Pre season 2025

[Gareth]

Saturday

[olaftab]

Can’t believe it, they moved it as soon as I told them😂 It’s the Villarreal game on Sunday that influenced the confusion in my mind. Sort of knew that there were two games in two days.

[Somniloquism]

And then Villarreal the next night. It will be interesting what he does there. I'm assuming more first choice players will get 70-80mins rather the 45 in one.

[PhilVill]

After last night's game, Buendia would be going nowhere. I love the fact he works so hard, is also a narky sod, but also can produce great quality moments. I'm pretty sure Uni rates him too...

No doubt he'll be gone by a week on Friday and my views are the usual Blues 😅

[martin o`who??]

After last night's game, Buendia would be going nowhere. I love the fact he works so hard, is also a narky sod, but also can produce great quality moments. I'm pretty sure Uni rates him too...

No doubt he'll be gone by a week on Friday and my views are the usual Blues 😅

He'd be an incredible positive for us if he could really avoid injuries and kick on because there is a seriously good player in there plus he's an Argentinian and I have immense respect for their footballers.

[Bosco81]

That was excellent for me (particularly 1st half) - very enjoyable evening (excluding getting off the retail park afterwards lol) thing that struck me most was the long balls from Emi towards Ollie…it was quickly identified that the centre half had concrete boots on and if Emi could get it long and it bounced Ollie was likely to win it….that seemed to be identified and actioned in play.

Jimoh-Aloba and Hemmings were good when they came on

Buendia, lovely free kick, was a nuisance around the ball but his final ball is still a bit disappointing, hopefully he was charging around because there was a scout in the stands somewhere

For Roma I thought #17 Manu Kone looked a very assured player

I enjoyed last night as well, been so often to Walsall now I’ve got my own parking spot.

It looked like we were trying to isolate Ollie or Bailey 1 on 1 with the defenders, and it worked well in the 1st half, not so well in the 2nd half as it doesn’t seem to suit Malen’s game.

If we are still looking for a 10 and a right winger, there were 2 playing in claret and blue last night who might be worth a punt on. How long have Bailey & Buendia got left on their contracts, if money is still really tight it would be daft not to utilise these 2 this season, and save the money for a centre half, which we still need.

[martin o`who??]

Loving seeing Emi going long with his kicking and I've been begging to mix it up for some time. It poses an entirely different set of questions of the opposition. All of which means precisely fuck all if he goes....

[PeterWithe]

For Roma I thought #17 Manu Kone looked a very assured player

Yes he was the pick of them without having too much impact at either end, I also thought Sule, who we were linked with, was impressive but that was about it, no one else Id really have picked out.

[PeterWithe]

Something else that struck us last night, at half time the players who were being replaced for the second were doing their warm down on the field, it was really noticable how much fitter Youri and Ollie seemed than anyone else, the former encouraging the trainer to get going for the next set whilst others were still catching their breath. He's enjoying himself.

[Crown Hill]

Something else that struck us last night, at half time the players who were being replaced for the second were doing their warm down on the field, it was really noticable how much fitter Youri and Ollie seemed than anyone else, the former encouraging the trainer to get going for the next set whilst others were still catching their breath. He's enjoying himself.

Nice point and Ollie had a really disrupted pre season last year because of the Euros. Hopefully this could be a really good season for him!

[paul_e]

Something else that struck us last night, at half time the players who were being replaced for the second were doing their warm down on the field, it was really noticable how much fitter Youri and Ollie seemed than anyone else, the former encouraging the trainer to get going for the next set whilst others were still catching their breath. He's enjoying himself.

i mentioned how fit Youri was looking during the game, seems to be in the best shape of his life and was really sharp, half a yard ahead of their midfield every time. I think with Ollie it's easy to miss how good he is at the rough stuff but last night the difference between the hold-up play in the first and second half was stark. I suspect one of the reasons we're after Guessand is to give us someone else who can offer that presence, Malen is great but his game is about his movement and he got bullied last night.

[wolfman999]

Watched the friendly on TV last night. We looked really good especially the first half. Emi B looks like a new player. Hopefully, now he has his serious injury behind him and is fully fir again, we will ditch trying to sell him (if we even were).

[OCD]

Tielemans no look pass for Ramsey's goal was class.

[VILLA MOLE]

Tielemans no look pass for Ramsey's goal was class.

Almost wasted on a friendly

[London Villan]

What's the deal with the two games over the weekend then - has anything been said about how we are going to split the squad? Assume Unai will nip from France to Spain easily enough.