Mainz v Clarets

[Newcastleclaret93]

I think he'd probably be okay as a slightly further forward/box to box in a midfield three. I don't think he can play the advanced role at PL either for the reasons you gave- he can do it in the Championship but it's a different beast.
What would you give for Cork to be 4 years younger and to have Defour or Barton in this side. We'd be laughing.

That midfield of Cork and Defour would have this side top 10.

[eastcoastclaret]

I know we all want Foster to be a success but he just isn’t taking his chance to impress. Time to try someone else.

[Spiral]

I just don’t think he’s good enough even in the advanced role at this level. He just gives the ball away far too often.

If you stick Brownhill higher up the pitch ne knits things together so well. Doesn't do anything too flashy, but you notice how much more fluid we play with Brownhill there in contrast to when Twine is played in that position, because Twine takes longer than Brownhill to decide what to do and has a slight habit of overplaying. With Brownhill in an advanced role, everything looks smoother.

[123EasyasBFC]

Tbf he just can’t get on the ball

When he gets the ball he’s got his back to goal, just doesn’t seem to suit his game at all

[ksrclaret]

For me it’s all technical ability. In the advanced roles he gets away with it at championship level, but he loses the ball far too regular in the elite leagues.

I do think VK sees this though and it’s why we are linked to Ramsey and Lokonga.

Your criticism of Brownhill has in the past been ridiculous but you are right here. He isn’t suited to a more measured midfield role and especially not in the PL. Too often his passes aren’t the correct weight or distance.

[dermotdermot]

Townsend is there. He’s training with the subs during the interval.

[RVclaret]

I know we all want Foster to be a success but he just isn’t taking his chance to impress. Time to try someone else.

Was our best player against Genk and Betis.

[Granny WeatherWax]

Season starts in 3 weeks, chill.

[Stan Tastic]

1-0 down in a pre-season friendly at half-time and the panic brigade are out in force.

[Newcastleclaret93]

If you stick Brownhill higher up the pitch ne knits things together so well. Doesn't do anything too flashy, but you notice how much more fluid we play with Brownhill there in contrast to when Twine is played in that position, because Twine takes longer than Brownhill to decide what to do and has a slight habit of overplaying. With Brownhill in an advanced role, everything looks smoother.

Potentially at championship level. At this level no chance. It’s looking like Ramsey is being brought in for this role

[Vegas Claret]

it's a very experimental team today, I'm hoping it's all about getting players minutes and integrated. I doubt anyone thinks Roberts will play at left back for example so it's a bit of a random game. If we play anything close to this standard next Friday it will be close to double figures !

[Newcastleclaret93]

When he gets the ball he’s got his back to goal, just doesn’t seem to suit his game at all

I do agree

[eastcoastclaret]

Was our best player against Genk and Betis.

Yet he hasn't scored in any pre season game

[Vegas Claret]

at least it's a competitive game, nobody would learn anything if we rocked up and beat Shrewsbury for example

[123EasyasBFC]

Townsend is there. He’s training with the subs during the interval.

Reports on twitter he’s failed a medical

[Spiral]

Potentially at championship level. At this level no chance. It’s looking like Ramsey is being brought in for this role

I'm thinking of the players we have available for today for this game. I agree that an upgrade would be nice.

[Newcastleclaret93]

Got to wonder what is VK thinking here (not in a bad way, more trying to understand his logic), Zaroury and Koleoshi playing in roles they’re not used to and Roberts at Left back.

All seems a bit strange ahead of our first game in less than a week.

Perhaps he’s just experimenting to see if players can play elsewhere

[123EasyasBFC]

1-0 down in a pre-season friendly at half-time and the panic brigade are out in force.

It’s not panic, it’s literally commenting on what we are watching and what we think isn’t quite at it yet, nothing wrong with that

[fatboy47]

I know we all want Foster to be a success but he just isn’t taking his chance to impress. Time to try someone else.

The entire team has created the square root of feck all since I switched on.(after 10mins).with Foster busting his arse trying to create something from bugger all...but let's not pass up on the chance to whine about him

[boatshed bill]

Tbf he just can’t get on the ball

Our approach work is poor today.
Neither Redmond or Koleosho are attempting to play Foster in, and I'm not sure what Zaroury's role is.

[Newcastleclaret93]

I'm thinking of the players we have available for today for this game. I agree that an upgrade would be nice.

True I actually think out of everyone we currently have JBG is suited best to that advanced role.

[CoolClaret]

For me it’s all technical ability. In the advanced roles he gets away with it at championship level, but he loses the ball far too regular in the elite leagues.

I do think VK sees this though and it’s why we are linked to Ramsey and Lokonga.

Yeah I don’t think as like a creative 8 or whatever but good at pressing from the front and in transition with his athleticism.

He’s never a sitting midfielder though, we always look worse when he’s playing a more disciplined role

[BOYSIE31]

JBG will be classed as a centre midfielder in this squad now and not a winger

[Walkerpool]

We need Foster to score because he looks lost sometimes.

[Spiral]

Got to wonder what is VK thinking here (not in a bad way, more trying to understand his logic), Zaroury and Koleoshi playing in roles they’re not used to and Roberts at Left back.

All seems a bit strange ahead of our first game in less than a week.

Perhaps he’s just experimenting to see if players can play elsewhere

It feels like we're doing a drill for an injuries/10 men/square pegs in round holes type situation, see how we hold shape until the end of the game type scenario, and who's reliable. It's like the pre-season equivalent of making sure the fire alarm works.

[claretspice]

Brownhill is the football equivalent of an openside flanker in rugby union. His strength is being the man in support of the creative, technical players at any point in time, make runs that stretch defences from deep, lead the press and make the recovery runs that stop us being exposed on the counter. He's exceptionally quick and has a great engine and enough technical ability to knit stuff together as a result.

However, when he's asked to hold a deep position you lose all of that and all you see are His more limited attributes. As an 8, he'll be fine in the Prem and I suspect that skill set will be more essential this season than it was last season.

[Pickles]

JBG will be classed as a centre midfielder in this squad now and not a winger

Agreed. He hasn't been a winger for about eighteen months/two years.

[Hipper]

First twenty minutes or so we pinned them back and looked in control. Since then they seem to have got the measure of us and are dominating.

The fellow who scored got acres of space a lot of the time but didn't do anything with it until the goal. It happened too on the left on at least one occasion. It seems to have been a consequence of our tactics.

[RVclaret]

Scott Twine coming on.

[boatshed bill]

We need Foster to score because he looks lost sometimes.

i would love him to score, but he needs better service than he's had so far.

[northeastclaret]

Yeah I don’t think as like a creative 8 or whatever but good at pressing from the front and in transition with his athleticism.

He’s never a sitting midfielder though, we always look worse when he’s playing a more disciplined role

So he is not a sitting midfielder nor a creative midfielder, but good at pressing with athleticism Sadly I agree , but is that enough

[Carwin261]

Playing away to a top half German team ,hearts are fluttering already ,chilax.

[burnleymik]

No point singling out any players there, the whole thing was very disjointed .

This is what friendlies are for. Trying things out seeing what we can do.

I don't think we are weaker than last year. Missing a couple of regulars through injury. Brought in some valuable experience and some excellent potential talent.

Give it a few months to click and I think we will do well this year.

[CryerBFC]

Yet he hasn't scored in any pre season game

I wouldn’t rely on any pre season form, Juke was on for the Ballon D’or one year

[Spiral]

Zaroury back to hugging the wing, Twine on for Redmond as the 10/second striker.

[RVclaret]

No point singling out any players there, the whole thing was very disjointed .

This is what friendlies are for. Trying things out seeing what we can do.

I don't think we are weaker than last year. Missing a couple of regulars through injury. Brought in some valuable experience and some excellent potential talent.

Give it a few months to click and I think we will do well this year.

Way too balanced for this thread

[boatshed bill]

JBG needs to behave

[spt_claret]

Brownhill is the football equivalent of an openside flanker in rugby union. His strength is being the man in support of the creative, technical players at any point in time, make runs that stretch defences from deep, lead the press and make the recovery runs that stop us being exposed on the counter. He's exceptionally quick and has a great engine and enough technical ability to knit stuff together as a result.

However, when he's asked to hold a deep position you lose all of that and all you see are His more limited attributes. As an 8, he'll be fine in the Prem and I suspect that skill set will be more essential this season than it was last season.

He's not slow but he's certainly not 'exceptionally quick'. He's mobile, there's a difference, he's good at changing direction quickly from forward to back or vice versa, agree on his engine, he's a good runner into space at finding gaps, he just lacks the technical skill to knit it together when he finds the space.

It's why I think Twine is better in that role in the Prem. In the Championship where you need to be robust and shake off a lot of physical play he might struggle as we saw at times - he's slighter than Brownhill and not as fast. But his 360 movement and control is superb, he's great at finding spaces from what I've seen, when you can't be as rough with him I fancy him to step up well even with faster better pressers, because he's got the control and agility to evade it.

[jojomk1]

I get that these pre season games are for fitness and trying out new ideas
But the undeniable weakness within our squad is central midfield and the likes of Brownhill, Cork and JBG are just not good enough

[123EasyasBFC]

Can anyone clear up if Townsend was actually on the pitch at half time?

[mkmel]

What's the best link please guys?

Only just now able to watch

[ksrclaret]

No point singling out any players there, the whole thing was very disjointed .

This is what friendlies are for. Trying things out seeing what we can do.

I don't think we are weaker than last year. Missing a couple of regulars through injury. Brought in some valuable experience and some excellent potential talent.

Give it a few months to click and I think we will do well this year.

We are missing regulars and that is what is making us looker weaker imo. These players will be the ones to start the season now on Friday

Keeper looks weaker
Both full back positions are weaker assuming Roberts has to come across to LB
Midfield definitely weaker without Cullen
Without Benson and Tella we’re weaker on the right wing
And Foster is still very much feeling his way into things and looks like it will still need more time

Centre back is fine and O’Shea is very impressive

Not trying to be negative just calling it as I see it right now. I hope by the Villa game we’re looking much stronger all over the park.

[Spiral]

Shiiiiiit Koleosho can dribble

[RVclaret]

Koleosho a really exciting talent

[burnleymik]

Hell of a run from Koleosho.

[Carwin261]

Koliosho looking good a la Benson.

[Spiral]

What's the best link please guys?

Only just now able to watch

https://cdn.sportcast.fun/webplayer.php ... 1691245800

You've missed nothing btw

[claretspice]

He's not slow but he's certainly not 'exceptionally quick'. He's mobile, there's a difference, he's good at changing direction quickly from forward to back or vice versa, agree on his engine, he's a good runner into space at finding gaps, he just lacks the technical skill to knit it together when he finds the space.

It's why I think Twine is better in that role in the Prem. In the Championship where you need to be robust and shake off a lot of physical play he might struggle as we saw at times - he's slighter than Brownhill and not as fast. But his 360 movement and control is superb, he's great at finding spaces from what I've seen, when you can't be as rough with him I fancy him to step up well even with faster better pressers, because he's got the control and agility to evade it.

I think Brownhill's speed is very underrated. He's substantially quicker than just "mobile".

Your argument about the Championship is undermined by our own performance last season - we didn't struggle for want of physicality and we showed that in the Championship technical ability and agility tend to trump physicality. The Premier league is a different challenge because its not either/or - teams are both technically stronger and far more physically demanding than the Championship and the athleticism is a notch above, and we will need players who can live with that. Brownhill can.

[spt_claret]

Shiiiiiit Koleosho can dribble

I've already heard the phrase "Chalk on your boots winger" a bit too much on here the past fortnight, seems we're going to need even more chalk.

[ClaretTony]

Reports on twitter he’s failed a medical

Then best not to believe some random on twitter