Blackpool game

[lukcour]

Quite surprised no posts on yesterdays game.
Was it good? Hope so.
Was it poor? Hope not.

The official sites report did not sound promising.

[gazan]

Sounded poor. Blackpool dominated and scored through a couple of pieces of poor defending, according to reports.

[MeForCrewe]

Sounded poor. Blackpool dominated and scored through a couple of pieces of poor defending, according to reports.

I was unfortunate enough to be there. If I did not know better I would have said the opposition were from the top half of the Premier League. There seemed a massive gulf in quality, strength, fitness, speed and ability. In the first half we did not lay a finger on them playing a 4 3 3 formation with everything being played sideways or backwards. This was alluded to in Bell's post match interview.
In the second half we switched to 5 3 2 with Billington moving over to left wingback from right back and Lankaster dropping back on the right hand side. I would say that we performed slightly better in this half. The only real comment I would make on the players is Roberts when he came on looked to have something about him with great off the ball movement.
I was really looking forward to going after reading the Stoke game report but came away very disappointed. To counter my feelings I will say, after watching many, many pre season games over 50 odd years I am aware that they can be completely misleading. I hope!

[jimmyboldon]

I was unfortunate enough to be there. If I did not know better I would have said the opposition were from the top half of the Premier League. There seemed a massive gulf in quality, strength, fitness, speed and ability. In the first half we did not lay a finger on them playing a 4 3 3 formation with everything being played sideways or backwards. This was alluded to in Bell's post match interview.
In the second half we switched to 5 3 2 with Billington moving over to left wingback from right back and Lankaster dropping back on the right hand side. I would say that we performed slightly better in this half. The only real comment I would make on the players is Roberts when he came on looked to have something about him with great off the ball movement.
I was really looking forward to going after reading the Stoke game report but came away very disappointed. To counter my feelings I will say, after watching many, many pre season games over 50 odd years I am aware that they can be completely misleading. I hope!

Agree with all of that.
Glimmers of hope were Connolly and the Keeper. Also a few players missing.

[lukcour]

I was unfortunate enough to be there. If I did not know better I would have said the opposition were from the top half of the Premier League. There seemed a massive gulf in quality, strength, fitness, speed and ability. In the first half we did not lay a finger on them playing a 4 3 3 formation with everything being played sideways or backwards. This was alluded to in Bell's post match interview.
In the second half we switched to 5 3 2 with Billington moving over to left wingback from right back and Lankaster dropping back on the right hand side. I would say that we performed slightly better in this half. The only real comment I would make on the players is Roberts when he came on looked to have something about him with great off the ball movement.
I was really looking forward to going after reading the Stoke game report but came away very disappointed. To counter my feelings I will say, after watching many, many pre season games over 50 odd years I am aware that they can be completely misleading. I hope!

Like you I will live in hope, but unfortunately it was exactly what I expected. A continuation of the back end of last season.

[RedandWhiteSpartan]

I came away from the Stoke game feeling really pleased and confident for the new season.
Saturday was a real shock, in the first half we were terrible, improved a little in the second. There were some individuals that gave a little hope: Agree Connolly and Roberts looked good.

Possession football and playing out from the back is all well and good, but we're not skilled enough, and when pressed even slightly by the opposition it all fell to pieces. Even the basics were poor on Saturday, dreadful passing, and we lost most of the 50/50 balls.
I now fear somewhat for the coming season.