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limpid

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There have been a few good individual moments of skill but whats glaringly missing is any team cohesion.

However thats something that will only get better with games under the new manager. We also have to remember we are playing one of the best teams in the world, who are playing with no pressure after that 1st minute goal.

Nothing to panic about at the moment.

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Reassuring to see our midfield improved when Bannan, Makoun and Gardner came on the pitch.

I really hope we manage to ship out Petrov and Ireland. Awful pairing in the midfield and a massive drain on the wage bill.

Oh and Given is fantastic. Hasn't lost his form at all.

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Heskey has been our best player preseason was best player today also. Now Young, Downing have gone, he is perhaps one of our better players :D. Otherwise subs, Makoun, Bannan and Gardner didn't do any harm to themselves. Given was superb in goal, had to be in this one. Bent did what you expect of him.

Alrighton was extremeley poor and seems to be getting ever more predictable sadly. Petrov looks exhausted from minute 1. Gabby was isolated for the most most. Fonz can't cross. Dunne shite. Collins better than Dunne. Luke Young, best of the back four. Warnock, out of position far too often. Delph plenty of effort, little else.

I think we could definatley do with a couple more signings of reasonable quality.

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Didnt expect much and didnt get much.

Didnt look bothered until heskey and bent came on and didnt even really get into the match until makoun, gardner and bannan got on the pitch with chelsea already 2 up.

Good stuff from those 3 and given, bent and heskey were unlucky.

Only a friendly but a bit worried at the level of performance shown by half the team but pleased with the rest.

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we got taught a lesson today in closing down and ball retention... one team could do both, the other neither - sadly we were the latter.

Have to agree the midfield looked better with Bannan, Makoun and Gardner in it but some would argue that the game was won by then and Chelski had taken their foot off the gas.

MOTM Shay Given - unlucky to concede tonight. He's got to be bargain of the transfer window already!!!

This was only our third pre-season match, under a new regime with a lot of players coming back from long spells off the pitch. We also didn't start with our strongest line-up either (but doubt it would've made too much of a difference!)

Roll on Wednesday again Derby!!!!

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Players looked rusty and need more game time. A bit worried by the amount of time we hoofed it. Given was brilliant and will prove to be a great signing. Thought Albrighton was poor, Delph and Petrov too and Delfouneso can't cross.

Warnock was ok and will hoefully get better the more games he plays. Impressed with Gardner Makoun and Bannan.

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With Delfouneso and Albrighton playing as deep wide midfielders we had no outlet for our possession, neither Petrov or Delph looked like they wanted it or came for it. Heskey and Bannan gave us a different outlet, we could hold the ball more and decided to pass it a bit more with Bannan and Gardner.

I can definitely see a place for Bannan on the wide right in the coming season, very rarely gives the ball away.

One thing we can learn is - there's no point in playing direct wingers too far back in midfield - we saw that last season with Young and Downing. Same with the midfield, they have to work as a unit - Ireland needed to come deeper or Petrov/Delph needed to come forward. There was too much space between them.

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Given, brilliant signing.

Dunne and Collins average.

Bannan, Bent both looked good when they came on.

lads we finally have a star in the making, he was only on the pitch for some 15mins but for me he was our best out field player, Gary Gardner will be a fantastic player. Hopefully F'eck will not have missed this and will give him game time this season.

The rest Meh, completely out played.

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based on this and blackburn game think we need to sort midfield out...defence i think will be ok and i think warnock has been player of tournament for us, strikers need service, which we have not provided.

For me Bannan has showed he has the class to keep the ball at this level and will put pressure on ireland at top on centre midfield, makoun is a def starter for me. Albrighton had a poor tournament as did delfouneso. Ireland poor today but ball was travelling 60 yards over his head so will give him benefit of doubt.

based on preseason so far starting 11 for Fulham has to be

Given

Young:::Collins:::Dunne::Warnock

N'Zogbia::Delph::Makoun::Ireland::Heskey

Bent

worried about DM role, but delph i think has capability to do it as well as Reo did but can also pass a ball after winning it. we do need a proper DM though (i wonder how fit hargreaves is??)

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There have been a few good individual moments of skill but whats glaringly missing is any team cohesion.

However thats something that will only get better with games under the new manager. We also have to remember we are playing one of the best teams in the world, who are playing with no pressure after that 1st minute goal.

Nothing to panic about at the moment.

I pretty much agree with this. As long as its sorted out before the first league game it doesn't really matter.

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Dreadful, dreadful performance lacking in any real quality or guile.

The first half performance was probably the worst i have ever seen from a Villa team and the way in which the players came out for the second half told it's own story.

Albrighton, Ireland, Fonz, Warnock, Gabby simply not good enough. I've been stating for quite some time on here that we should sell Gabby and either pay Chelsea what they want for Sturridge or at the very least get him in on loan. Gabby literally couldn't trap shite and was completely useless!

The only plus from that was the performance of Given which was outstanding and i hope when we return from the tour 'Tin Tin' is on the phone to Randy to get his cheque book out again because if we go into the new season with this current squad, by January we will be in the bottom three!

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We have to remember that of the 5 midfielders we had out there at times, none of them have really ever played more than a half a dozen or so games together as a partnership. Not only that, but the manager is still in the process of trying to figure out how his players tick and which players make the best combinations in which positions. You have to give him time to try different approaches at this stage. My hope is he will realise there is a missing piece of the puzzle and will go to Randy cap in hand in the next week or two.

In the end that match to me looked like one team (Chelsea) were playing to impress their new manager, whereas the other team (Villa), which should have been doing the same, basically wanted to get it over with and go home. They looked lethargic and clumsy and none of them really looked like they wanted to expend any energy - Gabby especially was pathetically lazy, just looked like he couldn't be arsed.

In the positives, I thought Bannan did himself no harm at all with the way he's played thus far and I wouldn't be averse to seeing him opposite N'Zogbia. Makoun was fantastic and Gardner showed some real class and really got stuck into it. And Given, of course.

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The positives are that against the lower half teams, we're showing that we can play some good, on the ground football. However, we get put against a quality side, and certain players (COLLINS) lose their self-belief and go right back to hoofing it long. McLeish's big task for the next couple of weeks is to drill that self-belief into the team so that we don't panic under pressure.

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I didnt get over excited about Blackburn and I am not going to top myself after Chelsea. The pitch was still crap and the humiditiy is still obvious.

The latter gives two significant reasons why we should have kept the ball, but we couldnt.

Petrov for me now is roleless, he is not a holding midfielder and does not have the legs to do a proper job there. Makoun and Delph are our two playmakers going forward, but we need an enforcer to do the dirty stuff and let them play.

There are definite issues to be sorted out, but neither the starting or finishing eleven will start the season, it will be a combination of both. Therefore, not panicking yet.

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