Pre season friendlies at Macc, Preston, Tranmere and Dale

[TANGODANCER]

Mjallby are halfway through their season. So doesn't sound the worst of efforts!

Hope there are some positives....

[TKIZ!]

Well cleared by Dervite! Ekenberg looked to have rounded Lonergan. (86) 3-2 #BoltOnTour

[TKIZ!]

FULL TIME: Mjallby 3-2 Bolton. Beckford and @RobHall46 with the #BWFC goals in final game of pre-season tour. #BoltOnTour

[TonyDomingos]

FT 3-2.

Nine second half subs - Hall the only outfield player not replaced.

[TKIZ!]

1 draw, 1 win and 1 loss. Danish teams currently half way through the season plus tough Swedish game. I'm happy with that so far

[BWFC_Insane]

1 draw, 1 win and 1 loss. Danish teams currently half way through the season plus tough Swedish game. I'm happy with that so far

Swedish teams halfway through season, Danish ones not started yet, I think....

[Bruce Rioja]

1 draw, 1 win and 1 loss. Danish teams currently half way through the season plus tough Swedish game. I'm happy with that so far

Swedish teams halfway through season, Danish ones not started yet, I think....

Important stuff when you're making 10 half-time substitutions.

[TKIZ!]

1 draw, 1 win and 1 loss. Danish teams currently half way through the season plus tough Swedish game. I'm happy with that so far

Swedish teams halfway through season, Danish ones not started yet, I think....

Important stuff when you're making 10 half-time substitutions.

My apologies, yeah Swedish team half way into season, not the Danish.

I'm not so sure that Dougie made 10 half time subs. 6 of them in second half for definite

[TonyDomingos]

Most of the subs came at around the hour mark.
Highlights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKUft-Ee5ow" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[bobo the clown]

Most of the subs came at around the hour mark.
Highlights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKUft-Ee5ow" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

ta for that tonight.

Some neat play, to be fair. Nice goals... & we had a few chances to add to our two. We were badly cut open for their first though.

I'd like to see some evidence that we are working at our dead ball plays though.

[LeverEnd]

Most of the subs came at around the hour mark.
Highlights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKUft-Ee5ow" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

ta for that tonight.

Some neat play, to be fair. Nice goals... & we had a few chances to add to our two. We were badly cut open for their first though.

I'd like to see some evidence that we are working at our dead ball plays though.

Well that was the complete opposite of the strong defence, nothing up front suggestions from the transfer thread. Looked good going forward, you'd expect the defenders to sharpen up before Watford. Not that I'm saying we don't to sign at least one striker, but maybe it's not all doom and gloom.

[Prufrock]

Absolutely, Hall and Beckford looked good together, Davies looked shite. The defence woeful. Big gap in front again too.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Most of the subs came at around the hour mark.
Highlights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKUft-Ee5ow" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

ta for that tonight.

Some neat play, to be fair. Nice goals... & we had a few chances to add to our two. We were badly cut open for their first though.

I'd like to see some evidence that we are working at our dead ball plays though.

Yeah, thanks Tony.

Our first: good hassling by Hall. Who's the southern, somewhat high-pitched voice exhorting him to chase and dispossess the defender? Possibly left-back Moxey, judging by his supporting-run scream at 3m17s (listen: http://youtu.be/AKUft-Ee5ow?t=3m9s" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;). Good.

Our second: nice finish by Hall. He's got a decent skillset, he just needs to produce regularly - which has always been the way with wingers.

Their first: the edit was a bit late in the build-up so it's difficult to see exactly what went wrong first, but we were indeed easily sliced open by a simple run between the centre-backs on to a straight through-ball. That's a worry. At first glance I wondered if Lonners could have come off his line earlier but he can't have been expecting that central collapse, and maybe I've been watching too much Neuer...

Their second goal also sickeningly simple: they simply tap in a soft cross from the open acres wide right, where Moxey is nowhere in sight (see pic), as per the first goal. Now, full-backs have a difficult time knowing when to go and when not, and obviously we're only seeing snippets in isolation, but four minutes after having your lead halved you wouldn't really want your left-back on an expedition forward - well, not if you're the negative nil-nil catenaccio cat Freedman is alleged to be. I don't want to pick on Moxey but he's watching on from somewhere in midfield for the first and just about jogging back when the second goes in. Needs work.



Their third ain't Moxey's fault - comes down our right, where Kev McN struggles to get tight enough to prevent the pull-back to Bounso, who had pulled back a yard off the covering Spearing. That yard's difference that comes with being mid-season rather than pre-season, you'd hope.

[jaffka]

The palace fans were critical of moxeys positioning.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

The palace fans were critical of moxeys positioning.

It could well be that Freedman was too, yesterday... in private, as it should be. I'm certainly not hanging the fella, Palace mates say he's certainly capable and it's not like we're signing Daley Blind any time soon. Likesay these days full-backs have to make constant decisions whether to overlap, especially when your winger is coming inside (as Rob Hall seemed to be doing a lot in those highlights). If he sits back, we're negative, narrow and lopsided. But as Pru has been saying, we need cover when the full-backs do go.

[BWFC_Insane]

Most of the subs came at around the hour mark.
Highlights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKUft-Ee5ow" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

ta for that tonight.

Some neat play, to be fair. Nice goals... & we had a few chances to add to our two. We were badly cut open for their first though.

I'd like to see some evidence that we are working at our dead ball plays though.

Well that was the complete opposite of the strong defence, nothing up front suggestions from the transfer thread. Looked good going forward, you'd expect the defenders to sharpen up before Watford. Not that I'm saying we don't to sign at least one striker, but maybe it's not all doom and gloom.

The first two games we conceded 0 and scored just 1.

I truly believe friendlies are meaningless as indicators.

We all know that whilst we don't have perfect options anywhere that we have enough choice in the back four and midfield in general. Lack options and quality out wide and seriously lack anything at all up front.

I'll also argue that when Juke was up front our entire team shape was better as we had someone who a) made the ball stick and b) defended from the front.

So it isn't as simple as working out goals for or against and deciding that is the problem. If we could get the right sort of striker I'd seriously fancy us to compete for the top 6. But the right sort of striker is almost certainly completely out of our budget. And we'll have to strike lucky somewhere. Burnley for example last season, I'd say their strikers were probably the difference of 10 places or more in that they knew they just had to hang in games and there was a decent chance that one of them would score at some point.

[LeverEnd]

Of course, I'm not saying it's any sort of indicator, merely that it went against the grain and that our forwards might not be totally useless. We won't have any real evidence for that til the end of October. Then we'll have an idea. Can't be worse than last end of October though.

[boltonboris]

The palace fans were critical of moxeys positioning.

It could well be that Freedman was too, yesterday... in private, as it should be. I'm certainly not hanging the fella, Palace mates say he's certainly capable and it's not like we're signing Daley Blind any time soon. Likesay these days full-backs have to make constant decisions whether to overlap, especially when your winger is coming inside (as Rob Hall seemed to be doing a lot in those highlights). If he sits back, we're negative, narrow and lopsided. But as Pru has been saying, we need cover when the full-backs do go.

One player offers us that..



One never seems to..

[Harry Genshaw]

Of course, I'm not saying it's any sort of indicator, merely that it went against the grain and that our forwards might not be totally useless. We won't have any real evidence for that til the end of October. Then we'll have an idea. Can't be worse than last end of October though.

Well you've done it now!

[Bruce Rioja]

But as Pru has been saying, we need cover when the full-backs do go.

One thing that stuck out like a sticky out thing last season was how utterly lost Chungy looked when Tierney went on the overlap. If they put pockets in football shorts he'd have been stood there with his hands in 'em.