Our finishing looks sloppy today. I thought Pulisic should have done better with that one.

Close from Pedro, great break out though, mounts got some pace. 

So no Drinkwater or Bakayoko in the squad again. Both been told they can leave? 

Interesting Tammy got the nod to start again, likely to go into the season as first choice? 

Hope this defense is gonna improve.

1 minute ago, ForeverCarefree said:

So no Drinkwater or Bakayoko in the squad again. Both been told they can leave? 

Interesting Tammy got the nod to start again, likely to go into the season as first choice? 

Well he has got the number 9 so it looks like it...he is no worse than what we have and he is young and scored 26 last season so I wouldn’t contest it if he was 

Jesus, they just absolutely sliced through us with ease. No one busting their balls to get back and help Christensen and Zouma.

On dear, the gaps between midfield and defence are huge. 

2-0.

Not good enough at all, Christensen & Zouma are a bit of a mess. Tammy is a non-entity up top unfortunately, not strong enough to be a target man and not doing much of anything.

Much better the last 15, had control of the game without really creating too much. I love mounts runs into the box though, I hate to compare players usually but it's just so Lampardesque... 

More poor defending though gifts them a goal against the run of play. 

We look so poor defensively. There is no protection. It's one pass and we are in trouble. We need Kante back.

1 minute ago, charierre said:

On dear, the gaps between midfield and defence are huge. 

Wouldn’t have happened if Kante was playing or it was Kovacic instead of Jorginho making the break forward. 

Zouma has been terrible for these 45 minutes. 

Just now, Munkworth said:

Wouldn’t have happened if Kante was playing or it was Kovacic instead of Jorginho making the break forward. 

Zouma has been terrible for these 45 minutes. 

Zoumas positioning is abysmal, always seems to be scrambling to recover. 

I was sure zouma would start against UTD he is physical and quick but his positioning and closing down, he has probably dropped himself from the starting 11 on that performance 

Have to say i fear how thing will go at Old Trafford. Too tough of a game coming too early for us i think.

There is a lot of work to do be done here.

Zouma has had a shocking half, 4th choice at best next season.

First Half

Good:

- N/A

Ok:

- Pedro
- Pulisic

Poor:

- The whole defence. We look so open. We have 2 players sitting in the pivot and neither of them provide any real protection to the back 4, and then the back 4 themselves are so easy to get past
- The passing - Woeful at times. They are pressing us well but we just sh*t the bed every time we get it. So many of our passes leave the receiver awkwardly stretching to control it because its off target.
- The pressing - Non-existent. Just going individually and then wondering why they pass it around us with ease.
- Abraham - I continue to say he's nowhere near good enough for Chelsea.

6 minutes ago, Sindre said:

2-0.

Not good enough at all, Christensen & Zouma are a bit of a mess. Tammy is a non-entity up top unfortunately, not strong enough to be a target man and not doing much of anything.

To be fair to any of our CB’s it doesn’t make it easy without Kante, teams glide through the centre of our team when we press forward because some of the guys don’t have the speed or stamina to then turn and bust their balls on the way back. It leaves them completely exposed to 3 on 2 or 4 on 3 situations. obviously you hope they do better but it’s not easy.

3 minutes ago, dkw said:

Zoumas positioning is abysmal, always seems to be scrambling to recover. 

He’s always been the same tbf, he’s not as good as people like Alex Goldberg etc make out he is. He’s not got enough awareness about him IMO. He goes charging about like Luiz but even when he’s not, he never seems to be in the right place.

We can't kid ourselves we've been awful. Biggest consolation is the match doesn't matter and we've a week to put things right. Our defence has been all over place pre season. No CB has looked comfortable, the gaps between the lines though has been huge, some hard work required on the train ground. 

 

Our problems starts from the fact that it's always Zouma who starts the play. Not sure if this was the plan or Frank is training Zouma based on real match situations.

First goal was a gift from Kepa and I missed the second. Really need to have a Rudiger or Luiz's long balls to get the ball further forward if we plan to keep on playing like this because Zouma doesn't have the technique to pull it off and Christensen is not helping as much.

Midfield needs to be more mobile and drop back to get the ball at least flowing better. Jorginho and Kovacic needs to be more involved. Tammy needs to be more composed and clinical, he also needs to bulk up more because at the moment we need a CF who can hold the ball. Pulisic and Pedro needs to up their game a bit and Mount needs to put up a much better showing than this if he wants to make it in the PL.

Edited August 3, 20196 yr by Deino

2 minutes ago, EdinburghBlue said:

To be fair to any of our CB’s it doesn’t make it easy without Kante, teams glide through the centre of our team when we press forward because some of the guys don’t have the speed or stamina to then turn and bust their balls on the way back. It leaves them completely exposed to 3 on 2 or 4 on 3 situations. obviously you hope they do better but it’s not easy.

He’s always been the same tbf, he’s not as good as people like Alex Goldberg etc make out he is. He’s not got enough awareness about him IMO. He goes charging about like Luiz but even when he’s not, he never seems to be in the right place.

We can't be depending too much on Kante just because he's a WC defensive-type of midfielder.

Our two starting CB's need to be able to hold their own too and at the moment they either need to shape up or be shipped out the moment we're able to buy better ones. 

It's good that Lamps is trying 4-2-3-1 but there wasn't much wrong with 4-3-3 last season - we need to keep the ball and build sustainable attacks. 4-2-3-1 is too transitional, we attack in short bursts but when we lose the ball as Zeta said there's nobody to protect the back 4.

Tammy #9 is a bit of a joke tbh, sorry but needs to be said. The #9 shirt is earned not given.

Edited August 3, 20196 yr by the special one

Have Luiz and Christensen played together at all pre-season? That’d be starting pair until Rudi is back fit. 

1 minute ago, the special one said:

Tammy #9 is a bit of a joke tbh, sorry but needs to be said. The #9 shirt is earned not given.

Nobody has done it just since Jimmy Floyd Hasselbainke!

Abraham still doesn't look good enough, he should be scoring these chances.

14 minutes ago, Deino said:

We can't be depending too much on Kante just because he's a WC defensive-type of midfielder.

Our two starting CB's need to be able to hold their own too and at the moment they either need to shape up or be shipped out the moment we're able to buy better ones. 

Of course we can’t and that’s a worry but we don’t have anyone else to play as a defensive engine in that midfield.

 

in terms of the ‘shape up or be shipped out’ I think you’re forgetting we have a transfer ban. We cannot ship anyone out and have to make do with what we have this season, it’s that simple.