[Albion] Pre Season Friendly vs West Brom @ Amex - Saturday 5th September, ***2pm***

[Mike Small]

My view in mind it was a friendly

Ryan - Not a lot to do
White - Looks class will get better
Dunk - Usual captains performance solid
Webster - Has matured and will get more confident this season
Alzate - Good first half but prefer to see him more central. Played a role today probably because of international’s missing.
March - A lot to like hopefully a break thru year for him but been saying this every year.
Bissouma - A class above. If he progresses this season then we will be lucky to hols on to him next season
Stephens - Too many mistakes that will be punished by the bigger sides. Gives the ball away too easily but is capable of a sublime pass.
Macalister - Poor can’t see him starting many games. May get better but can we afford to wait.
Lallana - Brings a touch of class to the midfield. A three of him Bissouma and Alzate will create plenty
Maupay - Poor by his standards put thru on occasions but too slow to react.
Gross - ok but needs to have pace around him if he is to be picked to start
Bernardo - There is a player in there but feel we may have seen the last of him

Yes it was a friendly but it is blatantly obvious that we need a Striker or we will again struggle due to lack of goals. Not too worried about a left back. I think we should plough that money into getting a quality striker. We look composed in most areas and we should give most teams around us a good test. Tough start to the season though.

Great post. Do think we need a left footed threat down the left though. Shame Bernardo hasn’t been the answer.

 

[saafend_seagull]

West Ham losing 5-2 at home to Bournemouth...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Stat Brother]

Its taken Biss over a season to get to where it is now, Mac A has already said the PL is much faster than in Argentina and he had about 20 minutes before lockdown and only a few games since.

Still shitehouse though, get rid.
Wasted £6m on this Messi Wannabe, League 1 at best.



Boooooo

 

[AZ Gull]

Do bookings count towards the season's total?

No.

 

[tronnogull]

Completely agree with all the comments about how awful that game was.

But......WBA were a big part of that - They came to play a blocked up game. We didn't do very well at breaking it down but had impact players missing.

At least we looked better than them and have a rival for being last on MOTD each week.

 

[British Bulldog]

That was a very sobering performance.
I felt buoyant after last weeks display against Chelsea.

I'm trying to reassure myself at how much difference it will make to have Lamptey and Connolly buzzing about when they return and also having the reassurance of Veltman in defence.
However, today Stephens seemed to slow everything down almost as if we were protecting a 2-0 lead with only ten minutes remaining. Unfortunately he was like that throughout the game. And MacAllister seemed void of any confidence. There also seemed to be far too many sloppy passes that went astray in the second half.

There will be lots to analyse by people that know far more than any of us about tactics and setting up a pattern of play. But without a second striker and without more penetrative passing it will be another battling season rather than the expressive and exciting season I was hoping for.
I've fallen back down to earth with a bump.

Note to self: Be more realistic and don't get carried away.

Today's ratings from yet another armchair fan that has no footballing expertise:

Very Encouraging: Bissouma, Lallana
Encouraging: Dunk, March
Reasonable: Ryan, White, Webster, Alzate, Groß
Jury's out: Bernardo, Stephens, Maupay
Worrying: MacAllister.

It was a pre season friendly as was the Chelsea game, i doubt any player in either game was giving more than 50%? fitness and drills is all it is about?

 

[Machiavelli]

Was that the most boring game of football I've ever watched in my life? Quite possibly.

It's either that or the Newcastle game from a couple of months ago.

 

[AZ Gull]

Assume Ali was on international duty

I'm 99% certain he isn't. Iran originally had a couple of friendlies scheduled over this weekend but they were cancelled. There was also some talk about a training camp but I'm not sure that it went ahead, and even if it did I don't think he went.

There is a thread on a Persian football discussion forum about him - (it's quite, er, ......entertaining!!) - where they have commented about his absence from the line-up today; I'm pretty sure they would know if he was at an international training camp.

 

[GT49er]

Yes it was a friendly but it is blatantly obvious that we need a Striker or we will again struggle due to lack of goals. Not too worried about a left back. I think we should plough that money into getting a quality striker. We look composed in most areas and we should give most teams around us a good test. Tough start to the season though.

This with brass knobs on.

 

[boik]

A boring 0-0 is just what we need in a pre-season friendly. Players getting a chance to get their fitness back, and fans neither thinking we're going to storm the league after a convincing win, or slashing their wrists after a heavy defeat. Perfect!

 

[The Fits]

And any news on Propper? An official news of a knock/injury/illness?

 

[BLOCK F]

Its taken Biss over a season to get to where it is now, Mac A has already said the PL is much faster than in Argentina and he had about 20 minutes before lockdown and only a few games since.

Indeed. I am not saying never, but just at the moment he doesn't offer much.
Hopefully, it will all come together for him.

 

[Mellotron]

"we hope to be able to welcome supporters back to Emirates Stadium on a reduced capacity basis from the Sheffield United game scheduled for Saturday 3 October."

I very much doubt this will happen unless all other home games are allowed home support.

It also says “based on current Government guidelines”. It seems at current rate that the Gov will allow whoever CAN stick to the guidelines to have fans back.

Arsenal are looking to sell tickets within the next week - it would be surprising if this doesn’t go ahead now, and this is the start of October. So there will almost definitely be fans in stadiums in October.

It’s unlucky for those sides who have decrepit stadiums and areas with higher prevalence. I doubt the rest of the league would wait.

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

And any news on Propper? An official news of a knock/injury/illness?

Was said last week that he picked up a knock in training with the Dutch squad. No point risking him in a friendly.

 

[AmexRuislip]

A boring 0-0 is just what we need in a pre-season friendly. Players getting a chance to get their fitness back, and fans neither thinking we're going to storm the league after a convincing win, or slashing their wrists after a heavy defeat. Perfect!

Well, it seems like NSCs bedwetters are getting a pre-season piss-party going.
I missed the game, flicked through the thread and thought we must have lost badly. Then I checked the result and was shocked to see 0-0. Get a grip people, it is a friendly, it is fitness and practice.

Perhap we could name the next passing comet 'Bedwetter 1901', akin to Halley's, but passing around Sussex every year in the summer transfer window period

 

[Frankworthington]

If we had won 3-0 we would have been pissing ourselves with exitement!

At least we now know there is work to be done and we had players missing due to international duty

 

[Bakero]

**** me. It seems like most supporters are completely unfamiliar with the concept of a preseason friendly.

 

[amexer]

I'm 99% certain he isn't. Iran originally had a couple of friendlies scheduled over this weekend but they were cancelled. There was also some talk about a training camp but I'm not sure that it went ahead, and even if it did I don't think he went.

There is a thread on a Persian football discussion forum about him - (it's quite, er, ......entertaining!!) - where they have commented about his absence from the line-up today; I'm pretty sure they would know if he was at an international training camp.

Thank you. In that case very strange couldnt get a run out in a friendly. Something is up and think he deserves a go. It is not as if March is looking great. Unless of course Potter not interested in wide players

 

[Bognor Seagull]

If we had won 3-0 we would have been pissing ourselves with exitement!

At least we now know there is work to be done and we had players missing due to international duty

... but we didn’t win 3/0. We barely threatened their goal & our last friendly match was similar. A friendly it was - but it’s glaring for all to see how poor we are up front & how little we create.

It’s going to be a tough season - but hey we have loads of defenders to keep the goal differences down. Our awful front line up is even worse than last campaign without Murray.

 

[The Fits]

Thank you. In that case very strange couldnt get a run out in a friendly. Something is up and think he deserves a go. It is not as if March is looking great. Unless of course Potter not interested in wide players

March has played well in the last two games IMHO. Ali J also isn't going to play LWB.