Pre-Season 2024/25
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AndyWolves
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That's a decent cross
Paddingtonwolf
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A cross right on to the forehead of the advancing striker. What is this sorcery?
big mean bunny
Kiven
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So is this a cup or a league or just a series of games? Was trying to find highlights and discovered it's official website and now wondering why it's just the 3 teams? Do others pull out?
Dire Wolf
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Its a peach of a cross and a great header. Must try not to get too excited about Rodrigo Gomes, but he looks a good player.
Tony Towner
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Someone has been down to the bot farm for positive Kilman takes.
Jinky
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Link borked already.
Lycan
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Not that it would've made a difference as Pedro's cross was such a peach but Kilman's defending for the 3rd goal is exactly why I won't miss him.
prawnking
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Watched the full game; Cunha best player on the pitch till he went off, totally on it considering it was a friendly. He walked off OK (I know that can be deceptive), I actually thought it was part of the plan to just give him the first 30 mins at first 
Larsen looks like he needs a little more time with his team-mates, Cunha was really trying to feed him as much as possible though. Good cut-back from him for the goal.
Bit of a shit goal for Bentley to concede at his near post, but we know what he is. May have knocked a fiver off our asking price. Lemina was his usual self, Bellegarde looked lively when he came on
R Gomes was a bit of a revelation, him and Lima played pretty fearlessly. Quite an exciting introduction.
Good to see GON get one over Lop, even in these circumstances. I don't think he's gonna work out there, you know (not just basing that on this friendly!)
Larsen looks like he needs a little more time with his team-mates, Cunha was really trying to feed him as much as possible though. Good cut-back from him for the goal.
Bit of a shit goal for Bentley to concede at his near post, but we know what he is. May have knocked a fiver off our asking price. Lemina was his usual self, Bellegarde looked lively when he came on
R Gomes was a bit of a revelation, him and Lima played pretty fearlessly. Quite an exciting introduction.
Good to see GON get one over Lop, even in these circumstances. I don't think he's gonna work out there, you know (not just basing that on this friendly!)
Can see Cunha really kicking on this year, especially if Larsen offers that focal point and allows Cunha to drop deeper in a sort of free role.Watched the full game; Cunha best player on the pitch till he went off, totally on it considering it was a friendly. He walked off OK (I know that can be deceptive), I actually thought it was part of the plan to just give him the first 30 mins at first
Larsen looks like he needs a little more time with his team-mates, Cunha was really trying to feed him as much as possible though. Good cut-back from him for the goal.
Bit of a shit goal for Bentley to concede at his near post, but we know what he is. May have knocked a fiver off our asking price. Lemina was his usual self, Bellegarde looked lively when he came on
R Gomes was a bit of a revelation, him and Lima played pretty fearlessly. Quite an exciting introduction.
Good to see GON get one over Lop, even in these circumstances. I don't think he's gonna work out there, you know (not just basing that on this friendly!)
As you say, great cut back for the goal and finish. 3rd goal was sexy
prawnking
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He's some player
Dire Wolf
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I think Cunha is really going to be the key to any success we have. Even if Neto stays, Cunha really looks like he could be our biggest difference maker. I think Bellegarde will also show a marked improvement on last season. As said earlier I'm trying not to get too excited about Rodrigo, hopefully he brings something that we have missed.
Not a clue with bellegarde tbh. I’m not sure what he actually is. Neto Cunha, and another behind a decent focal point won’t be bad however, aslong as it’s not carnage at the back!
How’s mosq been looking?
Tony Towner
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Their goal. Very poor by RAN and Bentley
Next bid from Arsenal will be £49,995
Del Woppio
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I hate preseason. I can never help but get swept up in hope and optimism and excitement.
Lycan
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Just like last season it's 4-4-2 out of possession but now we switch between 2-3-5 & 3-2-5 on the ball. RB & LM stay high, keep the width and then the LB either plays on the left of a back 3 or moves into midfield with the 2 CMs (Aït-Nouri did this much more effectively than Bueno). RM free to either drop into the middle or make runs beyond the opposition. We pretty much controlled most of the play this way, especially while we had the CB partnership of Mosquera & Toti who looked assured and dominant together. WHU changed to a back 3 in the second half and that stopped us getting joy from balls clipped over their defensive line but we stayed calm and adapted to it well. The issues with it will be the same as last season when the ball gets turned over, West Ham looked pretty poor but they had Kudus who is just a cheat code so we went into HT level. Way too much space for a player of his quality to exploit on the break and going into a Premier League season we're going to be facing players of his calibre most weeks.
Lemina was absolutely imperious. I think last night really drilled in how much he was run into the ground towards the end of last season. He looks fresh and sharp now though and in the first half especially he was everywhere, snapping into tackles, evading pressure and playing quality passes into Cunha & Sarabia.
Cunha looked very good before he went off, hopefully it isn't anything serious. I think this shape will really get the best of him, he's free to drift into those pockets in the left half space that he loves. He's absolutely magic. Keep him fit and we're always going to be a threat.
As I've already said Mosquera & Toti looked great together, I wouldn't be surprised if this ended up being our first choice CB pairing. They were just completely dominant, their recovery pace allows us to play so much higher and control more of the ball. I think us signing another CB has more to do with whether we rate Santi Bueno to be honest. If a bid came in for him I think we'd sell him and replace him with someone more mobile.
Chiquinho looked pretty awful, nothing came off for him. I've seen enough of him personally, he's capable of doing some brilliant things but he doesn't have the consistency to effect a game for long periods at this level.
Strand Larsen looked very clunky to me, obviously very impressive physically and he was giving them problems playing off the shoulder and running onto through balls from Sarabia but his touch was very rusty. Hopefully just early pre season rustiness.
Cundle tidy enough, he'll be a good player but I don't think the role he was asked to play last night suits him 100%. He clearly wants to be more of an 8. Not sure what his contract situation is but I'd be looking to tie him down long term and get him another Championship loan, he could be worth quite a lot of money in a few years time if we pick his next loan well.
Sarabia classy AF but I'm biased here, really hope he stays even if it means that he goes for free next summer.
Hwang decent and played a few different roles, second striker when Cunha went off and then RM after the changes. He was Hwang in both roles, such a strange footballer.
Rodrigo excellent. Played LM and an instant improvement on Chiquinho. He arrives in the box well and has so much pace, just loves to run at players. I think he'll play LM, RM and if needed RB in this system. I was always impressed with his decision making in the final third at Estoril, I think when he plays he'll be really productive in terms of goals/assists.
Really excited by Pedro Lima. Very aggressive, incredible pace and so much quality. His cross for Rodrigo's header was an absolute peach. A few wobbly moments but that's to be expected from an 18 year old and it's obvious why he's so highly rated.
Chirewa & Guedes looked really good together. Guedes played up front and really stretched them with his pace, Tawanda drifting off him finding space.
Bellegarde played CM alongside Doyle. I don't think that'll be where we see him playing for obvious reasons but he actually did alright, driving through midfield when he got on the ball.
I think generally it was a very good run out, obviously a little worried by the Cunha knock but I think there's enough there to see that we'll be a very good watch next season. The formation is a variation on what pretty much all the top teams are doing nowadays and the players look like they understand it and are confident in what they're being asked to do. I think if/when we fall down it'll be down to a lack of quality in certain areas but we all know the issues we have in the squad currently. Bentley/Doherty/Bueno X2 are what they are, there's no changing them at this point unless we actively go out and replace them in the transfer market and I don't think that'll happen without those players being moved on first unfortunately. I'd say the goalkeeping department is a big worry for me, it's the only position where I think every option we have isn't suited to this style of play. Sá is obviously a much better keeper than Bentley and with him in goal last night we win 3-0 instead of 3-1 but there were several moments last night when Bentley was clearly uncomfortable with how he was being asked to play out from the back and I think you get the same problem with Sá. A better team than WHU (or at least what they showed last night) takes advantage of that, disrupts the way we build from deep and dominates possession against us.
It'll be interesting to see how we get on against Palace. Glasner obviously plays in his 3-4-2-1 and I think that's definitely the way to set up against us, you could see when WHU changed to a back 3 how we found it harder to find space in the channels and the ball just kept getting recycled instead of being moved into areas where we could create chances.
Lemina was absolutely imperious. I think last night really drilled in how much he was run into the ground towards the end of last season. He looks fresh and sharp now though and in the first half especially he was everywhere, snapping into tackles, evading pressure and playing quality passes into Cunha & Sarabia.
Cunha looked very good before he went off, hopefully it isn't anything serious. I think this shape will really get the best of him, he's free to drift into those pockets in the left half space that he loves. He's absolutely magic. Keep him fit and we're always going to be a threat.
As I've already said Mosquera & Toti looked great together, I wouldn't be surprised if this ended up being our first choice CB pairing. They were just completely dominant, their recovery pace allows us to play so much higher and control more of the ball. I think us signing another CB has more to do with whether we rate Santi Bueno to be honest. If a bid came in for him I think we'd sell him and replace him with someone more mobile.
Chiquinho looked pretty awful, nothing came off for him. I've seen enough of him personally, he's capable of doing some brilliant things but he doesn't have the consistency to effect a game for long periods at this level.
Strand Larsen looked very clunky to me, obviously very impressive physically and he was giving them problems playing off the shoulder and running onto through balls from Sarabia but his touch was very rusty. Hopefully just early pre season rustiness.
Cundle tidy enough, he'll be a good player but I don't think the role he was asked to play last night suits him 100%. He clearly wants to be more of an 8. Not sure what his contract situation is but I'd be looking to tie him down long term and get him another Championship loan, he could be worth quite a lot of money in a few years time if we pick his next loan well.
Sarabia classy AF but I'm biased here, really hope he stays even if it means that he goes for free next summer.
Hwang decent and played a few different roles, second striker when Cunha went off and then RM after the changes. He was Hwang in both roles, such a strange footballer.
Rodrigo excellent. Played LM and an instant improvement on Chiquinho. He arrives in the box well and has so much pace, just loves to run at players. I think he'll play LM, RM and if needed RB in this system. I was always impressed with his decision making in the final third at Estoril, I think when he plays he'll be really productive in terms of goals/assists.
Really excited by Pedro Lima. Very aggressive, incredible pace and so much quality. His cross for Rodrigo's header was an absolute peach. A few wobbly moments but that's to be expected from an 18 year old and it's obvious why he's so highly rated.
Chirewa & Guedes looked really good together. Guedes played up front and really stretched them with his pace, Tawanda drifting off him finding space.
Bellegarde played CM alongside Doyle. I don't think that'll be where we see him playing for obvious reasons but he actually did alright, driving through midfield when he got on the ball.
I think generally it was a very good run out, obviously a little worried by the Cunha knock but I think there's enough there to see that we'll be a very good watch next season. The formation is a variation on what pretty much all the top teams are doing nowadays and the players look like they understand it and are confident in what they're being asked to do. I think if/when we fall down it'll be down to a lack of quality in certain areas but we all know the issues we have in the squad currently. Bentley/Doherty/Bueno X2 are what they are, there's no changing them at this point unless we actively go out and replace them in the transfer market and I don't think that'll happen without those players being moved on first unfortunately. I'd say the goalkeeping department is a big worry for me, it's the only position where I think every option we have isn't suited to this style of play. Sá is obviously a much better keeper than Bentley and with him in goal last night we win 3-0 instead of 3-1 but there were several moments last night when Bentley was clearly uncomfortable with how he was being asked to play out from the back and I think you get the same problem with Sá. A better team than WHU (or at least what they showed last night) takes advantage of that, disrupts the way we build from deep and dominates possession against us.
It'll be interesting to see how we get on against Palace. Glasner obviously plays in his 3-4-2-1 and I think that's definitely the way to set up against us, you could see when WHU changed to a back 3 how we found it harder to find space in the channels and the ball just kept getting recycled instead of being moved into areas where we could create chances.
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