OutByEaster? Posted July 30, 2011 Moderator Share Posted July 30, 2011 First and foremost, Given I thought was excellent - it's sometimes easier for a keeper to look good when people are firing shots at him for 90 minutes, but he looked very capable and he gives a little confidence for the season ahead. I thought both fullbacks were average, the midfield desperately needed their help and didn't get it - of course they needed help from the midfield too and didn't get it, but I'd still like to see them a little bolder. Dunne I thought was good, he got an awful lot of work in today and it was a bit like an attack versus defence drill at times but I thought he defended very well. Collins wasn't bad either, he still suffers from thinking he's Glenn Hoddle and he still gets sucked out of position too easily, but I think the pairing has the potential to be solid enough. In midfield we really struggled. When games are played out in midfield, Petrov shines, when they aren't he's a liability - he no longer has the mobility to get back and help out and he doesn't have the pace or energy to get forward. Today people walked past him and then when we had the ball it went over his head - if we play this way, Petrov cannot start. Mobility and energy are the things Delph is known for, but he didn't have either today - I thought he was disappointing - very flat - we needed a terrier but he never really came out of his shell. Ireland is another who does well when the ball comes through the middle, he was ineffective today, he got forward a couple of times into good positions but then let himself down with his touch - like the other two he defended very poorly but in fairness to him, that's not really what he's there for. Albrighton reminded us that he's not quite the finished article and he's not quite at the level he's been built up to over the summer - he'll have better days than this. Delfouneso looked lively with the ball but he's not a natural wide player and he contributed to us losing the midfield, he's done enough so far in pre-season to prove he's a fully paid up member of the squad though. Gabby did well in the first half I thought; he was feeding off scraps with little support against one of the best defences in world football, but he held it up pretty well and worked them. Over the past couple of seasons he's spent far too much time playing with his back to goal and I'd like to see him get back to being a threat facing the defence - I'd also like to see him drop a couple of pounds. When the subs came on, pretty much all of them looked lively - I'm not sure how much the heat has to do with that, but Bent looked sharp, Heskey looks keen, Bannan adds something to our midfield mix, Makoun is mobile enough to get into positions from where he can pass the ball and Gardener looked comfortable enough. Overall, we looked a bit disjointed and we'll need time to settle - we look like what we are - a team that can't compete with Chelsea and have had a million managers in the last year - we'll improve on this, don't press the panic button yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hercs23 Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 only just seen the goals but its so strange reading the comments, seems like everyone who had a good game against blackburn all of a sudden have had a shocker against chelsea. dony understand why?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sellbydate Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 Uhh didn't we concede 3 with Young and Downing in January? - Didn't we concede 7 with Young, Downing and Milner? - Didn't we concede another 3 with Young, Downing and Milner. An improvement. didnt we score 3 in january and not lose? didnt we hold a 0-0 against them also last season? getting worse hilariously you've just proved his point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lexicon Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 I don't understand the hysteria either. We got beaten by a side with better players than us in just about every position, and a side that managed to bring on Torres and Drogba as subs. Even so, they caught us off guard once and their second goal was pure fluke. We defended well and whilst we weren't great, it was quite a gritty performance with a few positives to take from it. I think that Warnock had an excellent game, Delph was mostly great with a few misplaced passes, Bannan was fantastic when he came on too. Given was top notch too. Ireland really wound me up though, talk about not giving a shit. Bannan did 3 times as much in half the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRS-T Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 Can I just take this opportunity to say how replica shirt-wearing plastic Chelsea fans make me physically sick. A whole stadium full of fuckheads who decide they're diehard Chelsea fans as soon as the team (bought with money effectively stolen from the Russian people) win a league title. Who won the league? Chelsea. Oh, good, I'm a Chelsea fan, you know. ^This^ Why don't they support their local team? Hong Kong Kitchee? Then their local teams and league could improve... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jarpie Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 I hope McLeish does not play players out of their positions too, we got frustated enough last season because of that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponky Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 Can I just take this opportunity to say how replica shirt-wearing plastic Chelsea fans make me physically sick. A whole stadium full of fuckheads who decide they're diehard Chelsea fans as soon as the team (bought with money effectively stolen from the Russian people) win a league title. Who won the league? Chelsea. Oh, good, I'm a Chelsea fan, you know. ^This^ Why don't they support their local team? Hong Kong Kitchee? Then their local teams and league could improve... It's quite possible to do both! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 What's annoying is that we couldn't hold out for longer than 33 seconds It was game over from there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanBalaban Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 In fairness to Delph, his teamates kept giving him the ball with a Chealsea player already on top of him and no outlet. Hard to look good in those circumstances. That's a big problem for us, and has been for a while - simple passes played with all the delicacy of a sledge hammer, coupled with lack of movement and finished off with the receiver having the first touch of a rapist. Before you know it the opposition is closing us down and taking possession back. This is where I thought Makoun made a big difference when he came on. Constantly moving and looking for space, and playing first-time passes, he kicked the rest of the midfield into action and we started to play football again. Ireland was anonymous but I think a big part of this may have been having to play with Gabby being upfront on his own. As a lone frontman, Gabby was all over the place instead of playing on the shoulder of the last defender. Ireland feeding Bent is something we've yet to see but I feel there's a combo there. Would also pick Heskey to start over Gabby at the moment as he has the ability to link play and has decent first touch. Given looked great and I'm actually not too concerned about the defence, but how we do this season hangs on our midfield. Hope Big 'Eck can get that right. Not too concerned about the performance today as this is what pre season is all about. Much rather McLeish see the system and personnel need changing with two weeks to go to the start of the campaign than see us fly through pre season and get caught out for the real thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billy_loes Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 In fairness to Delph, his teamates kept giving him the ball with a Chealsea player already on top of him and no outlet. Hard to look good in those circumstances. In rugby this is called 'a hospital ball'. This has been going on for a while and Petrov and Downing are masters at it. That said the movement of our players is shite and I mean bollocks. We need Parker or McCarthy and we've more chance of Parker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villanmike Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 I can understand a Sunday League team player players out of position, but unless a mass of injuries occure, NEVER would I expect a team from one of the top Leagues in the WORLD to be playing players out of position, just never, really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brumstopdogs Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 heskey - did ok, had a decent shit when he went down the middle Must have been switching over to check the cricket score and thankfully missed that :shock: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brumstopdogs Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 Poor performance overall and plenty for McLeish to work on. Positives for me: Given - looks a great buy. Warnock - a natural left back and was wasted not being used. Makoun - comfortable in possession Bannan - Passes the ball and then moves. Always tries to make himself available and get forward. Gardner - got some playing time and looked lively. Negatives for me: Dunne - same old silly mistake. Stay goal side FFS! Petrov - no mobality, no engine, no creativity. Just a liability. Delph - poor today. Albrighton - never got himself in a position to run at the left back. Delf - out of position but couldn't cross for toffee. Ireland - weak and bottled a few 50-50's. Has so much to prove. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chappy Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 I thought it was a dire game really. Chelsea were obviously the better team but that really isn't a compliment. Hopefully we can blame the humidity on our sluggishness because it won't be good enough if we perform like this at Craven Cottage a week on saturday. Given was excellent, bargain. Delph did well I thought in spite of often being put under pressure by bad passes from his teammates. Gardner looked good when he came on, hope to see more of him. Makoun played well, we were better when he was on the pitch. If what Warnock supposedly said is true then I am slightly uneasy with him in the team but he has looked nearer his old form in this tournament. Gabby worries me these days heskey - did ok, had a decent shit when he went down the middle Must have been switching over to check the cricket score and thankfully missed that :shock: beat me to it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VILLAFC2000 Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 Any one got any match highlight...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roscoe Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 Disappointed with the intial line up from AM, but hey it is pre season. Just thought it would never work, and unfortunately I was right, and we looked disjointed for 60 minutes until the subs came on. Our best front 3 at the moment seems to be Bent with Gabby and Heskey playing wide. Makoun needs to come in for Delph (disappointed with him last night), and Gardner looks absolute class. I hope we have him locked into a long term contract, and if not, get him signed up for 5 years now like CNZ and Given's contracts! Its probably a blessing in disguise that we got towelled up for the first 60 minutes, and might convince the owner to splash out on one more player hopefuly, and for AM to start working out our best combinations going into the PL season Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozvilla28 Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 Honestly if we go with Dunne and Collins again in the heart of the defence were in massive trouble bigtime.Both a poor and make silly mistakes game after game and kill us. We seen it time and time again.Both of them are not worthy to be in our starting 11. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 what has Warnock said ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macandally Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 Delph - terrible. poor passing, caught in possesion and gave ball away. to often out of position too much ball chasing to no effect. I have a bad feeling he will not make the grade from what I have seen of him so far. Potential flop I think that before Makoun came on, he was the only one who knew what to do with the ball. Problem is, whoever plays next to Petrov has to do the work of 1.5 men. On a couple of occasions he ran from one side of Petrov to the other to pressure two Chelsea players, while Petrov just bent his knees and "jockeyed" between the two. Petrov needs to go and we need a James McCarthy or the like in there to give us some energy. Will then allow Delph and Makoun (as well as potentially Gardner) to play. I agree with what you said about Petrov but I thought delph was terrible also. Makoun, Gardner and 1 other other for me in the middle and I know I dont want it to be Petrov. I still keep waiting for Ireland to do something Its mentioned elsewhere that Delph is a terrier but I dont see him like that. He is an out and out playmaker. What i like about him and Makoun in the middle is that once they make a pass, they always make themselves the first option for the return. If you watch Barcelona, that is one of their strengths, there are always 2/3 options including the player who made the pass. I genuinely believe that if we can get a proper "spoiler" in there to do the dirty work, Delph could be our playmaker for the next 5/6 years. At the moment, our midfield is not balanced and unfortunately, the biggest part of that imbalance is Petrov. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjw63 Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 heskey - did ok, had a decent shit when he went down the middle Oh that filthy dirty bastard! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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