Fortuna Dusseldorf

Great goal by Deeney. Decent cross. All he needs!

 

Quality cross from Janmaat and the McDonald's enthusiast scores.

 

Deeney after good work from Sinclair then Janmat

 

Troyston!

 

Big Troy steamrollers all before him to bundle ball, keeper and a handful of defenders into the net.

1-2 Hornets.

 

Finally found our much-needed goal scorer.

 

Top coaching from Gracia:-

"Jose! Jose! Jose!"

"Adreee-anne! Adreee-anne!"

 

Watching second half, might not be tearing them apart but we are the much better side. They are playing in the top German division next season so no mugs either.

 

He was shouting at Hobang in Spanish earlier.

 

Dunno what was going on on the pitch last night, but there seem to be wet patches everywhere...

 

Sema is a Poundland Ousmane Dembele.

 

A trialist scores our first goal by the way.

Bailey Hooker.

I’ll get my coat

 

Woeful miss from Lukebakio.

 

Oh Luke, that was a bloody sitter. I could have scored that.

 

Well player Kenneth! He'd been starting to come into the game a little more. Although Sinclair couldn't miss, that goal belonged to King Kenny.

 

And Sinclair just did...

 

Sinclair persuaded to score!

 

Sema looks like he's having a great game. Only watched second half though.

 

I don't get it

 

3-1 Wilmott looked good, Sema set up third goal both handy to have in the squad!

 

Only watched last 30 minutes but thought we looked good. I haven’t got a scooby who was playing mind, but looked there was a bit of pace in the team

 

I thought they played pretty well. Add in a crowd and points up for grabs and thats a decent performance and game to watch

 

Sema was pretty poor for most of the half, then suddenly came to life in the 84th minute with two good runs beating his man on the outside, with his second run setting up the goal. I wouldn't want to rely on him to start, but reassuring to see that he appears to be able to make some kind of impact.
I thought Lukebakio looked lively again (other than the header).
Wilmot, same impression as against K*ln - looks quick across the ground and decent on the ball, but very slight for a CB.
Rodwell did alright I thought, made a fair few interceptions and certainly looked a more natural DM than Hoban (or even Capoue). Looked tired already by the end though.

 

Only watched the last fifteen, should have had four goals . Big Ken looks great. Don’t think we’ll miss ‘ the big sulk ‘ one ******* bit. Up the ‘Orns !

 

Much better the second half.

Gray with a goal and an assist in 2 games.

Deeney with a goal

Sinclair with a goal

We don’t need a goal scorer.

All joking aside, I thought Sinclair had a decent game as did Sema and Wilmot. Deeney held the ball up well and won some good aerial balls.

Holebas’ set pieces were about as useful as the previous seasons. Although Sema’s corner was worse.

I do think Wilmot will be nearer the first team than what I originally thought.

Lukebakio looks like he is maturing and will be good to have around, albeit he missed an absolute sitter.

Success also appears to have knuckled down and is taking his career seriously for once. Think he could be a big player for us this season.

All in all a decent run out against a team who were the champions of Bundesliga 2 and will be playing in the Bundesliga this season.

Their striker Hennings (I think) looked a handful.

Not sure why it started to get a little bit heated in the 2nd half but there were some tasty tackles put in that possible could have been red had it not been a friendly.

 

Noted that you’ve neglected to mention Deeney scoring...or do you only mention the negative stuff?

 

Saw 15 mins of some new players. On this evidence and form i know them inside out and know who should start and who shouldn't. Also note it is fact that a player can never improve so only judge them by first impressions and boo them forever more. shoe horns!!!

 

A niggly game, especially after Capoue's heavy challenge late in the 1st-half.

I'm not sure why I bother to watch these matches.
They're just fitness exercises really so I may as well go down the nearest gym, stare at whoever is on the treadmills and tut when they dribble some energy drink before dropping their towel, banging their head and slumping to the floor in a heavy-set sweaty mess.

A thought on Hoban and Wilmot however.

Have they been played in midfield to 1; cover for Chalobah & Doucoure, 2; get minutes in their legs as they won't be first choice defenders and 3; as they're ball-playing centre-backs it allows Gracia to see them actually on the ball in match situations.

 

I think it's less so reason 1 and more so for reasons 2 and 3. I don't see anything wrong with it because pre season is about getting minutes on the clock and trying new stuff out

 

Yoh-dee-loh-deedie-loh-deedie-loh-oh-HO! and also booooooooooooo!

Only saw the second half. So I presume those were the 'possibles' as against the 'probables' who played first half. Strange ground. Peculiar. I'm used to seeing one or two or three substitutes warming up, but why were there bloody hordes of 'em all jogging and sprinting up the touchline from the corner flag to the goal? Very distracting. If you want to sprint, go and sprint on the bloody tennis courts. I was hoping that the ball would go over into the tennis courts, so one of the players had to click clack in his studs over it to get the ball back.

We eventually managed to squeek a win 3-1 against a load of lonely Alpine goatherds. Presumably Prodl will already be changed into his leiderhosen and be necking a few steins with his br*ders, straightening the feather in his hat and getting ready to give it a few blasts on that long horn thing they like so much. Obviously football isn't very popular in those parts, since there were barely any spectator areas and every fence seemed to be carrying advertising banners for the tennis courts next door. I think they only turned out to play us at it out of politeness because we were visitors.

Still, it was lovely having no commentary and reminded me of when you used to get those betting streams in the championship with just crowd noise. However, for this game, sound appeared to be solely from Gracia's Madonna-style neck mic. You could hear everything he said and even then half of it was unintelligible. Coaching seemed to consist solely of shouting people's names over and over. Jose & Ken were shouted at a lot.

Dahlberg - long, ugly drink of water. Only had one thing to do, but did it OK - slid out and cleared effectively.

Mapps - Yellow carded for pulling down one of their forwards on a break away. Took one for the team there. He didn't have to. It's a pre-season friendly which doesn't matter. Why not try an alternative way of stopping him rather than a ludicrous 'professional foul'?

Ben Wilmott - Will he play for the first team? If he plays like that he Ben Wilnott.

Jack 'Rodders' Rodwell - Did very little. Looked a bit porky I thought. Did he used to be erm...a fleshy, heavyset lad?

Jerome Sinclair - No. Not a premier league footballer. Sell to Oldham Athletic or similar.

Doddery Lukebakio - Missed a headed chance from about 6cm out with nobody anywhere near him. A chance my 8 year old could have scored. A chance that one of those metal manakin things they use for training free kicks could have scored. Apart from that, did nothing.

K-K-Ken 'The Fish' Sema - Started off horribly. What the commentators call 'on a different wavelength'. Shouted at furiously by Gracia and team mates were also telling him when to go, when to stay, what to watch for etc. Slowly grew into the game and seemed to get more confidence. Like his cutbacks from the byline. Have my doubts he's going to be an improvement on, say, Amrabat standard though. Looks more like a squad player than a starter.

 

There's nothing he's going to do which will change my overall impression of him, so I'll continue to amuse myself by trying to make light of the fact that he's rubbish (and Deeney is a very difficult thing to make light of).

 

Thought Hoban was quite good actually. Used the ball very well and took up decent defensive positions. Was interesting the way that he dropped into the middle of a back three when we had the ball to allow the full backs to push up as wing backs.

Wilmot looks like a good footballer, he's a very good passer of the ball, think he'll stay with the squad rather than being loaned out.

Rodwell did ok, nothing special but could've scored. Could be a shootout between Rodwell and Hoban for one of the last slots in the squad. Would rather give it to Hoban on today's showing.

 

I thought Hoban had the makings of a top quality player. Very quick, strong and decent on the ball. His injuries have stunted his career, but if he can stay fit I'd much rather keep him than sign Rodwell.