I accept this can be interpreted either as he's happy with what he's got or that inside he's fuming and that given half a chance he'd get rid of a lot more of them and get some players in who have a winning mentality.

Both Barca and Celtic, run us ragged. We couldn't get the ball, when we did get we couldn't hold on to it. Basically any decent will challenge us, and we should beat the rubbish teams, of which they are only a few.


We will finish between 8th and 10th next season.

I'm gutted that we haven't really strenghten our 1st team or squad, to be able to improve on last year performance.

Oh well.

Bit of a pisser. We beat them fairly soundly last year.

can't believe he's now gonna go and spend 10 mill on Crouch..............what a mug

You gotta love the reactions on this site after a pre-season defeat.

The bottom line here is that without our first choice centra halves we were clearly vulnerable at the back and that had a profound effect on the rest of the team in both games. Both goals they scored yesterday were from poor defending so I'm not worried about that considering we have THREE players to come back.

The annoying thing yesterday was the 1st half team look TOTALLY uninterested which sucks for those who paid to see them play. 2nd half team was better, Bostock looked good and Rose put in 2 or 3 good crosses. Had we taken a couple of the many chances we had then it could've easily been a draw so no biggy.

Beaten by Celtics reserves, Drew with Barcelona reserves. Given our impressive preseason results the last couple of seasons I reckon this is maybe a good omen for the season ahead.

If you don't learn something from each and every game then you arn't really looking.
Lessons learnt; we have some quality youngsters,Rose,Bostock Livermore and Naughton who can be judiciously introduced.
Dervite is too inexperienced to be thrown in without an experienced mentor,as Dawson was but with careful handling made the step up.
Chimbonda over the two games showed some quality and should be kept.
Even great players like Modric have off days.
What Harry really meant was I learn't plenty but I'm not going to tell you.
Amazing that we haven't lost a friendly for four years. Perhaps this is our season to do something in the EPL rather than in pre-season.

not particularly upset about losing yesterday, form in pre season doesn't really count for much and when you see players like Bostok, Livermore and Rose showing good things then that more than softens the blow.

Just think Harry's decision to go for Crouch is poor. Looking at yesterday I'd say we need a top centre back in as priority and then if Huntelaar is up for it then we should sign him. King hasn't even trained once this summer. Dervitte doesn't look ready, god knows why we bought Chimbonda back and Corluka is no centre back, he just hasn't got the physical side to his game.

I agree with most of your points but i disagree with your Dervite view. But you can not reasonably judge him proberly after one match. He needs to given more chances in the up-comming friendlies to show our manager and us what he can do.

It doesnt take a genius to work out Dervite wont be good enough... Samaras stormed away from him carrying the ball.

Woodgate doesnt have pace however his postioning is second to none! Unfortunately Dervite doenst have either!!

Maybe in a few years time but we dont have time on our side.. Send him out to gain experience.

i personally think we should perhaps buy a couple more right backs... or another striker... ignoring the fact that modric aside (and lennon on a good day), we have zero creativity. wtf are we not going for krancjar when we could get him for a decent price (pompey need to sell, one year left on contract).

I didn't say he wasnt good enough, I think he probably is. But at centre half a couple of mistakes , one of positioning and one of making an unnecessary challenge, and you're two goals down if your unlucky.
Rose can come on and make four or five runs and if two come off as they did against Barcelona its all positives .It doesnt work like that at centre half.
He looks solid and calm and I totally agree he needs as much pitch time as possible in the pre-season.
Even if Harry didn't learn anything I'm sure Dervite did.

I think what we learnt is what we already know - we don't have adequate cover for many positions, we probably need a left sided player and our strike force is seriously lacking guile and creativity.

makes me laugh. last 2 seasons we've trounced teams pre-season then started off abissmally. I think it's a good thing to get a few poor performances and results out in Pre-season.

This year for my sunday team i've arranged friendlies against the 3 best teams in the county. WE're gonna lose them all but we'll start off our league season proper with a determination and fire.

Or you'll start off your season feeling like a bunch of losers!

im not concened about the result either but i am about the performance!

we were poor... pre season or not just poor!

is flying to Asia to play Spammers and Hull time well spent???

Ive watched Rose a few times now and have been very much less than impressed each time! I would rather have seen Gio out on the left, who has shown flashes in just a few games.

I must say I really liked what Livermore did! Big, physical pacy, got forward, passed simple and played with spirit. Maybe we don't have to sign Viera afterall!!!? :roll:

to put Dervite along with Chimbo who is not a natural born CB was surely a mistake. It was clear they are not used playing together; I dont understand why he wasnt aligned with Corluka. No doubt the second goal is for him with a good Samaras but the first is more for chimbo who sees the player running in front of him as Dervite has him in his back running to first post. Celtic were more aggressive and we wre outclassed at all levels. Sure DD will have learnt more in these 45 minutes than in a season in league 1. Its a long way but from what I saw from him in other games with the french U21 , he probably can make it. a season in CC on loan would be great for him.

At this stage of preseason players minutes played are more a factor than where they play and who with.

Barcelona were looking for 45 minutes of high intensity from their players. Likewise Celtic on Friday. They gave the reserves a run out yesterday because the first team players were being rested ahead of Wednesday's Champions League game.

The time to judge Spurs on how well preseason has gone or is going will be after the Olympiacos game.

What we consider our starting XI has not played together yet, so we were disjointed. Liverpool looked the same against Singapore yesterday, as did Milan versus Inter.

Celtic are further ahead in their preparations because they have a competitive game in less than three days. Even their reserves are ahead because they have been training at a far higher intensity.