Pre-season friendlies 2017

Only two players looked good, Hayes and Lyden ,And Terry

villajk wrote:Only two players looked good, Hayes and Lyden ,And Terry

I hate maths.

We appear to have 3 solid defenders in Terry, Chester and Samba ... Unfortunately they are also our 3 greatest goal threats!

I have never seen a team so frightened or incapable to either take on a man or run off the ball. I mean, zero running off the ball. No point having great passers if there's nobody to give the ball to. There's just nothing. I can't get over how bad it is.

Due to the time difference, i was going to watch the replay of the game on YouTube, but after reading all of the reports and comments on here i think i'll gladly give it a miss.

I'm normally very positive, but i am a little concerned with the lack of chances we create under Bruce. I've said for a while the Championship has moved on from his brand of football and i think he will struggle, but i guess we should stick with him and see how it goes once the season starts, but how long do you stick with him?

on a plus side, i do think (hope) we'll improve when the likes of Jedinak, Adomah, Kodjia and Grealish return, and whilst these friendlies mean very little they will certainly add to the frustration if we don't start the season well!

They better start playing well as i'll also be at a few of the games in August and September as i'm making a long overdue return home for a holiday!!

mefromhere wrote:We appear to have 3 solid defenders in Terry, Chester and Samba ... Unfortunately they are also our 3 greatest goal threats!

I have never seen a team so frightened or incapable to either take on a man or run off the ball. I mean, zero running off the ball. No point having great passers if there's nobody to give the ball to. There's just nothing. I can't get over how bad it is.

There is running off the ball, Hogan still hasn't had it drummed out of him (that or he'll give up eventually) and Green was working very well with both Amavi and Hutton in previous matches. Green did have a bad day yesterday though.

But you're right, it does remind me of the good old Lambert days when the likes of El Ahmadi would be confronted by a player, stop, turn and pass sideways or backwards. It was the hit-and-hope long ball or nothing.

When did football managers forget it's supposed to be about entertaining the fans who pay good money and take a chunk out of their day to watch a match? Don't answer that, it was a rhetorical question!

I have tweeted the owner to tell him that if he thinks Steve Bruce is the man to get us promoted he's in for a big shock, these last two matches against lowly opposition in Shrewsbury & Walsall have yielded one goal in the shape of a 90th minute penalty, the passing has been absolutey awful, no real pattern of play and in general just mind numbing stuff, as the match wore on last night I wondered if I was on my own in thinking that Andre Green is just like having a headless chicken on the pitch, he just seems to get the ball and towards the defenders then lose the ball time and time again, for me he's bang average, Lansbury kept giving the ball away far too much as well, now I know pre season friendliest are the time to not really look at results but look at other stuff but in the four games we've played you wouldn't really know who was the championship side and who was the non league/lower league teams, rant over...

The game, was like 99% of the games under potato head. Just f#cking woeful. Movement was shocking, no patterns of play, keeper passes the ball out from the back, they pass it back and he ends up hoofing it etc. But the real worry though is we look frighteningly lightweight in the final third and totally devoid of ideas. Walsall really should have scored when they played a slick three pass move that cut our defence open like a knife through butter. Such a move would never been seen by a Bruce side, absolutely never.

All in all it was a total waste of time watching that tripe. Having Amavi on the wing again just sums up the lack of options going forward but what's he gonna do about it? Oh yeah, sign Elmo and Glen Whelan!!!. If he really does think we have anywhere near enough creativity going forward then lord help us. And now we're gonna go and play some stupid 45 minute games in Germany like that'll give us good preparation for the season. Just sack that idiot already before he totally destroys our season like he did the last.

I should have been more clear ... I don't count Hogan running forward chasing a hopeful long ball as good enough. I meant the clever runs into gaps between lines and instantly having somebody else already making the next run. You know the type I mean, good football they call it. The type every other team seems capable of producing ...

Abysmal game to watch, nothing more to add over what has been said by you all.

I'm disappointedly resigned to the fact it is too late to do anything about Bruce now, largely ambivalent about the fast-approaching new season but concerned that it could all be over by the end of September, with emergency plans being drawn up for next season's promotion push.

He'll be gone around September time, and they'll bring in someone who they think will work well with his signings, ie someone like Moyes, Pearson or Allardyce.

Apparently we played a friendly game at Bodymoor Heath today against Ittihad and won either 3-2, both Grealish and McCormack were involved.

When is our next match?

Joppe84 wrote:When is our next match?

Tuesday against someone I've never heard of. The Vitesse Arnhem game has been cancelled by the German FA.

We're also playing some mini tournament on Sunday in Germany; games are only 45 minutes, so I'm guessing we must be playing twice, probably a semi-final and then a final/play-off for third place.

De Kuip wrote:

Joppe84 wrote:When is our next match?

Tuesday against someone I've never heard of. The Vitesse Arnhem game has been cancelled by the German FA.

We're playing DSC Arminia Bielefeld

They can't be that obscure DK. You could buy them as a Subbuteo team when I was a lad!  

Villa Ranger wrote:

De Kuip wrote:

Joppe84 wrote:When is our next match?

Tuesday against someone I've never heard of. The Vitesse Arnhem game has been cancelled by the German FA.

We're playing DSC Arminia Bielefeld

They can't be that obscure DK. You could buy them as a Subbuteo team when I was a lad!  

I'm pretty sure we have played them pre season at some point in the last few years.

[quote="Villa Ranger"]

De Kuip wrote:

Joppe84 wrote:When is our next match?

Tuesday against someone I've never heard of. The Vitesse Arnhem game has been cancelled by the German FA.

We're playing DSC Arminia Bielefeld

They can't be that obscure DK. You could buy them as a Subbuteo team when I was a lad!  [/quote

I loved subbuteo when I was a kid. My eldest bought a full set and teams a couple of years back and I'd forgotten how hard it was to score! Maybe it was because I was Villa.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s2EVIjGQTo

Steer, Hutton, Chester, Terry, Taylor, Elmohamady, Hourihane, Doyle-Hayes, Green, O'Hare, Hogan

Haven't seen us string more than a couple of passes together, give the ball away from every throw, and overall look pretty poor.

That said, we have just scored through green

Hogan just scored a briliant goal, nice work from Elmohamady as well.

As much as I'm a fan of Bertie, Elmo has put in more dangerous crosses in 28mins than he did all last season. Preseason or not!

Nice to see Audrey back playing too. Oh and Hutton still cannot cross the ball.

I still say preseason means sweet fuck all in the grand scheme of things but at least this is a better performance.

I don't think JT has broken out of a jog yet! Chester does the running and JT just sees what is coming and cuts it out

O'Hare looks decent I heard? Was good last match I caught anyway.

When does the final start?

A lot more promising signs and not just the result. Hogan was the standout player two excellent goals from him, and good play all round, also impressed with Hayes in midfield, Elmohamady looked good as well.

both young players looked good, I like Hayes ,Green needs to up his game, but its early

I though Green looked okay, some of the stuff he tries doesn't come off, but at least attempts to make things happen, if everything he tried came off, then we'd probably have difficulty hanging onto him as a championship club.

O'Hare's getting a lot of praise for his performance and Green is getting a bit of flack, yest I think they both had similar games, both did good things and both were sloppy with the ball at times, I guess the only difference is that there are a lot more expectations for Green, but it's important to remember he's an inexperienced youngster as well.