Styles’s reading of the game and distribution. Is quality. ( Regardless of it being a friendly ) . Nice to see Ben back. Looked a decent workout.
I don’t think we’ll be playing like that against most teams in the Championship we’ll need to score goals on the Bassett 99-2000 season rate to win games
Enjoyable, still aiming to get the ball up the field quickly, but without lumping it aimlessly. Good stuff.
Decent first run out of the Summer. But to use it as an indicator of what we'll be doing this campaign is utterly barmy, whether it be a positive or negative comment, especially when taking into account the number of first team regulars who were absent.
Massive caveats in that it was a) a friendly pre-season b) against 4th tier oppostition c) only highlights were shown but ..... on the positive side it looked like 'men against boys' (in the Red's favour) given the number times Red's players dispossessed an opponent and came away with the ball or won 50/50 challenges. On that basis, we also looked to be side comprising mainly tall physically strong players although that may be because Rochdale appeared to be made up of short ars*s. The negative side for me (again based on relatively short highlights) was given the number of attacks, the amount of possession and number of clear cut chances created, scoring 2 goals was not really sufficient. Early days and players are not obviously sharp yet but Cauley did his usual i.e. lean back and blaze over the bar from a gilt edged chance and a number of other players wasted good opportunities when inviting crosses were laid playing the final ball. It is that conversion ratio goals /chances that we will need to improve on from last season IMHO in order to successfully compete again in the Championship . At least make the opposition goalkeeper work for it and get your shots on target. Nevertheless it was encouraging to see such a big gulf in class and quality against lower league opposition not always evident in pre-season friendlies in seasons gone by and some of the intricate passing and one touch play coming off.
If Mads Andersen is to be out for a few weeks, this may well be the opportunity for Luke Kitching to show the Head Coach & fans what he can do.
Wonder wat odds would be? And if we can sign a player who can whip a qaulity ball in everytime could see him getting around 25, him for brenford was in 30s i think.
Can see us conceding a lot more goals if we are going to play from back into midfield. Got caught out so many times season before last, don't think we have the players to do that at Championship level. The reason we conceded so few under Ismael is we eliminated the risk by playing more direct. Obviously this was only one game and they maybe tyring things out but that style makes me nervous!
There's a huge difference between playing out from the back and pissing about with it at the back, which is what we did under Struber.
After agree at present, i no it was only a friendly but those passes at back we played would av been put straight under pressure frm us last yr, maybe thats why were looking for another big striker so we can mix it up.teams did better against us when they hoofed it themselves, be nice to play both.
Good to see Ben Williams playing again after that injury really halted him when he was playing really well. Thought Simoes looked lively. Hopefully improved his all round game whilst being out on loan. Lots of positives, I guess the focus will be on not letting as many of the attacking opportunities go to waste as was evident on the highlights. Get that right and the balance of passing & direct play and think we are in for a good season. Couple of quality additions hopefully to come as well.
Hopefully a couple of good signings, or 1 higgy, sure bassett told side to get it to higgy wen you can, you deffo need both grafters and qaulity, we need 2 midfielders who are qaulity, i think styles could be played deeper to fetch it frm defence if we get someone in like him frm forest, everything's so easy to say init.id like styles to have ago further forward if not, but deep he wins balls, can lick a man easy wiv1 touch, am now thinking that could be styles position, if we want to create space frm back.