Every season it's the same. people watch a friendly or see the result and immediately work out how few points we'll get (or in a good pre-season....assume we'll get promoted).
My advice, look at the following; did the players get a bit of match practice together? Did anyone get injured long-term?
If the answer is yes to one and no to the other, then move on without angst.
the main thing I find odd is Ramsay has exclusively played RCB this preseason. Mitchell, Jones and Gillespie feels like the obvious back three but if that’s the case I’m surprised they haven’t been tried with Ramsay in front of them at all. I’m fine with Tennai as our back up RWB but if Jones is just using Ramsay in the centre then I’d be worried about Tennai or Asiimwe being first choice there
Hopefuly its partly because Jones doesn't want to reveal his hand too early
lol.
What? - You think its smart to play the first eleven for as many Pre-Season games as possible?
Actually why am I asking you this question!!
No, you said that Jones played a certain team because he didn't want to show his hand before the season starts.
What a load of nonsense. The season is 46 games long. Its not a cup tie where the opposition may be sussing you out. A month into pre-season I'd hope thezmamager knows his first 11-15 & the players know the style of play that is expected.
No... I said that Jones probably wont want to reveal his main eleven for as long as possible
Hence why he's mixing things up, playing a mixture of those you can expect to see on a regular basis, with those who'll play bit part role - Although I do agree, that you're probably right he probably does know his starting eleven...
But my post was saying, why does he need to show that to the rest of the League so early...? - You're right its a 46-game season, but we want to keep Wigan guessing for as long as possible don't we
Not to mention he can also use these friendlies to trial other possibilities; Ramsay for example has been trialled at RCB as GarryManilow was alluding to... But I still expect him to start the season as a Wing-Back.
Then that's just bollox. Why trial Ramsey at RCB if you are going to play him as a Wingback. Makes no sense. Best to use pre season friendlies as a warm up to the league campaign.....not as a piss about. In that vain we might as well play Aneke in goal.
I've yet to see us play, either live or on stream. I'm planning on going next Saturday so I can gauge the new players & to see if we are up to speed. On recent soundings I reckon we are undercooked & as @LargeAddick has said above, we have some tricky games to play in the first few months.
The cross for Godden's header was awful. Too looping. If wingbacks are going to be the creaters for our chances then they have to learn to put in decent crosses. This should be the focus of their weekly training over the coming months.
We had a couple of shit free kicks. Looks like we still haven't signed a dead ball specialist. Until we do we will struggle to score from set pieces.
As of now it doesnt seem like much has changed. No clean sheets & few chances created. Same old same old.
The most worrying thing for me is the style of play Jones uses,last season I understand the long balls because of our position in the league.I thought this season we might see a bit more football, what style is he known for? .Maybe that's why he won't buy a creative midfielder which we are crying out for,because he bypasses midfield.
The most worrying thing for me is the style of play Jones uses,last season I understand the long balls because of our position in the league.I thought this season we might see a bit more football, what style is he known for? .Maybe that's why he won't buy a creative midfielder which we are crying out for,because he bypasses midfield.
Genuinely couldn’t care less about the brand of football, as long as it produces wins.
I can’t handle another mid table (or worse) season. It feels like years since we had a competitive season challenging for something, it’s beyond tiring.
Are we gonna drag Alfie May into every match thread this season if things don't go quite to plan, or even if they do maybe...🤷♂️
Yes.
We sold the division’s top striker - despite having “wealthy owners”. It’s a kamikaze move. If he doesn’t fit - keep him, don’t let him go to a rival where he might fit. Simples.
So what about his family that moved north and the 5 hour journey he took twice a week to be with them .. sometimes it’s not about football .. we did not sell him we a actually turned the bid down that’s why he slapped in a transfer request
the main thing I find odd is Ramsay has exclusively played RCB this preseason. Mitchell, Jones and Gillespie feels like the obvious back three but if that’s the case I’m surprised they haven’t been tried with Ramsay in front of them at all. I’m fine with Tennai as our back up RWB but if Jones is just using Ramsay in the centre then I’d be worried about Tennai or Asiimwe being first choice there
Hopefuly its partly because Jones doesn't want to reveal his hand too early
lol.
What? - You think its smart to play the first eleven for as many Pre-Season games as possible?
Actually why am I asking you this question!!
No, you said that Jones played a certain team because he didn't want to show his hand before the season starts.
What a load of nonsense. The season is 46 games long. Its not a cup tie where the opposition may be sussing you out. A month into pre-season I'd hope thezmamager knows his first 11-15 & the players know the style of play that is expected.
No... I said that Jones probably wont want to reveal his main eleven for as long as possible
Hence why he's mixing things up, playing a mixture of those you can expect to see on a regular basis, with those who'll play bit part role - Although I do agree, that you're probably right he probably does know his starting eleven...
But my post was saying, why does he need to show that to the rest of the League so early...? - You're right its a 46-game season, but we want to keep Wigan guessing for as long as possible don't we
Not to mention he can also use these friendlies to trial other possibilities; Ramsay for example has been trialled at RCB as GarryManilow was alluding to... But I still expect him to start the season as a Wing-Back.
Then that's just bollox. Why trial Ramsey at RCB if you are going to play him as a Wingback. Makes no sense. Best to use pre season friendlies as a warm up to the league campaign.....not as a piss about. In that vain we might as well play Aneke in goal.
I've yet to see us play, either live or on stream. I'm planning on going next Saturday so I can gauge the new players & to see if we are up to speed. On recent soundings I reckon we are undercooked & as @LargeAddick has said above, we have some tricky games to play in the first few months.
What happens when we get injuries, and we potentially need to play individuals out of position? - Is it not better to see if the likes of Ramsay can play RCB as well as his natural position, in case we ever need to play him there?
Why not make those experiments in nothing matches like Pre-Season - Instead I love your attitude of go into scenarios like that completely blind
What bothered me a bit was I thought Edun and Watson were our worst players last season and they seem to be very much in our plans and our two best players were gone. I was hoping the midfield would be more dominant and our attack seemed toothless. Of course it was only a friendly but you would expect us to start getting a more settled side to bring us into the season. Maybe we will have a behind closed doors game amongst ourselves on Tuesday or Wednesday. We definitely seem undercooked.
Godden looked lively, Ahadme has missed a lot of game time but was crap, Aneke very ponderous and Kanu at least looked like he was trying to make something happen. There seemed to be a Leaburn sized hole in our attack. It felt like it was too easy for Wimbledon to defend against us and we seemed unwilling or unable to pass incisively.
The cross for Godden's header was awful. Too looping. If wingbacks are going to be the creaters for our chances then they have to learn to put in decent crosses. This should be the focus of their weekly training over the coming months.
We had a couple of shit free kicks. Looks like we still haven't signed a dead ball specialist. Until we do we will struggle to score from set pieces.
As of now it doesnt seem like much has changed. No clean sheets & few chances created. Same old same old.
Even by your standards this is utter rubbish. It was a good cross from Watson to the edge of the far side of the six yard box where Godden met the ball and defender's head. Hopefully more of these crosses from both the right and the left.
It was a good cross but we surely saw enough from last season that Watson and Edun are not good enough. I was hoping they would have been sold or loaned out. The defence still seems to be prone to conceding. Mannion looked ok without having to make a save. I think it was our attacking play which disapointed me most.
Well one thing is for sure, we still need to add around 4-5 players of league1 high quality to have a chance.
Berry may take a while to get into gear, I still don't particularly understand what type of player Coventry is or wants to be, our only good centre back now appears to be new boy Mitchell, the rest look squad players for a good league 1 side at best.
I was happy with Ahadme and Godden replacing May, as least the club decided to spend the money, unfortunately, May will start the season hot, and neither of those two look ready to put out the almost guaranteed 20 or so goals Alf would have gotten us. Ahadme in particular concerns me who seems miles off it.
We still appear to be a bit weak. All the fitness in the world won't mean anything if we can't out muscle sides or, be so technical, that people can't get the ball from us, we don't appear to be either of those types of teams. Very jack of all trades, master of none type Charlton side, again.
These friendlies are important, particularly the later ones. They can build momentum, get players finding a bit of form, the manager can get ideas for the next competitive fixture, they can build winning mentalities. I don't believe we are ticking any of those boxes currently, and minutes in the legs isn't good enough for a professional football club, that's non-league stuff.
We should be showing signs of a team who are ready to play together, and displaying at least a bit of skill. The lack of technicality in the team is worrying.
Well one thing is for sure, we still need to add around 4-5 players of league1 high quality to have a chance.
Berry may take a while to get into gear, I still don't particularly understand what type of player Coventry is or wants to be, our only good centre back now appears to be new boy Mitchell, the rest look squad players for a good league 1 side at best.
I was happy with Ahadme and Godden replacing May, as least the club decided to spend the money, unfortunately, May will start the season hot, and neither of those two look ready to put out the almost guaranteed 20 or so goals Alf would have gotten us. Ahadme in particular concerns me who seems miles off it.
We still appear to be a bit weak. All the fitness in the world won't mean anything if we can't out muscle sides or, be so technical, that people can't get the ball from us, we don't appear to be either of those types of teams. Very jack of all trades, master of none type Charlton side, again.
These friendlies are important, particularly the later ones. They can build momentum, get players finding a bit of form, the manager can get ideas for the next competitive fixture, they can build winning mentalities. I don't believe we are ticking any of those boxes currently, and minutes in the legs isn't good enough for a professional football club, that's non-league stuff.
We should be showing signs of a team who are ready to play together, and displaying at least a bit of skill. The lack of technicality in the team is worrying.
Be interesting to see how we fair against Pompey,
Not a chance we get another 4/5 players in, I think people are over reacting a little bit to be honest over a bad performance, we’ve got a pretty solid squad now adding a bit more experience in goal can sometimes make all the difference adding more communication. Sometimes it can be as simple as that as I think we have a very good options all over the pitch.
Only last week we were beating a premier league team until the 91st minute whilst being solid and playing good football, like Jones said yesterday and Curbs before him don’t get to high with the highs and to low with the lows. I think we’re in a pretty good position and feeling confident about Jones in charge. I think he’s problem right now though is too many options and the squad being too big he needs a midweek friendly for the fringe players I’d suggest. I’ll be happy if we bring in Begovic and Potts early next week as that’ll settle some fans down.
Well one thing is for sure, we still need to add around 4-5 players of league1 high quality to have a chance.
Berry may take a while to get into gear, I still don't particularly understand what type of player Coventry is or wants to be, our only good centre back now appears to be new boy Mitchell, the rest look squad players for a good league 1 side at best.
I was happy with Ahadme and Godden replacing May, as least the club decided to spend the money, unfortunately, May will start the season hot, and neither of those two look ready to put out the almost guaranteed 20 or so goals Alf would have gotten us. Ahadme in particular concerns me who seems miles off it.
We still appear to be a bit weak. All the fitness in the world won't mean anything if we can't out muscle sides or, be so technical, that people can't get the ball from us, we don't appear to be either of those types of teams. Very jack of all trades, master of none type Charlton side, again.
These friendlies are important, particularly the later ones. They can build momentum, get players finding a bit of form, the manager can get ideas for the next competitive fixture, they can build winning mentalities. I don't believe we are ticking any of those boxes currently, and minutes in the legs isn't good enough for a professional football club, that's non-league stuff.
We should be showing signs of a team who are ready to play together, and displaying at least a bit of skill. The lack of technicality in the team is worrying.
Be interesting to see how we fair against Pompey,
That did stand out to me, even Aneke was getting bodied.
On the result. It’s fine to point out it was a poor performance - it was - and the manager didn’t mince his words about it afterwards either.
Pre season or not, I expect that was no where near the standard Jones expects.
First game I have really seen pre season, and apart from a 20 minute period first half - I didn’t see anything of the ‘front foot, aggressive’ football that Jones seems to demand. Which feels like a slight worry this close to the season start.
That’s the reason for games like this one though, to identify and iron out any issues, and ultimately pre season friendly results are never indicative of how a season will pan out.
So anyone making predictions about how the season will go based on this though are just being dense.
I don’t want Anderson any where near the starting line up until he can learn to pass a ball to a team mate , everything else he does well but his passing is shocking.
Ahadme not good enough, Coventry a disappointment, Berry to light weight. Tyreece hit and miss. Just some of the glaring problems, oh and other than Chucks no striker has scored preseason.
Kanu and Campbell (playing as a striker) have both scored tbf. The new boys haven't yet but far too early to worry about that.
Jones disappointed with the performance, echoing what many of us are saying.
Do loads of people jump on the backs and criticise Jones for saying it was disappointing?
No ones saying it wasn’t disappointing or a poor game like Jones is saying people are criticising posters for saying we’re gonna have a bad season etc on the back of one poor pre season friendly.
It was disappointing because it was two fingers up to the fans that made the effort. Encouraged to follow the team away in this game. Tickets on restricted sale my arse. Once again we looked like a disjointed group of misfits who pay lip service to our support whilst freeloading on the back of it.
Well one thing is for sure, we still need to add around 4-5 players of league1 high quality to have a chance.
Berry may take a while to get into gear, I still don't particularly understand what type of player Coventry is or wants to be, our only good centre back now appears to be new boy Mitchell, the rest look squad players for a good league 1 side at best.
I was happy with Ahadme and Godden replacing May, as least the club decided to spend the money, unfortunately, May will start the season hot, and neither of those two look ready to put out the almost guaranteed 20 or so goals Alf would have gotten us. Ahadme in particular concerns me who seems miles off it.
We still appear to be a bit weak. All the fitness in the world won't mean anything if we can't out muscle sides or, be so technical, that people can't get the ball from us, we don't appear to be either of those types of teams. Very jack of all trades, master of none type Charlton side, again.
These friendlies are important, particularly the later ones. They can build momentum, get players finding a bit of form, the manager can get ideas for the next competitive fixture, they can build winning mentalities. I don't believe we are ticking any of those boxes currently, and minutes in the legs isn't good enough for a professional football club, that's non-league stuff.
We should be showing signs of a team who are ready to play together, and displaying at least a bit of skill. The lack of technicality in the team is worrying.
Be interesting to see how we fair against Pompey,
Not a chance we get another 4/5 players in, I think people are over reacting a little bit to be honest over a bad performance, we’ve got a pretty solid squad now adding a bit more experience in goal can sometimes make all the difference adding more communication. Sometimes it can be as simple as that as I think we have a very good options all over the pitch.
Only last week we were beating a premier league team until the 91st minute whilst being solid and playing good football, like Jones said yesterday and Curbs before him don’t get to high with the highs and to low with the lows. I think we’re in a pretty good position and feeling confident about Jones in charge. I think he’s problem right now though is too many options and the squad being too big he needs a midweek friendly for the fringe players I’d suggest. I’ll be happy if we bring in Begovic and Potts early next week as that’ll settle some fans down.
I agree we won't bring 4-5 more in. But we definitely need to. We all agree we need a new keeper, NJ has said it enough, so that will happen.
Our CBs last season were shocking, we needed complete change there. We have bought in one. We should have got rid of Ness and Gillesphy and bought in 2 more. Jules and Forino would have been amazing and both remained in L1 after their free transfer moves this summer.
Centre midfield has lots of similar players, nothing creative and no goals. We need one creative player there as an absolute minimum. Two more would have certainly been better!
That would be 4-5 new players and would have given us a proper chance.
We will lose £10M more this coming season, on top of the £22M or so the owners have already stuck in. Without promotion that will mean £32M for a L1 squad and no land assets. They won't hang around long with that record.
Well one thing is for sure, we still need to add around 4-5 players of league1 high quality to have a chance.
Berry may take a while to get into gear, I still don't particularly understand what type of player Coventry is or wants to be, our only good centre back now appears to be new boy Mitchell, the rest look squad players for a good league 1 side at best.
I was happy with Ahadme and Godden replacing May, as least the club decided to spend the money, unfortunately, May will start the season hot, and neither of those two look ready to put out the almost guaranteed 20 or so goals Alf would have gotten us. Ahadme in particular concerns me who seems miles off it.
We still appear to be a bit weak. All the fitness in the world won't mean anything if we can't out muscle sides or, be so technical, that people can't get the ball from us, we don't appear to be either of those types of teams. Very jack of all trades, master of none type Charlton side, again.
These friendlies are important, particularly the later ones. They can build momentum, get players finding a bit of form, the manager can get ideas for the next competitive fixture, they can build winning mentalities. I don't believe we are ticking any of those boxes currently, and minutes in the legs isn't good enough for a professional football club, that's non-league stuff.
We should be showing signs of a team who are ready to play together, and displaying at least a bit of skill. The lack of technicality in the team is worrying.
Be interesting to see how we fair against Pompey,
Not a chance we get another 4/5 players in, I think people are over reacting a little bit to be honest over a bad performance, we’ve got a pretty solid squad now adding a bit more experience in goal can sometimes make all the difference adding more communication. Sometimes it can be as simple as that as I think we have a very good options all over the pitch.
Only last week we were beating a premier league team until the 91st minute whilst being solid and playing good football, like Jones said yesterday and Curbs before him don’t get to high with the highs and to low with the lows. I think we’re in a pretty good position and feeling confident about Jones in charge. I think he’s problem right now though is too many options and the squad being too big he needs a midweek friendly for the fringe players I’d suggest. I’ll be happy if we bring in Begovic and Potts early next week as that’ll settle some fans down.
If we don't sign new players, I don't see us going up, at best a team who could flirt with play offs.
We have had a 'pretty solid squad' for years now in league1. I've said before, we don't need players that can do a job, we need players for THE job, and that job is promotion. We need a player who can actually keep the ball in the middle and dictate the tempo, we need a player to create chances, we need a player that can bury those chances consistently, we need an experienced centre back to keep us in check, and we need a goalie with a big presence, which we have been missing for quite some time.
Begovic covers the goalie part fine, but after that the club still need to do a lot of work. It's a promising window, and it could be worse, I'm just fed up of mediocrity at this club. Go and sign players who can flip a game on its head.
I don't want us to sign Potts, we already have a few players who probably can't fulfill 40+ games, and I definitely don't want us signing Bishop as he's another one who hasn't played enough, or done enough to warrant a contract.
Call it negative or whatever, but if we don't sign a few more players of real quality, that can actually play a full season as well, we will struggle to fight for the top2, and that should be our only aim in this tin pot league.
Well one thing is for sure, we still need to add around 4-5 players of league1 high quality to have a chance.
Berry may take a while to get into gear, I still don't particularly understand what type of player Coventry is or wants to be, our only good centre back now appears to be new boy Mitchell, the rest look squad players for a good league 1 side at best.
I was happy with Ahadme and Godden replacing May, as least the club decided to spend the money, unfortunately, May will start the season hot, and neither of those two look ready to put out the almost guaranteed 20 or so goals Alf would have gotten us. Ahadme in particular concerns me who seems miles off it.
We still appear to be a bit weak. All the fitness in the world won't mean anything if we can't out muscle sides or, be so technical, that people can't get the ball from us, we don't appear to be either of those types of teams. Very jack of all trades, master of none type Charlton side, again.
These friendlies are important, particularly the later ones. They can build momentum, get players finding a bit of form, the manager can get ideas for the next competitive fixture, they can build winning mentalities. I don't believe we are ticking any of those boxes currently, and minutes in the legs isn't good enough for a professional football club, that's non-league stuff.
We should be showing signs of a team who are ready to play together, and displaying at least a bit of skill. The lack of technicality in the team is worrying.
Be interesting to see how we fair against Pompey,
Excellent post. What I've been trying to say but more eloquently put.
Just caught up with the posts from yesterday. My main takeaways were:
- So close to Waterloo, with some cracking pubs and a tidy away end, Wimbledon now has the potential for a very good proper away game. - Their new ground is much smaller in person than looks on the telly. The big brick wall you stare at is horrific.
- You tell yourself it is only a friendly so doesn’t matter but I come away really disappointed. I think much of that was due to:
a, it just looked so similar to last season! This was an excellent pre-cursor game for what we will face repeadly in L1, a limited but combative team who do the basics, out hussle us and then go on to score relatively easily.
b. we had very little attacking play and no cohesion at all in the final third.
c. Ahadme’s cameo was a concern. His touch was off, easily disposed and just didn’t look he possessed much natural striker ability d. We looked both lightweight in midfield and uncreative in formation.
A game like yesterday was ten times a better warm up exercise than a training ground game v a prem team weeks behind us in fitness and who play a different style of football. The pitch yesterday was a fantastic surface as well.
So no alarm bells at all, but equally nothing on display there to inspire any confidence. We’ll hopefully look a lot better with Ramsey and Small on the flanks, but we also need to be better in all three central areas than what was displayed yesterday as otherwise this season is likely to look similar to last season.
Lack of attacking threat, particularly creativity and pace were, IMO, the biggest problem last season (even more so after CBT left). I don’t think we’ve done enough to remedy that and I’m surprised we haven’t signed at least 1 high class creative midfielder.
Well one thing is for sure, we still need to add around 4-5 players of league1 high quality to have a chance.
Berry may take a while to get into gear, I still don't particularly understand what type of player Coventry is or wants to be, our only good centre back now appears to be new boy Mitchell, the rest look squad players for a good league 1 side at best.
I was happy with Ahadme and Godden replacing May, as least the club decided to spend the money, unfortunately, May will start the season hot, and neither of those two look ready to put out the almost guaranteed 20 or so goals Alf would have gotten us. Ahadme in particular concerns me who seems miles off it.
We still appear to be a bit weak. All the fitness in the world won't mean anything if we can't out muscle sides or, be so technical, that people can't get the ball from us, we don't appear to be either of those types of teams. Very jack of all trades, master of none type Charlton side, again.
These friendlies are important, particularly the later ones. They can build momentum, get players finding a bit of form, the manager can get ideas for the next competitive fixture, they can build winning mentalities. I don't believe we are ticking any of those boxes currently, and minutes in the legs isn't good enough for a professional football club, that's non-league stuff.
We should be showing signs of a team who are ready to play together, and displaying at least a bit of skill. The lack of technicality in the team is worrying.
Be interesting to see how we fair against Pompey,
Not a chance we get another 4/5 players in, I think people are over reacting a little bit to be honest over a bad performance, we’ve got a pretty solid squad now adding a bit more experience in goal can sometimes make all the difference adding more communication. Sometimes it can be as simple as that as I think we have a very good options all over the pitch.
Only last week we were beating a premier league team until the 91st minute whilst being solid and playing good football, like Jones said yesterday and Curbs before him don’t get to high with the highs and to low with the lows. I think we’re in a pretty good position and feeling confident about Jones in charge. I think he’s problem right now though is too many options and the squad being too big he needs a midweek friendly for the fringe players I’d suggest. I’ll be happy if we bring in Begovic and Potts early next week as that’ll settle some fans down.
I agree we won't bring 4-5 more in. But we definitely need to. We all agree we need a new keeper, NJ has said it enough, so that will happen.
Our CBs last season were shocking, we needed complete change there. We have bought in one. We should have got rid of Ness and Gillesphy and bought in 2 more. Jules and Forino would have been amazing and both remained in L1 after their free transfer moves this summer.
Centre midfield has lots of similar players, nothing creative and no goals. We need one creative player there as an absolute minimum. Two more would have certainly been better!
That would be 4-5 new players and would have given us a proper chance.
We will lose £10M more this coming season, on top of the £22M or so the owners have already stuck in. Without promotion that will mean £32M for a L1 squad and no land assets. They won't hang around long with that record.
Yes our defence was shocking last season but think people are forgetting we brought in Reg , Gillesphy , Ramsay and Small in jan so they’re almost like new signings themselves and our defence was better the second half of the season , add new keeper and Mitchell plus one more.
Comments
My advice, look at the following; did the players get a bit of match practice together? Did anyone get injured long-term?
If the answer is yes to one and no to the other, then move on without angst.
I've yet to see us play, either live or on stream. I'm planning on going next Saturday so I can gauge the new players & to see if we are up to speed. On recent soundings I reckon we are undercooked & as @LargeAddick has said above, we have some tricky games to play in the first few months.
My brief take on them......
The cross for Godden's header was awful. Too looping. If wingbacks are going to be the creaters for our chances then they have to learn to put in decent crosses. This should be the focus of their weekly training over the coming months.
We had a couple of shit free kicks. Looks like we still haven't signed a dead ball specialist. Until we do we will struggle to score from set pieces.
As of now it doesnt seem like much has changed. No clean sheets & few chances created. Same old same old.
Small
Mitchell
Jones
Gilly
Ramsey
Coventry
Doc
Berry
Ahadme
Godden
unlucky on Edwards and Watson
Why not make those experiments in nothing matches like Pre-Season - Instead I love your attitude of go into scenarios like that completely blind
Godden looked lively, Ahadme has missed a lot of game time but was crap, Aneke very ponderous and Kanu at least looked like he was trying to make something happen. There seemed to be a Leaburn sized hole in our attack. It felt like it was too easy for Wimbledon to defend against us and we seemed unwilling or unable to pass incisively.
Even by your standards this is utter rubbish.
It was a good cross from Watson to the edge of the far side of the six yard box where Godden met the ball and defender's head.
Hopefully more of these crosses from both the right and the left.
Berry may take a while to get into gear, I still don't particularly understand what type of player Coventry is or wants to be, our only good centre back now appears to be new boy Mitchell, the rest look squad players for a good league 1 side at best.
I was happy with Ahadme and Godden replacing May, as least the club decided to spend the money, unfortunately, May will start the season hot, and neither of those two look ready to put out the almost guaranteed 20 or so goals Alf would have gotten us. Ahadme in particular concerns me who seems miles off it.
We still appear to be a bit weak. All the fitness in the world won't mean anything if we can't out muscle sides or, be so technical, that people can't get the ball from us, we don't appear to be either of those types of teams. Very jack of all trades, master of none type Charlton side, again.
These friendlies are important, particularly the later ones. They can build momentum, get players finding a bit of form, the manager can get ideas for the next competitive fixture, they can build winning mentalities. I don't believe we are ticking any of those boxes currently, and minutes in the legs isn't good enough for a professional football club, that's non-league stuff.
We should be showing signs of a team who are ready to play together, and displaying at least a bit of skill. The lack of technicality in the team is worrying.
Be interesting to see how we fair against Pompey,
Pre season or not, I expect that was no where near the standard Jones expects.
First game I have really seen pre season, and apart from a 20 minute period first half - I didn’t see anything of the ‘front foot, aggressive’ football that Jones seems to demand. Which feels like a slight worry this close to the season start.
REG, Mitchell, AN other
Ramsay, Doherty, Anderson, Small
Campbell
Kanu , Ahadme ( Leaburn)
Tickets on restricted sale my arse.
Once again we looked like a disjointed group of misfits who pay lip service to our support whilst freeloading on the back of it.
I agree we won't bring 4-5 more in. But we definitely need to. We all agree we need a new keeper, NJ has said it enough, so that will happen.
Our CBs last season were shocking, we needed complete change there. We have bought in one. We should have got rid of Ness and Gillesphy and bought in 2 more. Jules and Forino would have been amazing and both remained in L1 after their free transfer moves this summer.
Centre midfield has lots of similar players, nothing creative and no goals. We need one creative player there as an absolute minimum. Two more would have certainly been better!
That would be 4-5 new players and would have given us a proper chance.
We will lose £10M more this coming season, on top of the £22M or so the owners have already stuck in. Without promotion that will mean £32M for a L1 squad and no land assets. They won't hang around long with that record.
We have had a 'pretty solid squad' for years now in league1. I've said before, we don't need players that can do a job, we need players for THE job, and that job is promotion. We need a player who can actually keep the ball in the middle and dictate the tempo, we need a player to create chances, we need a player that can bury those chances consistently, we need an experienced centre back to keep us in check, and we need a goalie with a big presence, which we have been missing for quite some time.
Begovic covers the goalie part fine, but after that the club still need to do a lot of work. It's a promising window, and it could be worse, I'm just fed up of mediocrity at this club. Go and sign players who can flip a game on its head.
I don't want us to sign Potts, we already have a few players who probably can't fulfill 40+ games, and I definitely don't want us signing Bishop as he's another one who hasn't played enough, or done enough to warrant a contract.
Call it negative or whatever, but if we don't sign a few more players of real quality, that can actually play a full season as well, we will struggle to fight for the top2, and that should be our only aim in this tin pot league.
- So close to Waterloo, with some cracking pubs and a tidy away end, Wimbledon now has the potential for a very good proper away game.
- Their new ground is much smaller in person than looks on the telly. The big brick wall you stare at is horrific.
a, it just looked so similar to last season! This was an excellent pre-cursor game for what we will face repeadly in L1, a limited but combative team who do the basics, out hussle us and then go on to score relatively easily.
d. We looked both lightweight in midfield and uncreative in formation.
So no alarm bells at all, but equally nothing on display there to inspire any confidence. We’ll hopefully look a lot better with Ramsey and Small on the flanks, but we also need to be better in all three central areas than what was displayed yesterday as otherwise this season is likely to look similar to last season.