Pre-season friendly thread

[PuntsWolf]

That CM would be overrun imo, one or the other with a duracell bunny alongside them and does Bruno want a proper 10 like MGW or a forward dropping deeper like Fabio? I think we need 3, but agree the CH is absolutely the main priority

Is Dendoncker not the Duracell bunny? If he’s not that what is he?

 

[Tony Towner]

Only half way through preseason and then another 2 weeks beyond that for transfers. Still plenty of time to find the compromise.

Absolutely

 

[Tony Towner]

Is Dendoncker not the Duracell bunny? If he’s not that what is he?

He can cover the ground, just slowly. All or him, Neves and Moutinho can be one of the CM's, just not with each other imo

 

[prawnking]

Once Bruno has secured a couple of 7th place finishes and a jaunt round Europe he'll get a bit of slack too id imagine

So we just slag off every new manager, even before they've played a competitive game, until they achieve that? Sounds delightful.

While everyone is being impatient with Bruno failing to finish his playing transition after three pre-season games, remind me how long it took Nuno to successfully finish his last season?

 

[YoungWolf]

That CM would be overrun imo, one or the other with a duracell bunny alongside them and does Bruno want a proper 10 like MGW or a forward dropping deeper like Fabio? I think we need 3, but agree the CH is absolutely the main priority

I think he will play MGW there as he doesn't currently have a forward capable of playing the 'Felix' role. So it essentially becomes a three, with overlapping full backs and the wingers coming inside. It'd be fine (if coached properly of course) I think

 

[PuntsWolf]

He can cover the ground, just slowly. All or him, Neves and Moutinho can be one of the CM's, just not with each other imo

He’s not slow IMO

 

[Tony Towner]

So we just slag off every new manager, even before they've played a competitive game, until they achieve that? Sounds delightful.

While everyone is being impatient with Bruno failing to finish his playing transition after three pre-season games, remind me how long it took Nuno to successfully finish his last season?

Again, who's slagging him off and why always revert back to Nuno? Seems to me you are the one who looks backwards at him more than anyone else

 

[Tony Towner]

He’s not slow IMO

He is in thought, not at full speed

 

[jd1981]

So we just slag off every new manager, even before they've played a competitive game, until they achieve that? Sounds delightful.

While everyone is being impatient with Bruno failing to finish his playing transition after three pre-season games, remind me how long it took Nuno to successfully finish his last season?

Who’s slagging him off? People are basically saying at this current stage the playing staff would struggle in a potential 4-4-2. It’s a genuine observation.
Talking about flying off the handle in the opposite direction.

 

[Wilf Wolf]

You don't walk into a shop and buy players like commodities, you can only sign them when they're available.

Well I never knew that! Thanks for pointing it out.

 

[AndyWolves]

So we just slag off every new manager, even before they've played a competitive game, until they achieve that? Sounds delightful.

While everyone is being impatient with Bruno failing to finish his playing transition after three pre-season games, remind me how long it took Nuno to successfully finish his last season?

That's how it works though, managers do well they get credit in the bank. They don't start with credit in the bank, it has to be earned.

I haven't seen anything that makes me think Lage will do well yet, that can obviously change but I'm not going to pretend that what I've seen so far is going to mean we'll have a good season.

Hopefully that will change, but unfortunately all I've got to base my opinion on is what we've seen so far.

 

[WolfMan]

It's not the result (don't care) and we probably end up nicking a draw without a catastrophic back pass from a kid who won't play a single minute of Premier League football this season.

It's how horribly disjointed and rickety we looked in a back four, which our new overlord wants to play (well, we assume so as that's all he ever played at Benfica and he's started all three friendlies so far with a back four. He doesn't speak so we'll have to guess). You would expect it to look like we'd worked on *something*. In the first half we were beyond atrocious, Mosquera aside. How you can marry absolutely no threat and looking like conceding every time they get in your half is impressive. There was zero pattern of play, Trincao may as well not have been on the pitch, the midfield offered the sum total of zero (shock horror, those two can't play in a 4-4-2) and we looked vulnerable to any kind of ball over the top.

I expect it will improve, I expect we will sign players (at what cost to what we already have, I don't know). It doesn't look very good at the moment, even allowing for some improvement after half time there were scant positives to take from that. It's too easy to say "meh, it's only a friendly", we were shit for loads of that game and loads of the Crewe game. We were ok for a fair bit of the Betis game. I think revolutions tend to be a bit less tepid than this.

He has a lot of work to do, which is not breaking news.

You could copy and paste alot of this into a match thread from last season and it wouldn't look out of place.

I think for a long while now we've needed some players, whoever the manager is. Hopefully we'll get some before the window shuts. It's concerning no doubt but I really don't think we can draw too many conclusions until the transfer window is shut and the team that is going to be the team has had time to gel, if it's still dogshit then it's really time to worry.

 

[prawnking]

Again, who's slagging him off and why always revert back to Nuno? Seems to me you are the one who looks backwards at him more than anyone else

You've literally got people on here talking about relegation

Comparing our most recent two playing transitions is a perfectly viable point, plenty of people on this thread mention Nuno (you did an hour ago).

He tried and failed to transition this squad for months, why are we so impatient with the new manager trying to do the same after three pre-season friendlies?

 

[prawnking]

Who’s slagging him off? People are basically saying at this current stage the playing staff would struggle in a potential 4-4-2. It’s a genuine observation.
Talking about flying off the handle in the opposite direction.

I don't know why you all try and translate the thread for me when I'm perfectly capable of reading and interpreting it myself. Talk about patronising.

I don't know why Jeff went to the Primeira Liga for managerial talent when he could have just plucked some from TWF

 

[Tony Towner]

You've literally got people on here talking about relegation

Comparing our most recent two playing transitions is a perfectly viable point, plenty of people on this thread mention Nuno (you did an hour ago).

He tried and failed to transition this squad for months, why are we so impatient with the new manager trying to do the same after three pre-season friendlies?

One person spoke about relegation (Paddy) a couple of months ago and I believe has walked that back since, certainly nobody has today. I mentioned Nuno in the context of us needing a centre half under him and still do, it certainly wasn't in some sort of whimsical way. That wasn't a criticism of Bruno if anything it was a qualified defence.

 

[jd1981]

I don't know why you all try and translate the thread for me when I'm perfectly capable of reading and interpreting it myself. Talk about patronising.

I don't know why Jeff went to the Primeira Liga for managerial talent when he could have just plucked some from TWF

If you’ve read the thread you wouldn’t have accused people of slagging Bruno off when they haven’t.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

One person spoke about relegation (Paddy) a couple of months ago and I believe has walked that back since, certainly nobody has today. I mentioned Nuno in the context of us needing a centre half under him and still do, it certainly wasn't in some sort of whimsical way. That wasn't a criticism of Bruno if anything it was a qualified defence.

That hasn't been the only mention of relegation. At least two references to it in this thread tonight.

 

[prawnking]

One person spoke about relegation (Paddy) a couple of months ago and I believe has walked that back since, certainly nobody has today. I mentioned Nuno in the context of us needing a centre half under him and still do, it certainly wasn't in some sort of whimsical way. That wasn't a criticism of Bruno if anything it was a qualified defence.

Actually, two people have mentioned relegation this evening, on this thread. One, I presume was humorously. Maybe I can read threads myself!!

I'm not Bruno's defender, I don't know if he's any cop more than anyone else, but I like things to be fair. There's plenty of implicit and explicit criticism of him in this thread, his appointment, how he wants us to play, all based on a pre season loss. You yourself came on after the more positive comments about the last game and said they were 'strong'. Well they're stronger the other way tonight. What's wrong with a little patience and equivalence?

 

[Tony Towner]

That hasn't been the only mention of relegation. At least two references to it in this thread tonight.

Has there? I've skim read, but it if there is and they were anything other than flippant then I apologise to PK. I said that he needs to get the players to play his system or he needs to change it or he'll go the the way of Stale ie sacked.

 

[prawnking]

If you’ve read the thread you wouldn’t have accused people of slagging Bruno off when they haven’t.

Actually, if you and Tony read the thread, you'll know that wasn't actually my point.

I questioned (to Andy) whether he was advocating slagging off any manager we get until they reach Nuno levels of achievement (cos that's what it seemed like he was saying)

For people to be saying now that none of the fretting and criticism (some justified and balanced) is in any way meant as anything other than more displeasure at Bruno (the overlord, I think DW called him ) and his appointment is ludicrous.