Pre season tour

[Zip]

Interesting reviews. Hopefully Virginia grows into the role. It is high risk but it will help that he has three M’s ahead of him at centre back.
Presumably we are looking to bring two more in but we still have six or seven to shift.
Swift’s goal was a lovely strike and 4-2 sounds encouraging.

[Ranty McRantface]

Nothing much about the Brum game except for Nova scoring again. I was disappointed to see he wasn't involved in the Peterborough game though. That was the perfect game to see how he gets on with the right service coming in. If he plays against Chelsea I don't think that will be a fair opportunity to assess him either but we will see what happens.

[andrew1957]

Thanks for the summaries

To those who went, did we look like we could compete in the Championship? Do we look more ready than 12 months ago?

IMO last pre season was a shambles by comparison. Today the team looked organised and well motivated and I am much more hopeful than I was a few weeks back.

As I said on another thread if we can get a good start in the first few games then we might be looking upwards rather than downwards this season.

[Zip]

Thanks for the summaries

To those who went, did we look like we could compete in the Championship? Do we look more ready than 12 months ago?

IMO last pre season was a shambles by comparison. Today the team looked organised and well motivated and I am much more hopeful than I was a few weeks back.

As I said on another thread if we can get a good start in the first few games then we might be looking upwards rather than downwards this season.

Someone said our players looked fitter than Posh. Was that so? Encouraging if true.

[Snowflake Royal]

Good lord, you could read a whole helluva lot into that line up re Posh.

No Loader. No Novakovich (though Nova scored v Brum).. presumably Meite upfront, Barrett, Olise and Barrow behind?

Swift in midfield partnering Rino...

No Morrison , Miazga or Adam yet.

No Obita at all still?

[Zip]

Good lord, you could read a whole helluva lot into that line up re Posh.

No Loader. No Novakovich (though Nova scored v Brum).. presumably Meite upfront, Barrett, Olise and Barrow behind?

Swift in midfield partnering Rino...

No Morrison , Miazga or Adam yet.

No Obita at all still?

They are obviously being very wary with Obita which makes sense. What intrigues me is the likely formation going into the new season. Moore and Miazga are certain starters. Not sure about Morrison. Will Gomes go for three at the back?

[URZZZZ]

Good lord, you could read a whole helluva lot into that line up re Posh.

No Loader. No Novakovich (though Nova scored v Brum).. presumably Meite upfront, Barrett, Olise and Barrow behind?

Swift in midfield partnering Rino...

No Morrison , Miazga or Adam yet.

No Obita at all still?

They are obviously being very wary with Obita which makes sense. What intrigues me is the likely formation going into the new season. Moore and Miazga are certain starters. Not sure about Morrison. Will Gomes go for three at the back?

Think he’ll go for a mixture of 5 at the back / 4 at the back with two natural midfielders / 4 at the back with a defender playing one of the mid roles

He seems to play Yiadom in midfield a bit, maybe one of those three could shift to full back. Seem to recall Moore playing in midfield a bit during pre season. Obviously Watson was there today. Can’t see Morrison or Miazga doing that though

[Nameless]

Good lord, you could read a whole helluva lot into that line up re Posh.

No Loader. No Novakovich (though Nova scored v Brum).. presumably Meite upfront, Barrett, Olise and Barrow behind?

Swift in midfield partnering Rino...

No Morrison , Miazga or Adam yet.

No Obita at all still?

You’d not be right with virtually any of those !
Loader was doing work with Obita so looks like a little niggle kept him out.
At least to start Barrow and Meite played up front, Swift just behind, Olise and Barrett widowhood but not wingers and Rino in front of the defence. diamond midfield formation. Got rather fluid as the game went on.
No shock really to not have the 3 newcomers involved, presumably Adam and Morrison have had no real,
Resets on so won’t be quite match fit and Miazga only signed the night before.
As reported earlier Obita looks close to being ready in terms of fitness, hopefully there might be another closed doors or U23 game arranged. No need to rush him though as Blackett has the shirt.

[Royal Rother]

Good lord, you could read a whole helluva lot into that line up re Posh.

No Loader. No Novakovich (though Nova scored v Brum).. presumably Meite upfront, Barrett, Olise and Barrow behind?

Swift in midfield partnering Rino...

No Morrison , Miazga or Adam yet.

No Obita at all still?

You’d not be right with virtually any of those !
.

Oh God, do you realise what you’ve done? You just can’t say that sort of thing around these ‘ere parts.

[Nameless]

Good lord, you could read a whole helluva lot into that line up re Posh.

No Loader. No Novakovich (though Nova scored v Brum).. presumably Meite upfront, Barrett, Olise and Barrow behind?

Swift in midfield partnering Rino...

No Morrison , Miazga or Adam yet.

No Obita at all still?

You’d not be right with virtually any of those !
.

Oh God, do you realise what you’ve done? You just can’t say that sort of thing around these ‘ere parts.

To be fair though I wasn’t contradicting options, just explaining points of fact.

[Snowflake Royal]

You’d not be right with virtually any of those !
.

Oh God, do you realise what you’ve done? You just can’t say that sort of thing around these ‘ere parts.

To be fair though I wasn’t contradicting options, just explaining points of fact.

Thanks Nameless. Surprised to hear a complete shape change on the way we played in Spain from the couple of games plus highlights I saw.

Virtually any is a bit harsh though seeing as about half was who didn't play!

[Hound]

Quite a nice goal from Nova vs Brum - good instinct

Think Sheff Weds is basically the Peterborough starting team with Loader (starting), Adam, Morrison, Miazga (starting), Nova, Baldock/new signing and Walker added to it

[NewCorkSeth]

Quite a nice goal from Nova vs Brum - good instinct

Think Sheff Weds is basically the Peterborough starting team with Loader (starting), Adam, Morrison, Miazga (starting), Nova, Baldock/new signing and Walker added to it

Yeah I thought the same. No pissing about he burst onto a loose ball and finished well. Nothing to write home about but showed good instinct.

[Royalwaster]

Are there any highlights of the goals from the 2 games anywhere?

Just found the Posh ones here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e74JTZFykaQ

[WestYorksRoyal]

It's a shame Obita hasn't had any minutes yet this preseason. Could it still be a couple of months until we see him?

[Stranded]

It's a shame Obita hasn't had any minutes yet this preseason. Could it still be a couple of months until we see him?

Would expect Obita to start getting minutes with the U23s in the coming weeks - he's been out for so long it is much better to play on the safe side and roll him back in to pitch minutes slowly. Personally, I don't think we will see him in the first team much this side of Xmas.

[Hound]

Yeah exactly that

Disappointed he didn’t get some minutes in Spain, but it sounds like he is ready to step up to a more competitive level. But he’ll be some way from the first 11 for quite some time

[Royalwaster]

Are there any highlights of the goals from the 2 games anywhere?

Just found the Posh ones here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e74JTZFykaQ

And here are the B'ham highlights ... looks like they outplayed us:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvpsiKAMI-0

[URZZZZ]

In fairness, it was their first XI against our second one so that’s no surprise, still got a point as well

[Nameless]

Oh God, do you realise what you’ve done? You just can’t say that sort of thing around these ‘ere parts.

To be fair though I wasn’t contradicting options, just explaining points of fact.

Thanks Nameless. Surprised to hear a complete shape change on the way we played in Spain from the couple of games plus highlights I saw.

Virtually any is a bit harsh though seeing as about half was who didn't play!

More about not reading too much into most of them, fairly easy explanations.
The shape was surprising but it seemed quite fluid. Meite went out wide, Barrow dropped deep, Olise and Barrett both playing on the left. I think with the players we have a fairly fluid attacking formation makes some sense but leaves us very exposed if we lose the ball.