Good last 15 minutes. Lovely moves towards the end there. We certainly didn't seem to lack any potency in the closing stages.
Oh dear, what are we going to panic about now? MORGAN WASN'T WEARING THE NUMBER 4 SHIRT MUST MEAN WE'RE SELLING HIM (or something).
For those unable to see the goals: Lambert - free kick into box , lambert chests down and thunders a right footed volley past the keeper. Mayuka - good chipped through ball on left hand side, left foot half volley from just outside the box into top left corner. Isgrove - good move down the left, shaw puts in a low cross which goes beyond lambert and isgrove , with the ball a bit behind him, hits a good left foot shot into bottom corner.
Have to be pleased with that really, never had what I would call our best 11 on the pitch at once and grew nicely into the game. I'm really liking the look of Isgrove.
Well, that was fun. A 3-1 win over Besiktaş, without many 'starters' on the pitch. No Clyne, Yoshida, Schneiderlin, Gaston or Rodriguez at the end there.
Was that Mayuka who played Shaw in down the line? Certainly got his tail up after the goal. Nice move
Played much better when Rickie played the #10 role with Mayuka, Isgrove and Puncheon ahead of him. More mobility and options for Rickie to thread the ball to.
I've been advocating that for so long. You'll all have to put up with smug Joe for the rest of the day.
Very pleased for mayuka two good finishes, don't think he knew where to be for rickie's knock downs but he should be able to figure that out. We were the better finishers, with Besiktas having two free headers and a tap in that hit the bar. I don't rate isgrove at all, he's fast and he can do a job but he doesn't do much with the ball. Decision making is something that can improve greatly with match experience but at 20 I don't see him improving enough to be even a squad member for us beyond this season. Thought cork, rickie and wanyama were excellent. Schneiderlin seems to be excessivley grumpy and was beaten far too easily at least 3 times. Chambers looked like he will be alright at right back would consider picking him over cork if he can demonstrate defensive reliability. I don't know why people don't value friendlies you could see guly was playing with confidence and this game will give mayuka, isgrove and even rickie extra belief in their ability.
People do value friendlies, absolutely. They're just not the be all and end all, or generally something to get into a panic about.
Sorry Joe but so have I. It's the obvious move as his career moves into the sere and yellow. Couldn't see much as my stream was rubbish but Rickie's goal looked good. Hope that will be on the Player at some point.
It's irrelevant who plays CAM if they don't have 2/3 good forward passing options they're not going to look a threat.
Can't really come to any conclusions based on a friendly. It's nice to see we have a lot of different potential combinations up top though.
