John Terry - Gone

[Clark W Griswold]

He and Chester will make a great pair. Taylor looked rusty, but I've got faith. If Hutton is going to keep the right back gig he needs to stop maurauding forward because he's totally ineffective. The midfield is a total shambles. The forwards will be fine if the midfield is sorted. I think on the evidence of yesterday we might as well sell them all (midfield) except Jedinak and start again.

[peter w]

The passing was fine yesterday, it's just that they did nothing with it in the final third. The only option seemed to be Hutton looking for Green. Or Hutton cutting inside and no forward movement from the midfield giving him any other option than going square. McCormack didn't make himself available enough and so we'd just start again.

[Tayls_7]

The passing was fine yesterday, it's just that they did nothing with it in the final third. The only option seemed to be Hutton looking for Green. Or Hutton cutting inside and no forward movement from the midfield giving him any other option than going square. McCormack didn't make himself available enough and so we'd just start again.

Has anyone seen even a glimpse of why we shelled out a fortune on Lansbury, Hourihane and Hogan? They seem worse than mediocre. How do we manage it? Labouring to defeat against Shrewsbury is worrying friendly or not.

[sirlordbaltimore]

Has anyone seen even a glimpse of why we shelled out a fortune on Lansbury, Hourihane and Hogan? They seem worse than mediocre. How do we manage it? Labouring to defeat against Shrewsbury is worrying friendly or not.

Well firstly we didn't shell out a fortune on either Lansbury or Hourihane. We allegedly paid around 10m for Hogan but as he was mainly injured last season and this season hasn't started yet i can't tell you whether he was worth it or not. And as we created absolutely zero for either forward yesterday so that didn't tell me anything about either of them either

[Tayls_7]

Has anyone seen even a glimpse of why we shelled out a fortune on Lansbury, Hourihane and Hogan? They seem worse than mediocre. How do we manage it? Labouring to defeat against Shrewsbury is worrying friendly or not.

Well firstly we didn't shell out a fortune on either Lansbury or Hourihane. We allegedly paid around 10m for Hogan but as he was mainly injured last season and this season hasn't started yet i can't tell you whether he was worth it or not. And as we created absolutely zero for either forward yesterday so that didn't tell me anything about either of them either

I concede that fees in the region of three million for each of Lansbury and Hourihane can be argued as reasonable(?) but collectively we've spent all we can and it appears the only players who look decent are Kodija and Chester. Nobody pisses money up the wall like we do.

[passitsideways]

Has anyone seen even a glimpse of why we shelled out a fortune on Lansbury, Hourihane and Hogan? They seem worse than mediocre. How do we manage it? Labouring to defeat against Shrewsbury is worrying friendly or not.

Well firstly we didn't shell out a fortune on either Lansbury or Hourihane. We allegedly paid around 10m for Hogan but as he was mainly injured last season and this season hasn't started yet i can't tell you whether he was worth it or not. And as we created absolutely zero for either forward yesterday so that didn't tell me anything about either of them either

I concede that fees in the region of three million for each of Lansbury and Hourihane can be argued as reasonable(?) but collectively we've spent all we can and it appears the only players who look decent are Kodija and Chester. Nobody pisses money up the wall like we do.

I can't think of any conclusion except that on the whole, we're utter rubbish at getting the most out of players we buy, as opposed to having trouble with identifying players who are good. Hourihane was one of the best midfielders in the Championship and creating goals for fun up until we bought him, but we've managed to turn him into another Westwood-type who keeps it tidy without doing anything.

[Matt Collins]

The passing absolutely was not fine (per the above). It was shit where it counts - last third.

[peter w]

Which is what i said.

[boozey182]

Looked quality. Said though gritted teeth.

I freely admit to having my opinion clouded by an intense dislike of him, but I thought he looked very shaky yesterday, particularly when they got it on the floor and ran at him, and he lost a lot more in the air than I expected him to. They got a few shots away at goal and created a couple of half chances, all coming from his side of the pitch. Well, as much as anyone created in a dire first half. My dad, who was very much in favour of the signing said the same, for what it's worth. I think distribution wise, he was helped by Veretout who kept collecting the ball from the back four...but that's where most of our moves finished.

Obviously 60 minutes of a pre-season match isn't enough to judge him on, maybe he's still just settling in/was carrying too much strawberries and cream.

[Matt Collins]

Yeah I didn't think Terry was a rock-like as the comments had led me to believe (but I wouldn't read too much into it yet)

[stuart445]

Reading the last few comments would make you think we were conceding goals left right and centre last season. The truth is our defence wasn't the problem it was the fact our strikers were isolated due to lack of creativity in midfield which Bruce seems to be ignoring,  as it stands right now all we have seem to have done is spent a chunk of out budget on something that isn't going to cure the problems we had last season. 

If the lack of creativity is ignored and we finished 13th last season so a team with the weaknesses the best we can probably manage is 6th.

[CT Villan]

If the lack of creativity is ignored and we finished 13th last season so a team with the weaknesses the best we can probably manage is 6th.

I don't think we lack creativity, I think Bruce has our midfielders pinned too far back and hamstrung with defensive duties. We need to unleash the kraken, so to speak, and let our midfielders get into to final third and especially the opposition's box.

[peter w]

maybe the defence wasn't the problem - defensively - but they couldn't be trusted to start effective attacks and use the ball well. Hopefully with terry and Chester that will mean we can turn defence into attack a lot quicker.

[Matt Collins]

I can't believe people can say our defence wasn't a problem last season

Under RDM we conceded about 6 vital goals in the last five minutes including some fucking ridiculous ones. We'd have bee top four by the time he left without that

Bruce tightened it up, but we still conceded stupid important goals (off the top of my head: elphick falling over v Ipswich, Gollini rushing out v Leeds, baker getting turned at about 2 mph against Brighton at home - unlucky w the pen tho - I'm sure Amavi cost us about three by himself didn't he?).

Definitely scope for improvement (albeit Johnstone and Taylor already achieved some of that by the end of the year)

[peter w]

I'm beginning to come round to the thinking that we've got no choice but to go 3-5-2. Taylor, Terry, Chester as the 3. Wing backs being Elmohamady and maybe Thor (Obvious other options being Baker/Taylor, three in the middle being Lansbury, Hourihane and one more (Jedinak/new holding player/Grealish/Thor), with two of Hogan/Green/Kodjia/Adomah/ someone else I've forgotten about.

I don't particularly like the system and think we should even be going to 4-51/4-3-3 but i don't think Bruce knows how to knock the players into a decent unit using 4-4-2.