REPORT: Pre-season ends with defeat against Espanyol

[ClaretTony]

Not really a report, wasn't inspired enough to write much, but a few words.

See link
http://www.uptheclarets.com/pre-season- ... t-espanyol" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[piston broke]

A real shame that two good opposition friendlies had to be blown off but the priorities were correct.
They’ll be buzzing next Sunday.

[Woodleyclaret]

Tika taka Espanyol playing pass and move with pace deveoped many years ago by ex Claret Jimmy Hogan
It works ask Pep thats how City play.
Not the ponderous nonsense back to the keeper and whoosh we played.
We had young lads who looked handy with pace and yet they also fell into the ponderous build up crap approach
How poor is Wells? Also Aygei was not at the races for most of the game.Positives Dwight McNeil.ONeill Koiki Walters Bardsley Taylor and Dunne.

[MACCA]

Must have been a poor game, the man next to Ben Gibson fell asleep!

[jlup1980]

Let's be honest, it was a pretty dire game of football. It only highlighted what we already know, but there were a few positives... namely Dunne, McNeil and O'Neill. I was very impressed by Dunne. He looks a composed lad. O'Neill was more effective than Hendrick and that says a lot. I'm not sure what our plan is for O'Neill but he does look like a player with a bright future.

Wells reminds me of Ian Moore. Good running and closing down but little else. Walters need to move on, he's a waste of a wage, and Agyei wasn't in the game at all. The front three were pretty much as ineffective as a front three can be. Currently we have nothing behind Wood, Barnes and Vokes worth writing home about.

Taylor was disappointing after his impressive cameo on Thursday night, Hendrick was pretty anonymous but Long and Bardsley were at least a little bit solid.

[ClaretTony]

Let's be honest, it was a pretty dire game of football. It only highlighted what we already know, but there were a few positives... namely Dunne, McNeil and O'Neill. I was very impressed by Dunne. He looks a composed lad. O'Neill was more effective than Hendrick and that says a lot. I'm not sure what our plan is for O'Neill but he does look like a player with a bright future.

Wells reminds me of Ian Moore. Good running and closing down but little else. Walters need to move on, he's a waste of a wage, and Agyei wasn't in the game at all. The front three were pretty much as ineffective as a front three can be. Currently we have nothing behind Wood, Barnes and Vokes worth writing home about.

Taylor was disappointing after his impressive cameo on Thursday night, Hendrick was pretty anonymous but Long and Bardsley were at least a little bit solid.

Not much I'd disagree with there, sums it up pretty well.

[Down_Rover]

So where was the biggest attendance? Burnley or Lowerhouse?

[standishclarets]

As you can tell. I don't post often on here!

I have always had a 'soft spot' for Espanyol, the smaller, well less known team than Barca (I suppose a bit like Everton and Liverpool)). So could't miss the game yesterday.

Most of what has been reported cannot be faulted, though I did notice Dunne and Long have several 'heated' discussions about who should be where and when. The biggest striking point, especially in the second half when Espanyol turned up the heat, was the performance of their number 10, Darder. He was everywhere orchestrating moves at pace and eventually scoring. Now, that's what we are really missing. Without such a player out there for us, we lacked so much that will be necessary for us this coming season.