Pre-season 23/24

Unlucky us. Huge deflection for 2-1 CP

 

Balls.

 

Off of Pollock's arse

 

Kone is going.

 

Livermore is as hopeless as I thought he would be. Great signing.

 

Replay showed no deflection at all, just wrong footed Hamer.

Personally I don't get the deal with giving 2nd/3rd choice keepers minutes in pre-season. It's not like if Hamer is called upon for a few games in January say, that these 30mins against Palace in July will be any use to him. Give your number 1 choice all the minutes available in pre-season to form as much of an understanding with the back 4/5 as possible, especially if a new style of play is being introduced.

 

Apsrilla took too long. Cost us a foul.

 

Has the transfer ban been lifted

 

We need to get shots off. Palace stopping that well. Asprilla and Andrews look brightest players for us.

 

Guess it all comes down to a simple choice. Get busy signing, or get busy losing.

 

The match has shown Bayo is ****, Ngakia is ****, Hamer is ****, Livermore is ****.

Andrews is great.

 

Thought we looked ok., organised and a bit more spirit. But will struggle if we don’t improve quality up front

 

He was somehow worse than I imagined, which given I expected him to be the worst player in our squad, is saying something.

 

Yeah I didn't see a deflection either. Not sure why Hamer didn't even move an inch though.

 

For the last time, Adeyemo is absolutely awful, if he is to be involved in the first team this season we’re in serious trouble.

 

The optimistic spin was that he’d be a great signing as long as he didn’t actually have to feature on the pitch much

Sadly, Ismael has gone against the wisdom of the COGs and actually sent him on

 

Livermore has something of the Scott Severin quality about him. That being he has no qualities.

 

Also anyone hoping to see the back of Bachmann will be pleased to know that he was captain.

 

Ironic that we played at ‘copers cope’ today

 

Pre-season friendly.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Not much either way today to change peoples’ entrenched views one way or the other.

Two weeks to go.

 

Am I the only one who thought we actually played quite well?

 

There’s some positives for sure but main negatives for me aside from the actual line up potentially reflecting what we put out at QPR are that Bachman looks hopeless passing out from the back though and there seems to be no interest in upgrading the GK position and Porteous attempts to break the lines were also alarmingly poor.

 

I noticed somebody replied to me here saying Kone is leaving? Is this true?

I thought he had a slight knock today and that Kabasele was the most likely candidate for the ‘soon off to Italy’ player?

 

The positives are we looked coached and are playing to a plan. These a good things and something we’ve lacked for many years.

But the lack of quality all over the park is going to unhinge us in the majority of games. Strikers who can’t score. Players regularly playing suicide passes. A keeper who can’t play sweeper keeper. It’s going to be a mess and there were a lot of early indicators today as to how it’s likely to go this season.

 

DYSYE have heavily implied this. A first team player said his goodbyes today and is off to Italy. Maybe it’s Sarr, but apparently it’s Kone.

 

That was a game with a lot of promising aspects, tarnished with 2 preventable goals, one especially so.

The Good:

• Our Shape and Pressing for the majority of the game was really good. We looked like a team that had an identity of how we wanted to play and how we want to cause problems. We consistently got forward when the chance presented itself and were not passively sitting back for the majority of the game.
  
• Bachmann I thought overall did well in a higher line. He was generally brave in maintaining a higher line away from hix box. He did make a dodgy pass or two and played a part in their very soft first goal, but what I was looking from is his intent and whether he hesitated or dropped deeper when he needed to play higher and he got it right.
  
• Morris looks a solid option at LB. He looks to have bulked up a little which will help him with his duels. We need another player who can play there for competition and depth, but I am not adverse to Morris being the LB this Season.
• Andrews once again shows he's the real deal and not a fluke last Season. Inventive and penetrative going foward and effective in defence. He's going to have a brilliant career and is my first choice player this Season for RB.
  
• Sierralta I thought overall played the CDM role to decent effect.
  
• I thought the front three of Martins, Bayo and Sema looked very cohesive with their play and knowing when to press. Crystal Palace struggled to play their game with our intelligent pressing play, especially the first half. Bayo I thought lead the line in that regard the best of those three and played some solid link-up play.
  
• Healey put himself about when he came on. He looked combative and a nuisance for the opposition to play around, but of the two I'd rather start Bayo as he looks more up to speed pyhsically and mentally on the pitch. Think Healey will be the better striker when he's up to speed though.

The Bad:

• The goals we conceded did not come from fast attacking play but from unpressured passes to them, especially the first. It was the same issue that plagued us all of last Season where we would look comfortable, only to lose our concentration and play a loose ball to the other team. VI needs to play those goals on repeat to the squad and show them that's the result of not showing for the ball and being passive in possesion for any extended period of time during the game.
• Hamer concedes another questionable goal. I can see what happened and can sympathise as I've done the same in 6-a-side. He's expecting Pollock's body to block the shot and instead positioned himself to be able to cover a bigger portion of the goal, playing the odds. Pollock would also obscure his vision for seeing the shot being wound up as well. (This is not me having a go as Pollock's decision making, only describing what Hamer would have been doing) It's not a howler, but he gave himself no chance had Pollock not block that shot either which is what happened.
  
• Ngakia, Dele-Bashiru and Livermore all played themselves down the pecking order today while Louza was not a lot better. Ngakia has cemented himself below both Andrews and Ferreira with his inability to go forward well nor is Dele-Bashiru look up to standard physically, but he deserves credit for the chance Louza spurned at the keeper. Not writing him off as think he's effective depth though. I was not impressed with Louza at all today. Ignoring his chance, he gave away the ball in multiple times in dangerous positions that could have been punished and did not have a great influence going forward I felt. Livermore looked slow and killed our attacks everytime we went forward and although did put a few tackles in, played a part in their second goal. He looks as @hornetboy1 described him from West Brom fans on the pitch but hopefully he gets up to speed mentally with the pace of play we need. We do need a strong midfielder to help us get a grip in midfield more.
  
• We, once again, wasted a number of high quality chances. Whether it was Bayo, Louza or whoever else we still lack that clinical edge that Crystal Palace and specifically, Edouard, displayed. Kayembe's screamer was a welcome surprise but you're less likely to score those than those within the 6 yard box.

Ultimately, we looked like a team ready to fight for a win. We more than matched Crystal Palace for most of that game and at no point looked like we threw in the towel or couldn't be bothered to fight. That alone will gain us so many point this Season as we do not look half baked unlike under Edwards. I'm satisfied with the ethos and style of play we're going to employ. We do however need another LB, CM and ST I think to give us peace of mind we will have a team that can challenge play-offs.

 

Excellent summary.

 

Great summary. Such a shame we decided on signing Livermore as he’s clearly going to a hindrance on the pitch and has taken a valuable squad place.

With regards to needs, I agree with what you’ve said but will add we need a new keeper too, as Hamer makes far too many mistakes and he cannot be relied on. I would like two upgraded strikers as well, but not Wesley unless he’s the backup guy to an even better one yet to be linked to us.

 

Agree with all of this. I would also add, my strong disliking for Bachmann increased. His distribution is woeful and in a proper competitive match will cost us massively.

Hoedt was also a massive liability at the back. Out of position, and leaving massive gaps in the middle. His short passing was erratic, on more than one occasion he blindly passed it back to Bachmann on his weaker foot. If he starts, he will cost us multiple points.

People will say Hoedt had a good game because he made a couple of tackles and he cross field passing was good.

Don’t let that fool you. He wasn’t good.

 

We can't waste wages on a 2nd choice keeper better than Hamer whilst having Hamer in the team. I would actually prefer Roberts being the 2nd choice keeper and Hamer be the 3rd choice / keeper coach assistant which is a common practise.