Pre-season 2024/25 - Borussia Dortmund

[eye digress]

Shout out to the Bilbao fans as well.

Totally, all 50 of them were rocking second half, quite a sight.

Bogarde caught the eye for me, very accomplished, along with Philogene in the second half.

Thought the interesting angle tonight was playing Rogers as a striker. Jury’s still out on whether he’s a proper goalscorer, but there were some nice touches.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Nice one, Cam.

Oh yeah. I think there's a few players in a positive way who have given Unai a headache tonight.

[edgysatsuma89]

I haven't watched any of the preseason, so can someone tell me where Emi has been playing? As we're stacked on the left, has he gone back to his Norwich days and coming in off the right?

[AGRIPPA]

Shout out to the Bilbao fans as well.

Totally, all 50 of them were rocking second half, quite a sight.

Bogarde caught the eye for me, very accomplished, along with Philogene in the second half.

That’s where he’ll end up….like Watkins at Brentford….still
learning his trade…👍

Thought the interesting angle tonight was playing Rogers as a striker. Jury’s still out on whether he’s a proper goalscorer, but there were some nice touches.

[Percy McCarthy]

Thought Gauci was good on the ball and made some good saves. Great to see Ramsey back and we were great down the left in the first half and I’m including Digne in that.

Bidace uses the ball well, there were a couple of times where he received it and in a flash it was onto Emi in space behind the striker, good finish too.

All in all a decent run out, we should have had a few more in the first half but for some very wasteful finishing.

Philogene.

[Mister E]

The move for Philogene’s goal;

https://x.com/AVFCOfficial/status/1821291223774326851

very cool finish.

[lukey27]

Closer first half to the shape and personnel we'll start with at West Ham.

Ramsey was the big plus for me. Good 45 mins, keep him fit and he's a definite starter off the left.

Impressed by Philogene you can see he's massively improved in the last year.

Rogers isn't a centre forward, can't play back to goal and struggled a bit positionally with Ramsey on the pitch. I can see why they're digging their heels in over Duran, not a lot of options as Watkins backups.

[darren woolley]

Good night I enjoyed it I'm pleased JJ's back with a goal played well there fans made a lot of noise considering there wasn't that many of them.

[ASHTONVILLA]

Much better performance, which has allayed my nerves a bit following the lacklustre performances in the US.

Gauci looks better suited to being our back up keeper than Olsen. I don't actually think Olsen is that bad (everyone is a big drop off from Emi), but on that performance I'd be picking Gauci ahead of him.

Bogarde had an excellent game, and he looks ready to start some cup games.

Philogene, Ramsey and Buendia all provided some quality moments. None of those were available much or at all last season and having them available will see us be able to rotate much better this season as the fixtures pile up.

Rogers was a handful even in an unfamiliar role.

Archer took his goal really well, again I can see him getting game time off the bench this season if he doesn't get a move.

Like the look of Nedjelkovic.

Digne played a lot better that Maatsen.

Onana looks a very solid player.

Barkley played some nice long balls, think he will do well.

No real negatives in that performance, and three of our most influential players still to return too.

[AV84]

Is Olsen still recovering from his concussion? And will Martinez be ready to start against West Ham? If he's not, I'd assume Gaucci will get the nod, simply by virtue of having played more.

[Dogtanian]

Something I liked about Onana was when it was getting a bit spicy in the box in the first half when we had a corner, he walked up and towered over their chap and made his presence known.

That's something Mings would do a bit when teams were trying to intimidate us. So it's nice to have someone with that presence again.

[Brend'Watkins]

Of the younger players coming through along with Philogene and Bogarde I thought Kosta Nedeljkovic put in a good showing.  Only 18, tall and pacey.  He could become a favourite in time. For the League Cup I'd like to see these 3 start all games.  In fact our 'B' team would/should be competitive against lower league opposition.

[Risso]

I though Bogarde looked very quick last night, is pace a part of his game usually?

[LeeB]

Of the younger players coming through along with Philogene and Bogarde I thought Kosta Nedeljkovic put in a good showing.  Only 18, tall and pacey.  He could become a favourite in time. For the League Cup I'd like to see these 3 start all games.  In fact our 'B' team would/should be competitive against lower league opposition.

Regarding the League Cup I think you meant 'game' not 'games'.

Same goes for the FA Cup, our fixtures should always be referred to as singular, I'm sure BE will back me up on this.

[oldtimernow]

Good night I enjoyed it I'm pleased JJ's back with a goal played well there fans made a lot of noise considering there wasn't that many of them.

I well remember the European match in the 90's their fans were superb that night, so much so that Villa fans accumulated at the Witton Lane entrance to applaud them out. I took 3 under tens with me and they were given a scarf and one of those wine carrier bags. Great night.