I'm expecting career years from Fer , Cork and Routledge .Especially Cork and Fer....bit more confident with the season start closing in on us .
Fer has got a hell of a shot but would like to see him making use of it more. Was impressed with the way McBurnie moves and makes space for himself.
I can understand whinging if we hadn't scored as many goals by say Christmas, but c'mon we have a new striker (probably two by Monday) who had a very encouraging start, let's have a little optimism and stop over analysing a friendly. Onwards and upwards with a load of goals to come, starting with Burnley
Ummm ....this post sounds very reassuring . I too would like to see Fer shootIng more but alas , Siggy owns that spot so Fer might have to be.venture forward here or there
Name me a manager in the Premiership who wouldn't accept winning by dominating for most of the game and only scoring one goal by a sub on the 70th minute..........
You put subs on to make a difference, in this case it worked, we would hope in the league it will work as well
Just wish he would pull his ****ing socks up and his shorts down a bit, Makes him look like a lanky 15 year old. Apart from that have been quite ipressed with him pre season.
Was nice to get down the Liberty yesterday and sample some home football again! Certainly whet the appetite with the season around the corner. Fabianski - Very little to do from a shot-stopping perspective, but overhit numerous balls to the wingers resulting in opposition throw-ins. Needs to continue to work on his distribution. Kingsley - Got forward very well again to support his winger. Needs to keep an eye behind though as a few times he pushed so far that Rennais managed to nick the ball back and have a run at an open LB channel. A sweetly struck free-kick sailed inches wide. Amat - Solid in the tackle, strong in the air, comfortable with the ball. A solid game from the maturing defender. Van der Hoorn - Surprised me with how good he was. Timed his tackles well and showed quality on the ball as well. Like Amat, a keen eye to push forward out of defence if the opportunity presents itself. Naughton - Looking fit and athletic. Played well, got forward, and never appeared to leave a gap behind him for the opposition to drive into. Fer - Good game from Fer. Worked hard off the ball to nick the ball back high up the pitch, very unlucky not to score with a piledriver. Cork - Mr Consistent. A solid, but unspectacular, game from Jack. A few final balls from him were underhit in the first half, but otherwise, not a foot wrong. Britton - Like Cork, didn't really put a foot wrong. Broke up play when required and was comfortable linking the play in the middle. Dyer - A few good runs reminded us of the Dyer of old, however a few poor crosses straight out of play reminded of us what he has become. However, he has brought with him the Leicester-style doggedness and determination, and he won a lot of 50/50 tackles to keep us on the front foot. Routledge - A hit and miss game from Wayne. Some ridiculous skills on the ball, but some weaker tackling off the ball. Not as effective going forward as he's been the rest of pre-season, but even so, he should've had an assist had Llorente scored his tap in! Llorente - A promising start for the big man. One missed tap in, but as it's pre-season, I'll give the benefit of the doubt. A nice scissor volley and some Bony-esque flicked headers showed us a little of what he can do. Out-muscled their defenders easily on occasions, and showed some nice feet to link with wingers and midfielders after his hold up play. Subs Barrow - Put the fear of God into their left back. Strong, direct dribbling from Barrow shows us that he's going to be a force this season. Put the corner in for our goal and unlucky to clip the bar with a nice, curled, dipping effort following a pacey break and good footwork to nip inside the left back. Having scored plenty of goals and provided plenty of assists this pre-season, Swans fans are rightly expecting good things from this young man this season. Montero - A little hot and cold. Went passed his full back more times than not, but final ball/shot left a bit to be desired. Still brushing off cobwebs after joining pre-season late, but good to see he's looking quick and tricky as ever. His floated balls are certainly going to be preyed on by our Lion King. McBurnie - A solid display from the young forward. A back post header into the ground his best effort, but his link up play was good, he challenged well in the air and he was a willing runner. Should get some appearances this season, at least in the cups. Rangel - Short but sweet display from Rangel. Got forward as willing as ever but didn't really have any defending to do. Fulton - Cracking header for his goal, his second from a corner this pre-season (the other coming against Swindon). Played in a similar fashion to Cork - ability to get forward, comfortable on the ball. He is very strong in the tackle too, a nice trait to have.
Very very upbeat about bigkidderz post . I know how he posts and he's very confident in how things are looking . I'm especially upbeat at his remarks about our 6.5 million spent on Fer and Van Der Hoorn , I suddenly feel very confident in the big picture about direction we are moving and what possible part that Guidolin and the Americans are playing on that course.
My overall feeling is that we've finally gone away from trying to play tactics to suit players, and we're now buying players to suit the team's tactics instead. The team appears to have a clear identity again and when a player comes off, another player comes on who can slot straight into the position without disruption. Southampton are probably the best team in the division at doing this and it shows that they can get ram-raided by the Top 7 each year but just slot in new players into the squad and go on as usual. If we can do it half as well as Southampton do, we'll be just fine this year, maybe even better if our new strikers hit the ground running!
Could have easily won that 8-0 if the finishing was better and that was our problem last season. Somebody will get a right tuning if we can get that right this season im sure of it......
Nice to see that highlight replay, we are looking good, and that was a very brave debut from Llorente, so soon after signing, just shows that he is very keen to slot into our team, and I'm impressed with his work on and off the ball, this guy will definitely get us goals, he looks like he wants to make a name for himself, I know he's 31, but he moved the whole time he was on the pitch, fair play to him..........
Yes I was there too in the lower tier east stand near the corner, queued at 2 pm for just 20 minutes to get tickets, pitch looks good as usual.........
I've seen a few comments that the pitch was poor , it looked ok to me but it looked like it was narrower on the east stand side .
