I Make Pies

The Porto gk looked about two yards off his line for every penalty.

Anyway... thought we started well playing in a similar vein to the first team then lost a bit of control as the match wore on. Lynch, Carroll, Brannigan and Rowe were the stand outs. The winger (#17) for Porto also looked good, very pacy.

Penalties!

"We interrupt this game to bring you.....a different game".

Second match vs Porto is just about to start.

I keep forgetting about the time difference with these tournaments so only saw the last 10 mins. It was raining buckets out there.

Great goal by Lynch and we looked more comfortable on the ball than the Germans.

I decided (foolishly) to stay up until 3.30am to watch it. As Emery said after the match we were not as fluent as the previous game due to the weather delay. Fulham clogged up the middle of the pitch so we couldn't play through them and also they hauled our players down if anyone got past. I would like to know how many fouls they committed as it must have been more than 20 (thought it was supposed to be a friendly?)

Diego Carlos looked more like his old self. He gets so much power on those diagonals with almost no backlift. It must be so difficult to read for the opposing defenders. I do think the Diego-Pau partnership will take over eventually because the quality they bring but Mings-Konsa may start the season until the others are settled.

Luiz-Kamara-Tielemans all played good through balls during the match and having these three should keep that threat in behind going for 90 mins every week. There were a number of close calls getting Diaby, Archer or Watkins in on goal as well as the times it did work.

Emery seems to want a RB/CB hybrid with good technical skills. Never heard of Pubill but he is tall and Spanish so probably fits both categories.

Out of our current crop of young RBs Tristan Rowe is the closest type to what Emery wants imo but he is only 15 or 16.

There were rumours in the Spring of us breaking our transfer record this summer but I thought it might be wishful thinking given our recent record of 'value' signings. Fair play to the owners - they have seen an opportunity as we now have Emery and are going for it.

Bienvenue Moussa!

11 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

I thought I read that Watford had been given a transfer ban over non payment of a transfer ? 

I think you are right. They rushed a couple of signings in before the ban so perhaps a deal has already been agreed (if there is one at all).

There is a rumour on the Watford forum they are about to sign one of our strikers, probably Wesley. Haven't seen a story about it though.

He came through the academy at Real Sociedad at the same time as Emery.

You chaps may disagree but I think he is being lined up for one of the two central midfield berths rather than the wide attacking roles and is therefore competing with/behind Luiz/Kamara/Tielemans/Dendoncker. Before the Walsall friendly he was doing a piggy-in-the-middle style exercise where he had to collect and use the ball quickly with players around him. The only other player I could see doing this was Luiz.

4 minutes ago, MotoMkali said:

Only 4? Luiz, Kamara, McGinn, Tielemans, Sanson, Dendoncker, Chambers is 7 by my count. 

Good point! I was only looking at CM specialists.

Surely his absence from the American trip is just a matter of numbers? We have four senior centre midfielders going and it's unlikely Tim would get a game. He is better off staying here and training (unless a loan move is about to happen).

5 year contract apparently. Looks like the club have waited until his 18th birthday then immediately tied him down for as long as possible.

1 hour ago, mikeyp102 said:

I’m going to watch against Solihull tomorrow, anyone been there before? Where can I park?

The ground is in a weird spot, on a dual carriageway next to JLR. Most people park in the local estates. I've parked on Old Damson Lane before and walked up. If you want a proper car park then park at the airport, but it is further to walk.

What was going on around kick off? We were still warming up when Walsall came out. I know it's the first game of preseason but that's a bit too casual.

Decent run out overall. Moved the ball around well in the first half but a bit toothless up front. The kids injected some energy into the game when they came on and we played better after that. Looked shaky from corners though.

1 hour ago, useless said:

Can't find any details but our some of our academy are currently in Czech for pre-season tournament, they played today but don't know who against or what the score was, do know that Ben Broggio got a goal.

 

Is that the same tournament we entered last summer?

Where did he get those photos from? Has someone been hiding on the roof?

2 minutes ago, nick76 said:

£80-85m for Gordon and Barnes

Don't they play in the same position too?

8 hours ago, TRO said:

missed it...is the highlights on you tube?

did Jacob or Cam get MOTM?

Noni Madueke got MOTM. He's a player who often looks impressive but has no end product, just like last night.

The official England you tube channel has highlights but they are not up yet. You could also try uefa.tv which is where the stream was shown.

8 minutes ago, useless said:

Our academy now is completely different to what it was in the past, the failure to produce first team players in the past is nothing to do with the current academy set up, the current set up is on an whole other level and scale, so pointless comparing how our youngsters are rated now to how they've been rated in the past.

Current academy players are still very young, none of them expected to break into first team yet, last season we had Philogene, Archer, Ramsey, Iroegbunam all doing well in the Championship, and Kesler improved before his loan was cut short, that's five academy players, not sure if any other club had the amount of young players we had in the Championship, and doing as well as ours, and to add to those Bogarde is no doubt good enough for the Championship already, had offers last season but because had just come back from a year out went to League One to guarantee as much game time as possible, but will almost certainly be in the Championship next season.

They won't all make it with us of course, but we've arguably got more talent in our academy now than we've ever had or had for a long time, this is not by accident, we're investing a lot of money into it, so whilst it's still going to be very difficult for academy players to make it with us, more are likely to than has been the case say over the last ten years or so.

Aaron Ramsey and Iroegbunam I think are the two that I think have the biggest chance of becoming regulars in our squad, I think Bogarde is a similar level to those two but missed a year through injury so is a little behind but I think there's a good chance he will be the next of our youngsters to go to the Championship and impress.

Not sure what to make of Archer, I don't think he's as highly rated as some of the others but he gets goals and assists so always going to be valuable and if gets a chance with us will be well deserved after the way he's upped his game over the last few seasons.

Other clubs are starting to notice the growth and influence of our academy, especially in the lower leagues. I have read a growing number of comments, particularly from fans of championship clubs, about the quality and quantity of youngsters from our academy on loan recently. Having players like Archer and AJ performing well for a good team like Middlesbrough helps grab their attention but they have still been impressed with how many are on loan down there.

The physical nature of the Premier League is going to put a cap on what many of these kids can achieve unfortunately. For instance, look at the strikers at the top end of the Premier League - Haaland, Jesus, Gakpo, Nunez, Rashford, Ferguson, Isak. They are all big and/or fast except for Jesus (who has exceptional skill). That's why I hope we look for more power and pace in the transfer market as we have to compete with all that.

One or two over on the Stoke forum think they are in for Philogene. Haven't seen any links though.

5 hours ago, VillaJ100 said:

It's amazing to think for about 50 years until probably the 40's we were the most successful club in the country 

It's longer than that. I worked it out once (can't be bothered to do it again) but from memory we were the most successful team from the 1890s to the 1960s when we were overtaken by Liverpool. That span makes us the most successful club in English football history for the longest time.

5 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

I get your concern.

However, I never thought we needed a 29 year old Left Back either.

Look how that turned out?

I'm just curious as to how they go about squad construction. I'm sure they take ages into account but maybe when a good player becomes available they just take the plunge regardless. The benefits of signing a player of this calibre may outweigh the potential headache of having three players in the same position going into their 30s.