Hitting the ground running

[ozleeds]

Should we be worried, though, as a League 2 side got 2 goals past us? We played 2 very low-level sides. Is that confidence boosting? Real test, I guess, will be the next 2 friendlies, hope he plays his best side most of the game so we can gauge.

[spaldy]

Remember that Padeborns season starts this weekend and they have a new coach and several new signings. They were super motivated to impress.

Bund 2 is a decent level of competition. Primary issue that they lose players all the time to better leagues but the level of play is pretty good. Not a whole lot different than the Championship. They are much different in the fact that their "reward" for promotion is a blistering by the best Bundesliga teams and the money is no where near as much as the prem plays. My brother lives in Germany and the running joke is that quite a few of the teams are more than happy to stay in Bund 2.

You are definitely correct that the next 2 friendlies have big impact

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

Until the main event starts it?s hard to tell I guess. Everton is not a bad fixture for us.

[Monaco_Totty]

Been playing catch up watching clips my mates have been sending me & reading up on our latest recruits.

I note we are flexible now tactics wise pre-season & have been using a 4-3-3, so hopefully DF wont be tied to those continual base formations of last season.

Gonna be different games in PL where we will not get much possession when travelling to City, Arsenal & Liverpool, so we defo need those different options & now have the players to play in those systems required too, imo.

We had a lack of flexibility tactically last season so its great to see the recent tactical shift which shows DF is not as stubborn as some thought imo.
We now have the 'ability' to play a back 3 or even 5 comfortably if the situations demand alongside our steadfast back 4, imo, too.

Midfield defo looks tighter & quite juicy too as we have been using a well drilled double pivot to suit Longstaffs inclusion in the game clips i have seen so far.

Appears that all our signings are comfortable with the ball at their feet & they all appear to be quite tactically versatile looking at their positional historic playing stats with the added bonus of having no real 'injury-records'of concern behind them either.

Interesting to see who is gonna be in the first starting eleven & one would hope for a 4-3-3 playing at ER.

So all good, so far. 👍

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

Having a left footed decent left back too MT - quite liked Firpo but positional he was as likely to be found playing 10 as LB

[ozleeds]

Just watching the game, why on earth did we go all out to get a new keeper? Darlow is brilliant. We def need to new forwards as there is nothing there.

[ozleeds]

Mesliers first thing he had to do is pick the ball out of the net lol. We don't look too good. His playing our championship team apart from the left back and stark. Gruueb and amba are appalling. Then we have Aaandarson lol and Piroe doing nothing against quality.
As I write that, Anderson crosses badly comes of a player straight to pioe who taps it in lol

[ozleeds]

Overall, I didn't enjoy it, the first half; they were on another level second half. They changed the whole side and still held their own.
He played Amba and Grueev all game, which is not a good sign for me. Rama came on late once again and sparked the attack.
Farke will take us straight down, that's what I got from the game.

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

Gruev didn?t play first half

[Billyni]

I’m a big critic of Farkey boy as most know.
But I won’t sack him for pre season games.

[ozleeds]

I’m a big critic of Farkey boy as most know.
But I won’t sack him for pre season games.

No just concerning looks like he will favor his beloved

[Billyni]

No just concerning looks like he will favor his beloved

Messlier doesn’t even look like him.

[ozleeds]

Messlier doesn’t even look like him.

Who I'm lost lol

[ozleeds]

Gruev didn?t play first half

Sorry, you're right, I missed most first half, only the last ten minutes, as I didn't know it had started, so I presumed he did.

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

Seems Joffy, Jospeh and Crew have been or are about to be loaned out with Bambi bouncing along with the u21s.

That means we have Piroe and Nmecha (who has an injury prone track record) up front. Surely, they must have at least one decent number 9 coming in.

Muniz, El Khannouss and possibly Doak appear to be the key targets - if Muniz, Mitro or someone of that ilk doesn?t come off it could be an impossibly hard season.