Looks like a 4-2-3-1 today.

Bats confirming he has a hopeless first touch.

Can't see the match unfortunately, but I hope the play a good level of soccer.

I must admit with two strikers we looked better.

Not a great half that. Certain players have played very poorly, Kenedy and Michy the worst for me.

We are stuck with Michy and I don’t find zouma convincing. Pedro was pretty average to be honest 

Mason mount looks ok but not really dominating. Jorginho and Kovacic look pretty good together. 

Franks got a hell of a job on his hands.

 

Barkley doing pretty well. Kasey Palmer coming on.

I think it has taken 35 minutes since he has come on for Drinkwater's name to be mentioned for the first time. 

Pulisic seems energetic.

Edited July 19, 20196 yr by Valerie

There goes the clean sheet. Sloppy defending. At least Willy had a great save a minute earlier.

Edited July 19, 20196 yr by Valerie

We Haven't Looked Good Today, But It's Pre Season

It’s going to be a long season. pulisic  looked ok, Drinkwater odd moments, Barkley some moments but overall glad it was just preseason and at no stage did we look convincing in front of goal. 

Only got to see the last 15 mins or so. But we seemed to struggle to create chances 

shambolic to be honest. terrible performance all round. Only saving grace is that its pre-season

FT 1-0 to Kawasaki. Not a great match, but that may not be surprising against a fit and tidy opponent in its mid-season.

Quite a few players not up to scratch (yet): Zouma, Kenedy, Bakayoko, Drinkwater, Batshuayi. Haven't really noticed much from Alonso either. Mount did okay, but not spectacular, good to see young Kasey Palmer, but he wasn't on long enough to make an impression. Pulisic was also on for a short time and looked lively. Look forward to when he's settled in and gotten to know his teammates. The only one who impressed me was Ross Barkley. He stuck in,  trying to create something. We were toothless in attack though.

No Kante or Kepa in the squad.

Edited July 19, 20196 yr by Valerie

Only managed to catch the second half at work, so only half watched it.  How did Pulisic play?

9 minutes ago, Jezq8 said:

Only got to see the last 15 mins or so. But we seemed to struggle to create chances 

I think that will be Lampards biggest challenge this upcoming season. He'll make to make do with unconvincing wingers and unconvincing fullbacks for the most part (bar Azpi if he finds his form again) which could make us fairly easy to contain through the middle.

In terms of our wingers we really need to hope CHO signs that extension because i think he's got the potential to become our most important player offensively this season already. Although it will take a while before he'll be able to play this season.

Getting goals and performances out of our current crop of strikers will also be a huge challenge for Lampard. I think Giroud is our best option currently and we need to hope he finds his goalscoring-boots in the league or we will struggle.

 

 

Edited July 19, 20196 yr by Sindre

1 minute ago, SurfCFC said:

Only managed to catch the second half at work, so only half watched it.  How did Pulisic play?

I felt he was clearly not sharp enough yet, but he was on the ball more than a few other players put together  Can't wait to see him match fit, though. 

Good

Cabellero - Some good saves
Mount - Good closing down, unlucky with a blocked shot
Jorginho - We looked much better with him in the midfield
 

Positive

Pulisic - Struggled with dribbling, but stretched the defence and got into good crossing positions
Barkley - Did okay, though a bit slow on the ball and some iffy decisions
 

Poor

Batshayui - Strength and hold-up play has improved, but still not great at his decision-making or taking players on
Zouma - Pulled out of position several times. Just don't think he's good enough.
Kenedy - Just not good enough

 

Why are they still here?

Palmer

 

It's pre-season, so it doesn't really matter, but if you want to take something away from the game and try to judge it, it has to go down as a disappointment. Even with lots of changes, we should be winning against that sort of opposition, and it's hard to look past the post-hazard concerns of lack of creativity and goals from this team. 

Edited July 19, 20196 yr by Zeta

1 minute ago, Valerie said:

I felt he was clearly not sharp enough yet, but he was on the ball more than a few other players put together  Can't wait to see him match fit, though. 

Oh good, as he is basically our only signing I want to be excited about watching him play!  Shame Batshuyi wasn't great, we need one of him or Abraham to be up there as Giroud is not going to be playing all games I wouldn't have thought.

Could see the lack of goals for the upcoming season a mile off. On top of that our three most talented young players are injured long term. Our best players over the past seasons has gone. Next season worries me, as do the next 2/3 seasons. 

41 minutes ago, Jackson27 said:

We Haven't Looked Good Today, But It's Pre Season

 

Hope that doesnt jinx us now we lost^

Not too bothered by a preseason loss.  Kawasaki is mid season and treated it like a cup final, so did their fans.  We had many subs in the second half, so that always disrupts the flow.  At the very least, our players were able to get a little more game fit and Frank was able to assess the team a little more - that's all that matters.