against a very limited opposition - then I'm very excited about where we might be after 10 games, and then again after 25 games etc. Smallbone ran the game. No-one was frightened to receive the ball. We actually played with wingers...who wanted to run!! Against better attacks, I could see us being done on the counter attack a few times this season. But if we can convert our dominance on the ball into a sufficient number of goals, conceding a few won't bother me.
