Just watched the YouTube highlights of the pre-season game with Brighton on the weekend.
To be kind, it wasn’t impressive at all. I appreciate Brighton had a very strong squad out but we looked pretty poor on the day.
Oh well maybe it helped with managing expectations.
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I’m putting it down to a number of different things:
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It was the first game of competitive football since Charlton, there is bound to be some rust that needs to be worked off & mistakes that were going to be made.
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Squad Balance - We have had 7 new players join the squad this transfer window so far, throw in the additions that we got in January, at best, this squad has barely had time to gel and click. Throw into that potential transfers going out too, either forced out or chosen to leave, where they have close friends and bonds within the squad and this news / not seeing / playing alongside some players might knock some player’s mentality
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They only got 45 minutes to play. Statically last season, we were one of the strongest teams in the last quarter of games, If they only have 45 minutes to prove themselves, a few of them might have been trying too hard to prove their worth which can also lead to mistakes.
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New tactics - Going into the new season, there will be a few players that’ll need to get their playing method / style centred on Dodds’ tactics. We saw this when MB came in to replace GA, after having a period on time playing one way and then being asked to play another does take some getting used to.
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We were playing a very strong and settled Premier League side with higher quality players, (potentially) better coaches and facilities.
Thank God Robbie Williams, Coldplay and Trump were busy elsewhere.
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Does anyone know the formation? From watching the highlights we were so ragged it’s impossible to work out what our shape was supposed to be.
Other than obviously Leahy was unable to work out that Welbeck ran off him repeatedly. Even after 3 goals he still hadn’t noticed there’s a giant premier league striker about to score his fourth goal of the game just running past his shoulder.
Looked like 3-4-2-1 in the first half and 3-5-2 in the second. We will see tonight how we shape up.
My main takeaway from the BHA game was that I actually don’t like the yellow kit as much in the flesh as much as I thought. We’ll see what the new home kit looks like in action tonight
Tonight’s team!
First-half XI: van Sas, Grimmer (c), Hartridge, Allen, Quitirna, Boyd-Munce, Udoh, Mullins, Matton, Westergaard, Onyedinma.
Subs: George, Leahy, Tilley, Casey, Berry, Henderson, Back, Kone, Bartolo, Hagelskjaer, Lowry, Gregory, Gurpinar, Savage.
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McCleary injured, Taff on his way out?
The lack of Norris is fairly noticeable too.
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How about Fink ? missed both pre seasson matches so far
He played the second half against Brighton and looked poor in the highlights. I think he’ll be off.
Don’t suppose it’s being streamed at all?
But he got a special mention in the club’s summary
This looks like an expiremental line up, to try out different combinations. And probaly most, if not all, changed for the second half.
Could McCleary be off? Maybe to Gillingham?
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Checked everywhere, can’t find anything. Doesn’t look good from that front.
Tbf to Taff, his season ended much later than ours and probably didn’t have much of a rest before our preseason started, so it could be that his being omitted from games to make sure he gets some rest in.
Edit: maybe not much later. Seems like the last game was 25th May vs ours with Charlton on the 15th.
Commentary from Sutton.
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He’s no Sam Avery.