Considering the second half team contains a lot more players that are likely to be first choice I’m pretty disappointed with what I’ve seen. 

Can’t say I’ve been particularly impressed by anyone besides Mount. 

Emerson has probably not his chances any harm. 

From what I have seen from our strikers in pre-season so far, I'm still just as concerned as ever. None of them look anywhere near good enough. 

Just now, ForeverCarefree said:

Considering the second half team contains a lot more players that are likely to be first choice I’m pretty disappointed with what I’ve seen.

On the plus side, Arsenal are losing in their friendly .... ?

Second Half:

Good: Mount
Decent: Kovacic (1 big error though), Emerson, Abraham
Poor: Azpilicueta
Bakayoko: Batshayui

Edited July 28, 20196 yr by Zeta

4 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

From what I have seen from our strikers in pre-season so far, I'm still just as concerned as ever. None of them look anywhere near good enough. 

Our defence as well, cant wait for rudiger to come back

Christensen needs to be starting, hes been our best defender in preseason

The rest, well

Overall:

Positives: 
- Looks like a good battle between Mount and Barkley for that position, with them both stepping up their game
- Pulisic should get a fair few assists with his pace down the wing
 

Negatives:
- Giroud and Batshayui still look awful. Tammy did okay, better than the other 2, though he's nowhere near the finished article
- Defending from set pieces was atrocious
- Some sloppy passing and poor defensive positioning

Mount looks a player. Good day for him. Kovacic has looked good despite his mistake. Nobody else really stood out that second half. First half Kenedy and Barkley stood out. Bakayoko also stood out but for all the wrong reasons.

A decent workout that gave more questions than answers. 

Not convinced by any of the candidates for centre forward. Giroud is too slow , Bats and Tammy don't look a good pairing and none look sharp.

Far too many mistakes in defence. Luiz all pre season has been found out diving in for the ball. We again have been poor defending set pieces.

Mount and Barkley have looked good, can they both fit in the same team?

Quite a few players need to be moved on, if not now with the transfer ban, asap.

 

14 minutes ago, Zeta said:

Second Half:

Good: Mount
Decent: Kovacic (1 big error though), Emerson, Abraham
Poor: Azpilicueta
Bakayoko: Batshayui

I think this is unfair to Batsuayi. 

He actually had some good first touches and linkup play upfront. I will say he was decent today.

Good game that. Lot of mistakes in defence but entertaining. It is hard to see which formation we will play wheter that really is important, probably not. I think we will play game by game the formation that fits best.

Mason Mount looked excellent and I think he will play a lot during the season which in itself is very exciting. A new signing.

In midfield Barkley, Kovacic and Jorginho are all ready to play big minutes, and will do. Bakayoko we should just ship out somewhere.

We are still missing some key players in Rudiger, Kante, CHO, RLC and Willian all potential starters so you can't really tell the starting 11.

All the strikers we have are not in their peak nor scoring for fun. We need goals from all over the park if we want to reach our goals this season.

I guess we will see the potential first 11 against Salzburg or M'gladbach.

5 minutes ago, rooomage said:

I think this is unfair to Batsuayi. 

He actually had some good first touches and linkup play upfront. I will say he was decent today.

also assisted on Mount's 2nd goal too with his pressure

 

How the club has allowed us to go into a new season with CL football without a top level striker/goal scorer is terrible imcompetence. They really think what we have is good enough? On top of that, they get rid of Hazard and leave another manager with barely enough to work with when it comes to creativity and offensive prowess. I can't help but be concerned going into the new season.

You would think with Champions League football we would be going into the new season with a team capable of progressing as far as possible in all comps, especially the CL. With all the hurrah about being back in the CL, it seems like a total wasted opportunity not to be as strong as possible going into the season. Watching Spurs, Utd and even Arsenal buying well in the market is a real deflater. 

Edited July 28, 20196 yr by enigma

8 minutes ago, enigma said:

How the club has allowed us to go into a new season with CL football without a top level striker/goal scorer is terrible imcompetence. They really think what we have is good enough? On top of that, they get rid of Hazard and leave another manager with barely enough to work with when it comes to creativity and offensive prowess. I can't help but be concerned going into the new season.

You would think with Champions League football we would be going into the new season with a team capable of progressing as far as possible in all comps, especially the CL. With all the hurrah about being back in the CL, it seems like a total wasted opportunity not to be as strong as possible going into the season. Watching Spurs, Utd and even Arsenal buying well in the market is a real deflater. 

In case you hadn't noticed, we did beat Barcelona last week, and we did score 4 away from home today.

And also today ... Arsenal lost, and Liverpool are losing 2-0 as I type ...

Edited July 28, 20196 yr by Sexyfootball

8 minutes ago, evissy said:

All the strikers we have are not in their peak nor scoring for fun. We need goals from all over the park if we want to reach our goals this season.

We need seven players to get to 10 goals in all comps to make up for the lack of big scorer.

The ones that are capable of doing so are

Giroud

Tammy

Batshauyi

Mount

Barkley

Hudson Odoi

Pedro

Willian (if he starts cutting in more from the left)

Pulisic

Then we probably need Jorginho, Kante and Kovacic to get about 10 between them, big ask but they got 7 last year (Jorginho 2 Kante 5) then 10 from the defenders which last season we got (Luiz 3 Rudiger 1 Emerson 1 Azpi 1 Alonso 4).

Bit of a stretch but can be done.

None of our strikers compliment each other, which makes playing 2 up top pretty nonsensical, unless it's at the end of games and we need a goal.

 

Barkley and Mount could play together in a 433 but who would play the holding role? Jorginho you would think but he's pretty poor defensively, and where would that leave Kante?

 

I suspect we're playing 4231, with Kante alongside Kovacic or Jorginho, and Mount and Barkley having to fight it out amongst themselves.

 

Who will partner Luiz in defence? That's another question. I suspect Christensen will get the nod. I like Emerson but I'm not sure he does enough. I'm wondering if Frank will try Kenedy there. As for attack, it really is anyone's guess. Tammy, Pulisic and Pedro could well be our front 3 on the first day of the season.

7 minutes ago, Argo said:

We need seven players to get to 10 goals in all comps to make up for the lack of big scorer.

The ones that are capable of doing so are

Giroud

Tammy

Batshauyi

Mount

Barkley

Hudson Odoi

Pedro

Willian (if he starts cutting in more from the left)

Pulisic

 

Ruben.

2 hours ago, Frawdulant said:

Has anyone else paid the £10.99 for the pre-season games and having problems getting the stream to start?

Paid for the games and had 360 minutes of buffering so , turns out it needed Ad Block to be switched off. Money has been refunded and apologies isued, fair play to the club though, they allowed us to keep the link for today's game, and after disabling AdBlock had a pretty good stream of today's game.

 

1 minute ago, Davey Baby said:

 

Ruben.

When's he likely back? I'm hearing December and then it's probably a month or two till he's fully match fit which is why I omitted him.

 

31 minutes ago, enigma said:

How the club has allowed us to go into a new season with CL football without a top level striker/goal scorer is terrible imcompetence. They really think what we have is good enough? On top of that, they get rid of Hazard and leave another manager with barely enough to work with when it comes to creativity and offensive prowess. I can't help but be concerned going into the new season.

You would think with Champions League football we would be going into the new season with a team capable of progressing as far as possible in all comps, especially the CL. With all the hurrah about being back in the CL, it seems like a total wasted opportunity not to be as strong as possible going into the season. Watching Spurs, Utd and even Arsenal buying well in the market is a real deflater. 

Have you forgotten that we cant buy players for the next 2 windows

4 minutes ago, Davey Baby said:

None of our strikers compliment each other, which makes playing 2 up top pretty nonsensical, unless it's at the end of games and we need a goal.

 

Barkley and Mount could play together in a 433 but who would play the holding role? Jorginho you would think but he's pretty poor defensively, and where would that leave Kante?

 

I suspect we're playing 4231, with Kante alongside Kovacic or Jorginho, and Mount and Barkley having to fight it out amongst themselves.

 

Who will partner Luiz in defence? That's another question. I suspect Christensen will get the nod. I like Emerson but I'm not sure he does enough. I'm wondering if Frank will try Kenedy there. As for attack, it really is anyone's guess. Tammy, Pulisic and Pedro could well be our front 3 on the first day of the season.

Playing Kennedy as a left back is wrong. It brings out his weaknesses.

I think he is better playing from right wing. Today, I think he played better than Pedro in that position.

1 minute ago, rooomage said:

I think he is better playing from right wing. Today, I think he played better than Pedro in that position.

 

He was better than Pedro but Pedro was playing top of the diamond.

39 minutes ago, enigma said:

How the club has allowed us to go into a new season with CL football without a top level striker/goal scorer is terrible imcompetence.

How could the club have avoided this situation specifically?