Rousseau

There seems to be a steal about the team too, which is pleasing. Wigan were quite aggressive. 

What's that, 4/5 clean sheets? OK, it's mostly pre-season but that's a good solid base. 

That was a poor first-half with the ball, but actually, without the ball, we did well.

I was frustrated at our inability to progress the ball up the field; we just gave it away most of the time. Docherty summed it up: his body position was all wrong first half; he was always straight on when receiving from the back so he could not see what was around him, meaning he could only go back, or get caught in possession when he tried to turn; very poor all-round; Second-half he was more side on, meaning he could take it and turn. The tempo was much better. 

I actually thought having Foderingham's ability to pass out from the back helped too -- Alnwick just kept lumping it up, giving it away. I was annoyed at McGregor's inability to pass out too against Osijek, but I would of course take McGregor's superior saving ability and experience etc. every day of the week -- oh, to have a mix of both!   

Middleton is lively, but quite naive; he'll be a good player eventually, and will play a big part this season, I think.

I liked Sadiq. He was a bit sluggish and clumsy -- perhaps that's just his gait -- but he holds the ball up very well, and has a superb burst of pace. There was a moment at around 75 minutes when he chests and lays off a lofted pass, is clattered to the floor with shirt ripped, jumps up and sprints into the box running past everyone else, nearly connecting with Middleton's cross from the left. His long legs allowed him to take in several balls I thought he'd lost. Nice vision too to play in Coulibaly at the end there. 

Murphy's decision-making and positioning is wrong to me. Middleton and Candeias are better. Middleton in particular made some nice runs to collect the ball from the CB. 

Anyway, that was a decent performance. Hopefully we take that into the crucial Thursday game.

Halliday Left-back?

Jamie Walker on the bench for Wigan. 

8 minutes ago, Gonzo79 said:

Who's Bradley?  And isn't Docherty going out on loan?

Youngster.

I think so, but that doesn't mean he can't stake a claim to stay, in these friendly games. 

Hopefully we get a look at Sadiq.

I take it Celtic's offer for McGinn was just good craic?

You guys are so sad. 

Billy Sutherland, Billy Urquhart, Neil Woods, David Graham, Dariusz Adamczuk, Roy Carroll, Andy Webster, Lee McCulloch, Kal Naismith, Haris Vuckic, James Tavernier, Rob Kiernan, Martyn Waghorn, Matt Gilks

15 minutes ago, craig said:

My 13 yr old wanted to go to Paris, first time he has made a specific request... I could take or leave it to be honest as I've already been 4 times.  Oh well, anything to please the bairns

Are you flying KT out separately, or...

To be fair, if we can get Lafferty for a decent price, then that's not bad business. 

2 minutes ago, 26th of foot said:

STV running a story that Hearts have rejected a £200,000 bid for Lafferty from Rangers.

17 minutes ago, rbr said:

Rousseau , my biggest gripe was our inability to swop play to the wide areas quickly , especially in the first half , Kent had acres of room but was never found .

 

This is very encouraging from a team this early in its development , hopefully  big Sadiq can add something up top as ironically thats where our problems lie , I can also see Windass moving on this window .

My biggest gripe was just prior to those. I think we need to be better at progressing the ball at one side -- I felt we never quite penetrated enough -- which would suck them over, which would then offer good opportunities to switch play like you say. Those situations to switch play did occur, almost accidentally, but we were too slow to capitalise.

16 minutes ago, Frankie said:

I think the way we played tended to minimise our attacking options as, especially after the early goal, we sat very deep at times so didn't get players (or the ball) forward as quickly as we maybe would otherwise.

 

Like you I thought the full backs tucked in centrally just a bit too much at times but it was fairly effective in terms of crowding out their big striker who was half-decent. 

 

Generally we did OK but too many players were guilty of switching off and making daft errors which were lucky not to be punished.  Plenty room for improvement and given the stage of the season, we have to include that in our analysis.

I agree with that, but felt when we did have possession at the back there was no player occupying the half-space, or channel in between the lines, meaning we couldn't progress the ball forward to create chances. Murphy should've been coming off the wing to provide a pass, or a central-wide midfield player needed to push up, or even Morelos peeling off to offer a pass -- which happened a couple of times to good effect, to be fair. Hopefully it will come with time. 

Another annoyance was the long balls from McGregor. I appreciate it was probably needed in this game but I felt like we were just giving away possession, and would prefer us to build out from the back.  

Quite satisfied with that result. 

Coulibaly looks very good, although a bit sluggish still. He was playing as an 8, so it's not a double pivot we have, although he, Jack and Ejaria changed position several times. 

We were comfortable; although we conceded several chances, they were restricted to half-chances that I'd expect McGregor to clear up -- I have missed having a  'keeper that can take the pressure off; I love how he takes his time at the back to give the team time. 

Defensively, we were pretty solid, although our Full-backs had to be bailed out a few times, by Goldson -- who was immense, positionally -- and Kent on the other side. Perhaps our Full-backs were put under more pressure, as it looked like we set-up to block off the centre, allowing them wide. Risky, but it was perhaps more risky to be sloppy in the centre.  

There were a few things that annoyed me:

I was frustrated with Kent. Yes, he covered very well -- which is excellent -- but his attacking play was naive; perhaps it's just because it was his first game. I felt he was too eager to take players on, and I lost count of the number of times he was robbed. 

I though Ejaria was sloppy in possession.That's fine in the final-third, but not when he's swapped position with Jack at the base of the midfield-three. We conceded a very dangerous break when he failed to shield the ball. He looks like a youngster, but he also looks to have the talent. Hopefully he improves. (We looked more solid when McCorie replaced him, but I doubt that will be needed in most matches.)

I was annoyed with Murphy; his positioning is poor. We were comfortable with the ball at the back, but we couldn't progress the ball. We needed someone in the half-space. I recall Coulibaly waiting ages to thread a ball into the half-space, to progress the ball forward between the lines, and the chance had passed when Murphy finally moved. 

Our lack of chance-creation in open play is a worry. But, perhaps it's just early season rustiness, which will be ironed-out. 

progress made; still plenty more to be improved upon. And away goal and a clean sheet. I'm satisfied. 

I had it quite frequently yesterday, but nothing today thus far. 

It actually looks a more defensive set-up, which suits the tie, I think. 

Ejaria is creative, but he's comfortable coming deep, so It'll be a deep middle-three. I suspect Murphy and Kent will hold back too, and hit them on the counter.  

Looks like that leak was correct, which is an absolute disgrace... 

WHY WOULDN'T WINDASS START?!

#GerrardOut

Seriously, it is a disgrace. What are they thinking leaking the team?

Although, Jack has played as an 8, so there's still space for McCrorie behind.

Sell-on clause!

8 minutes ago, Gonzo79 said:

So we've only got two weeks left of Windass?  Yipee!

I've not actually seen the 'leaking', I've only seen tweets of people taking issue with it -- which is not new on Twitter, with people reacting to a reaction, often of little substance. 

13 minutes ago, DMAA said:

I wasn't impressed with the Youtube compilations of him. We need a natural goalscorer who's good in the air because Morelos and Umar Sadiq don't provide that.

22 minutes ago, Dave M609 said:

Did he leak that he had been dropped for tomorrow, I'm really surprised at that, I thought he would have been given a shot, obviously his head has been turned and it sounds like that's  the end of his rangers career, if that's the case, I hope we get a good deal for him, a decent amount of money, I think we should be aiming around the 4-5 mill mark for him, at the end of the day he was at one point a top performer for us last year, he really is a marmite player and I can see both sides of the argument, I think we could get a better player if we reinvested all that cash though.

Did anyone see the game with Liverpool and Dortmund the other night, only caught some of the way through the second half, but really wasn't impressed with Solanke at all, he had been pushed left on the front three, he might be better down the middle, he looked like a bit of a donkey tbh.

Finally! 

I've never been that impressed with Solanke when I seen him last season -- albeit he played few games. But, he seems to be on everyone's signing list? 

The only caveat, for me, is that he's being played slightly out of position, and he's playing at the top end of the PL. Would he be better for us through the middle, at our level? 

11 hours ago, Gonzo79 said:

Has someone got the number for the Samaritans for Rousseau?

 

I'd be delighted to get anywhere near £3m for Windass.

32 minutes ago, buster. said:

Part of the Newcastle Treatment Room Five who our CEO at the time, Derek Lambias (with absolutely no connections with Newcastle or their owner of course) deemed could join without a medical being conducted.

 

The rest were so lame that beside them, Vuckic looked almost good.

Mbabu has been linked with a £10M move to Fulham!