Pre-season Friendlies Match Thread

[barrysleftfoot]

Positives from last night:Beye, Clark, Albrighton,and most of the youngsters who came on.

                              4:4:1:1 system, i like it, and with Gabby in the team, and hopefully Keane/Ireland even more so.

  Negatives:Neither Carew/Heskey are good enough/mobile enough at the top level.
              Need better passing midfielders in the middle of the park, too pedestrian, too many touches.Delph wiil improve it, and a.n.other midfielder probably would as well.
              AYoung did'nt really work in th hole.

    But tbh, ad i think Mazrim said earlier, IF Milner goes , and we get Keane.Ireland , Flamini, and Onohua, and even McGeady , then we will be a lot better than last year.

  NRC, and Beye for me played well last night, but we need better quality to improve.

[Matt Collins]

I'm also a fan of the formation, but think Ireland or Keane would be better in the number 10- role than Ashley.

[Monty]

I prefer it to be 4-4-1-1 out of position and more like 4-1-4-1 in position. One way or another, it's all dependent on Keane (let's assume it's Keane) playing closer to the midfield than to the forward for most of the time, drifting wide and making late runs and so forth. I hope this is what will happen, as when players like Keane get older they tend to start to play deeper, so let's hope that happens.

[Brend'Watkins]

I thought Albrighton was more consistent but Downing more imaginative - which is strange as you'd figure, with their ages, that it would be the other way round.

I have high hopes for Albrighton. Looks so assured on the ball and explosive in the right areas. Our future looks ok, doesn't it?

Is that like bright but at the lowest point on the dimmer switch?

Downing played in fits and starts last night and almost won the game for us at the death.  He is really beginning to infuriate me though, he needs to get more physical and put in far more effort if he is to make an impact.  A big season for him and his career.

[UsualSuspect]

Why did Little think Albrighton would struggle? I was impressed with him today.

Going from memory, and I probably didn't qualify it earlier - he was saying that Young and Downing will be crucial to Villa this season. He said he's in regular contact with Bryan Jones (?), the academy director at Villa who often mentions  Albrighton. He thought Albrighton did reasonably well tonight but expressed reservations about him being able to perform consistently in the league. ''Does he have the extra bit you need to be a Premiership player? I think he would find it difficult.'' were more or less his words.

By the way, Monty reminded me, yes, Petrov was excellent tonight. The same touch of class as always but he seemed more dominating in the middle than usual.

The only way I can see Albrighton struggling is physicalyy - namely when he comes up against a physical player I can see him getting bullied

[UsualSuspect]

Positives from last night:Beye, Clark, Albrighton,and most of the youngsters who came on.

                              4:4:1:1 system, i like it, and with Gabby in the team, and hopefully Keane/Ireland even more so.

  Negatives:Neither Carew/Heskey are good enough/mobile enough at the top level.
              Need better passing midfielders in the middle of the park, too pedestrian, too many touches.Delph wiil improve it, and a.n.other midfielder probably would as well.
              AYoung did'nt really work in th hole.

    But tbh, ad i think Mazrim said earlier, IF Milner goes , and we get Keane.Ireland , Flamini, and Onohua, and even McGeady , then we will be a lot better than last year.

  NRC, and Beye for me played well last night, but we need better quality to improve.

Couldnt agree more about the middle

If that midfield last nght was our starting midfield we we be lucky to make the top 10. No creativity and that predictable that a unknown tribe from the Amazon would know that all we do is get it wide to our wingers.

Carew - far too immobile and heskey is just a wanker which leaves Gabby

[BILL DE VALL]

What impressed me most was the 1st touch of the Valencia players.
I recorded the match on a hard drive thingy-even their full backs had amazing touch.
It made heskey look like a total donkey!
I mean here's an ex international looking like he coudn't trap a ball to save his life.
no wonder the europeans are very down on the english model(all pace and power with less skill)

albrighton looked good though(touchwise) I hope that MON plays him and is not just teasing us with his inclusion

[UsualSuspect]

Who was the Valencia no. 7?

Full of running and always wanted the ball