Pre-Season Matches 2012/13

[am_yisrael_chai]

To be fair he said nothing about Levy being Jewish. I don't think anyone would argue with the fact that he's a penny-pinching owner.

Oy Vey is "woe is me" in Yiddish so he did in fact make reference to our owner's religion and did so by using one of the classic anti-Semitic stereotypes of the tight fisted Jew. You may not be familiar with Yiddish and have missed the reference but he knew what he was saying.

 

[Flightrisker]

Oy Vey is "woe is me" in Yiddish so he did in fact make reference to our owner's religion and did so by using one of the classic anti-Semitic stereotypes of the tight fisted Jew. You may not be familiar with Yiddish and have missed the reference but he knew what he was saying.

Ah I did not see that, I thought it was just a horrendous typo. I stand corrected (said the man in the orthopedic shoes).

 

[Bus-Conductor]

I've just got round to watching the game. That wasn't terrible at all. We were playing the third best team int he best league in Europe and we gave a very reasonable account of ourselves with some of the AVB coaching beginning to show itself. The high line was played pretty well, we pressed pretty well for the most part (players like Livermore are just endemically poor at it) and when you think we are missing Parker, Sandro, Adebayor (or his replacement) and Modric (or his) it really wasn't a disaster, beaten really by two poor bits of goalkeeping.

So that's where I'll start. Friedel is a really poor option for a high line team. He is agonisingly slow off his line and cannot act as sweeper.

More worrying for me than our CB's getting the hang of the high line is the full backs. Ekotto's mind wanders sometimes, he also isn't the best presser. Walker just gets caught out time after time by not reading the play. It happened again last night, even with his pace. Going forward Walker did contribute some decent play. But both our full backs worry me.

Someone else (I think COYS) said the Livermore/Jenas combo wasn't great, and no-one would have them as first choice if everyone we had was available (Parker/sandro would probably be the best pairing for a 2 in a 4231) but Livermore was by far the worst of the two and I'm surprised he was left on longer, unless AVB wanted to give him a longer look ? Livermore isn't a good presser, and he's only marginally more dynamic than Hudd. His passing is less expansive than anyone in our team I think. A very limiting combination. I'd actually rather have seen Jenas/Carroll or Hudd/Jenas, with Hudd sitting deeper and Jenas doing the box to box.

Even better might have been a 433 with Jenas/Hudd/Sig with Carroll coming in for Sig at some point.

Sigurdsson I was a bit non-plussed with, as I was when he was at Swansea. Clearly the boy has ability, but I keep wondering where he's going to fit in to best advantage.

Vertonghen was very good on the ball.

Lennon was lively but delivered little of quality, Bale was just plain disappointing - as is his want sometimes.

My biggest concern - assuming we are going to get a striker soon - is the same as it has been for a while now. We lack craft in the final third. Bale, Lennon, Walker and Ekotto do not create very much of QUALITY at all. Lots of whizz and fizz and the odd step over, but very little intelligence is actually applied to the final ball, the final execution.

If we get a striker in, I would then love us to add some craft from the edges. An Afellay, or even better a Dzagoev. We should have gone for Marin when he was up for grabs last season. I don't want Moses, he's just another shade of the same we all ready have. Lots of whiz but no brains. We need more intelligence.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

It was also nice to see AVB explaining something to Dawson. It was perhaps meaningless and mundane, but it was just nice to see a manager coaching/interacting with a player on the hoof like that - mid game - as opposed to sitting there looking befuddled.

 

[dn013]

To be fair he said nothing about Levy being Jewish. I don't think anyone would argue with the fact that he's a penny-pinching owner.

The "oy vey" was a direct reference.