Rousseau

I feel it's all off-the-cuff. What are they doing in training?

I even thought a wee dink back to the 'keeper was easier than fighting a 50/50.

Good move. I don't know why Dessers doesn't hit it?

Poor from Yilmaz, there.

One thing I have noticed during pre-season is that we drop the 6 (usually Raskin, but Lundstram today) to create a situational back-three, with one of the 8s in front forming a diamond.

I think he has looked good in pre-season.

Stirling is finally involved, too.

I'm pleased to see Yfeko.

Not that Wright. This is the young 'keeper, Kieran Wright. Actually, he's 24! WTF is he still doing here? Maybe just fulfilling the Andy Firth role now? The back-up's back-up.

Just like we did before: one-off matches against elite youth sides. They played Everton last week.

If it's £4-5M that's great. Even so...

Nagelsmann's Hoffenheim were brilliant to watch.

€111.13M Transfermrkt are never wrong.

I don't care about pre-season results. We could get pumped 5-0 every time for all I care. I just want to see something on the pitch; some hint of what what we're trying to do. You can show that without being the finished article. I used Tottenham as an example elsewhere: they were beaten by West Ham, yet their fans were raving about the style of play. It's nowhere near the finished product, yet they are excited about and can see where they are going. I was unhappy with Beale's appointment. The football generally doesn't excite me and I have concerns about his ability to implement a style of play in the same way a Rodgers or Ange can. However, that doesn't mean I want him sacked. He's done nothing to warrant that, other than not matching up to my ideals. His results have generally been good. Even then I was quite excited about the diamond approach last season - even if it was filled with poor players just filling a hole, i.e. Tamundo. I thought, 'let him get some players in who actually fit that system, and let's see what we can do'. He's had a training camp, a bounce game and three competitive matches. I expected to see something by now. That doesn't mean I expect our players to have a psychic connection, just some idea of what we're trying to do. Even against Newcastle, who I didn't expect us to dominate, I wanted to see how we would defend against them. Are we going to draw them on to us, press them, are we going to sit in a low/mid block and counter, will there be a counter-press? It was disjointed, lacking vision. We pressed at times, but it was poorly executed. I don't think it's insane to suggest the coaching team is to blame. Hopefully we see it in the next game. (I've said that in every pre-season game so far.)

He's not in our league.

I expected to see more of the same as last season - or, the end of the season - with better players. What we've seen is tinkering, without a consistent approach. That's the same whether you have a bunch of sh*te players or good players - albeit the latter will mask it more. I find that a bit concerning. Like I've said, I'm not expecting the final product, but I expected to see something. It's still all so disjointed. It's frustrating.

I don't disagree, but, for me, the issue stems from the coaching team.

Perhaps it is harsh. I've always said Beale doesn't excite me. He's quite limited in his set-up, IMO. Hopefully we see it in the next game. I just really expected to see something, anything in the last couple of games, but they've left me feeling deflated.

The latter is caused by a lack of the former.

There's a difference between players being inexperienced in their roles and a complete lack of a style of play and intent. I expected a continuation of the tactics of the end of last season. I thought the diamond was promising. I still said at the time that it was lacking but we saw the intention. We've only seen the diamond at times. Flexibility is fine, but there needs to be an intention within the different phases of the game. At the moment it's a couple of short passes, off the cuff, then lose the ball, or get forced into punting it long, then lose the ball. Players getting comfortable with their roles is the final polishing - at the moment we have no idea what they're polishing.

Agreed. We're not seeing that, though.

I expected to see that against Olympiacos, which is probably why I'm so disappointed.

It's not the results. It's the complete lack of a style of play.

Indeed some would prefer it.