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switters

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Everything posted by switters

  1. switters
    Very good overall. Burnley had spells in the 2nd where we did look a bit ropey but we showed resilience too. Not sure we've ever had a team with more quality on the ball than what we have now. Players who want to receive the ball to feet in tight spaces, players across the field all capable of picking passes. Zaniolo looks like will be great addition to that. Diaby looks a lot like Sadao Mane to me, that mixture of pace, directness but also great linkup play and calm clinical finishing. Think there will be a few clubs in the nominal top 6 kicking themselves for not going for him from the way he has started. Between Pau and Carlos, the latter looks more assured currently and if we go back to 2, it could be that Carlos-Konsa is the preference initially. Might take Pau a bit longer to get up to speed defensively, though you can see his quality on the ball. the late changes did seem to disjoint us a bit. Did Emery stick Cash LB purely to stop him making more attempts on the hattrick?!
  2. switters
    needed that badly to settle again. Great great combi play again
  3. switters
    Perfect away performance so far. great movement/positioning all round, they've had more of the ball but we've not let them get in behind much. And when we do break forward we look very dangerous and sharp. Defensively been particularly impressed with Kamara and Konsa. Pau and Carlos looked very solid too. Going forward, Cash obviously the revelation and combined very nicely with Diaby. Luiz and Kamara both been playing some smart forward passes. Added bonus that both their CMs on a yellow now.
  4. switters
    Classy goal!
  5. switters
    We actually don't have a full bench, 8 players only. fact is though with 5 subs max, adding a kid on there, they still wouldn't be used - think remember him talking about this before when we were not naming full bench. 5 subs will be from Tielemans/Bailey/Traore/Chambers/Zaniolo/Duran. Even with some crazy spate of injuries during match, he'd find a way to shuffle senior players rather than throw in kids if they not thought ready (only position you can't do this is GK, hence 2 young GKs on bench)
  6. switters
    My big worry with this is the defensive line/potential for miscommunications at the back - with no Martinez behind and a combo of Konsa/Carlos/Pau who are still learning each other's games. Don't know Burnley enough to know if they have the players up front to exploit that. Might be that we play a bit more conservatively because of this.
  7. switters
    won't Chambers be on bench?
  8. switters
    Very true, and you look around the league, most clubs - even ones with very good academies - I don't think many have more than 2-3 established first team squad members who came through their own youth system, and often only 1 real first teamer. And these examples tend to be the real deal because they were good enough to force their way through at top teams (e.g. Arsenal - Saka, Man Utd - Rashford, Man City - Foden, Liverpool - Alexander-Arnold). At the minute we only really have J.Ramsey and a few of the next most likeliest seem to be leaving this summer, but the main thing is that the Academy is regularly bringing through quality players who make it at a high level. If we keep doing it, it feeds back in terms of the quality of kids who join the academy - every so often one or two will establish selves here, others will end up as a star of another club (in the same way that we now enjoy the services of St Mirren's John McGinn, Exeter's Ollie Watkins etc.)
  9. switters
    Not been perfect, but clearly gulf in quality between the sides. Made about 6-7 clear scoring chances, taken 3. Hopefully add one or two more 2nd half and kill it completely. would quite like to see him try Duran on for Bailey or Diaby and see him alongside Watkins.
  10. switters
    looked like should've been a pen on Bailey so justice from the corner.
  11. switters
    Quality performance to get the season going after nightmare start, and especially good to get a few different players on the scoresheet. Plenty of positive performances. In particular, should be a nice booster for Pau to get a clean sheet after a pretty torrid introduction. McGinn was best player on pitch, and back to where he was 2nd half of last season. Diaby is also settling in quick which is great, and as he gets more understanding with Watkins that combi should bring plenty of goals. Still early days to really judge this team. Newcastle away will be one of the hardest fixtures of the season, and on this showing Everton at home will be one of the easiest.
  12. switters
    Really solid performance so far and exactly what we needed following last week. Diaby, Bailey and McGinn all been very good, finding space in dangerous areas. the kind of game Coutinho would probably enjoy too, if he gets a run 2nd half. Digne and Cash doing well too on the overlap. Everton don't seem to have much about them. No real creativity in their team, just had that one chance from the neat one-two. Hopefully a 3rd earlyish in the second and then we can cruise it. Only real blip was giving up the two soft yellows.
  13. switters
    yeah a lot of the big players not really shown up. Bronze had her worst game of tournament. Hemp not been able to get involved. Walsh looks slightly off pace. Stanway battles but lacks quality. Decision making up front just not been there. And the passing in general not been up to scratch. Spain are very good though. Bonmati and Caldentey ran the game. And Paralluelo the ideal out ball all game. Definitely deserved winners.
  14. switters
    Got to be at least 10 mins added with the 5 min pen decision and now this injury and Spain are going to maximise the timewasting now.
  15. switters
    Kelly and James make sense to bring on, but I'm surprised who came off. would've thought Toone, who's not really been involved. Unless Daly did have a knock, I'd have thought you'd find a way to leave her on even with change in formation. She'd been doing fine defensively and we know she can score goals. Just had a chance couple mins ago where it was Carter arriving back post where it would've been Daly.
  16. switters
    I would guess they are having to be very careful with this 'return contract' - suspect Premier League will be looking closely at these type of deals that City and Villa are doing which seem to be finding loophole somewhere between loan and sale, presumably to help comply with FFP. There's got to be a question if Villa essentially have a pre-agreed future contract in place with the player, how does it functionally differ from a long-term loan? in particular in context of when the player is playing against us.
  17. switters
    Wonder if that's just down to it being Digne on the left, the asymmetrical tactic was built around having Moreno
  18. switters
    Walsh is England's best player. Final ball/decision making in final third has been the main problem today, Haiti have put in good battling performance tbf and have a lot of pacy, strong players. Defence doesn't look good enough to go far in tournament either really, but maybe too early to judge on that.
  19. switters
    feeling a lot like Newcastle game, impressive half, early goal and disappointing not to be up more. Hopefully 2nd half will follow suit.
  20. switters
    Decent response to going behind in first half, but the 2nd half was dreck and a thoroughly miserable end to any hope of anything other than 8th/9th. Wolves parked bus and we didn't take the few chances we had. Add in a crappy homer ref and it was just immensely frustrating and ugly match to watch. How such a stop-start 2nd half where it didn't remain in play for more than 10 secs at a time could only get 3 mins added time is just incomprehensible but that was the kind of officiating that was on offer today
  21. switters
    Definitely one of our most impressive halves of the season, just lacked that 2nd goal to stop it being perfect. Tactics again spot on from Emery, adding Donk to solidify centre which has given Buendia loads of freedom and Ramsey also able to get forward a lot supporting Watkins. those 3 all excellent, along with Moreno and McGinn supporting wide. Defence has managed well against the high press, just fell asleep on one cross which could've been costly. Newcastle will have to go for it 2nd half, expect they'll throw on Wilson up with Isak before too long, which will be dangerous combo but that should also give us breaking opportunities. They clearly also have a gameplan to always leave their foot in on the tackles wherever they can, and ref completely letting them get away with it. 2 or 3 more should be on yellows which would stop this, but they been given free reign to hack.
  22. switters
    Embarrassing ending. Competed well mostly, but the soft underbelly still there, and conceding way too many goals lately. First 3 goals were all similar failures to get out and close down quick enough. Arsenal obv very good team, Odegaard and Saka will cause any team in the world problems but the goals were avoidable in the build up. Ref abject failure to give clear cards to Saka obviously helped them a lot too. He's a very talented played but knows the dark arts very well indeed and refs let him get away with it time and again. For us, good attacking combinations at times and had the chance of our own fairytale ending with either Doran or Bailey, but we never had much sustained possession or attacking pressure, it was all countering. Still, against weaker teams you'd have to think we should find some wins again soon. Just got to hope the run of losses isn't too damaging to confidence.
  23. switters
    Too much laziness throughout, played like cruising when it was only 1-0. Stevenage were well drilled, happy to let us have the ball and sit back. And then two pieces of diabolical stupidity/laziness to throw the match away, Dendoncker's cock-up followed by failure to do basics on a corner. We failed to have any consistent attacking pressure. Stevenage did only have 2 shots on goal, but then we only managed 3 with all our possession. Coutinho and Bailey badly need to remember how to shoot. Bailey had a wretched performance throughout, needs a spell out of the team. Coutinho, sometimes looked like might create something and was involved in the goal, but you'd still expect a lot more. Ings and Watkins were both pretty non-existent, but that was probably a function of creative players failing to make much opportunity for them. Final balls generally not good. Sanson the only out-of-favour player to really make a case for more game time. Feel bad for him, finally gets a game, get himself a goal, which should've been the winner - instead he's now a footnote on one of the most embarrassing results in our history.
  24. switters
    Great result ahead of the break. Two very rare things of late: winning away and winning after going behind. For the non-penalty, yes I'm sure I would have wanted it given for us, but it was also kind of a lunging tackle from March, he's not taking the ball under control diving in like that. Think that's why not given.
  25. switters
    Pleasing things we saw today that we hadn't seen enough/any of before this season: -Pressing -Solid base to midfield with Luiz in double pivot -Bailey as a winger -Bailey on the left -Buendia at #10 -Ings with other attacking players close to him -5 subs -Shots -Goals
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