[Archived] Preview (Not) Asia Trophy

[Teacup]

Jesus H Christ, how can you give roberts a 7??

How many corners did he throw away with his goalkeeper groping? 2/3/4?

Formica looked good, was often in space but our midfield failed to get the ball to him. We really need a few players in midfield, parts of the game they just went missing.

[pick32]

Best player Formica worst player was Salgado by a mile he was getting turned inside out by HESKEY!

[PAFELL]

Robinson: 6 - Very little to do throughout the game, good save at the end against Albrighton

Salgado: 6 - struggled against the pace of agbonlahor but remained solid when tested

Olsson: 6 - would liked to have seen him attack more but understandble due to fitness and heat, got sucked in sometimes, but decent display in the position i think Kean will play him this season.

Samba: 7 - anticpated the runs of bent well, great run in the 2nd half to start an attack. soild as ever.

Givet: 7 - did his job well

N'Zonzi: 7 - did well to break up the play and got around the pitch well. gong to be a big player this season.

Pedersen: 5 - did very little other than supply set pieces.

Dunn: 5 - poor performance in my view, cant play the centre mid role these days, i think he is beginning to decline at this level.

Emerton: 5 - like Pedersen, never got into the game, and offered nothing going foward, other than his shot which was well saved he did nothing of note.

Formica: 8 - did well, thrived when the tempo of the game quickend and was by far our best outlet going foward.

Roberts: 7 - held up the ball well and worked hard but needed more support. good and a typical roberts performance.

subs:

Blackman: 6 - got ability, quick, tall and has a few skills in his locker. i think the right or left wing will be his position this season

Grella: 6 - nice work out for him, if he can stay clear of injurys than he will be a good squad player.

I thought Emerton did ok today - good save by villa's keeper. I thought most did ok. Very hard to judge considering the heat etc. Blackman diving wasn't good, don't like seeing that in football. Formica, had good run out, room for improvement, but did ok.

Grella was on the pitch for a change. Dunn, not bad, not good. Suffered bad fall first half.

All in all good workout, bad result.

Hope venkys hated it and replace Kean - one can only hope. Kean lack of using more substitutes was bad.

[PAFELL]

Grella?????????

He needs to come on, not played for ages and needs to lose weight. the heat will see to that.

[Kamy100]

Decent run out for Rovers. I thought that we passed the ball around quite well and good performances from Formica, N'Zonzi and Ollson. Dunn also looked fitter than he did last season.

Concern was that defensive organisation was not good, but there is time to put that right.

Match showed that we are short on numbers (squad wise) and we need to bring in 3 or 4 players, particularly a striker who can score on a regular basis.

Overall I never read to much into pre-season games, it's all about being ready on 13 August, in that respect it was a very good run out.

[RoversSG]

Was i watching the same game? I thought Formica was quite anonymous the entire game except for a couple of passes and his first touch was even worse than Roberts

[chaddyrovers]

Pre season games are about getting match fitness and game time for the players.

The players were very committed to game and we played well in spell.

Formica was our best player for us. Also Olsson, Nzonzi and Dunn played goodish but nothing more.

Back 4 did ok apart from the goal.

Roberts work hard but it did highlight how short we are up front for sure.

So will everybody chill out for abit!!!

Judge the team performance on the first game of the season NOT a pre season game!

[howzat]

Pre season games are about getting match fitness and game time for the players.

The players were very committed to game and we played well in spell.

Formica was our best player for us. Also Olsson, Nzonzi and Dunn played goodish but nothing more.

Back 4 did ok apart from the goal.

Roberts work hard but it did highlight how short we are up front for sure.

So will everybody chill out for abit!!!

Judge the team performance on the first game of the season NOT a pre season game!

well said chaddy. There is a lot of work to be done but i thought we played well considering the condtions. Just hopeing for a couple of decent strikers. Keane and raul would do nicley

Was i watching the same game? I thought Formica was quite anonymous the entire game except for a couple of passes and his first touch was even worse than Roberts

Must have been fella he was our best player by some distance, and if we can find a way of getting him on the ball more in the final third i think he will be a star this season.

[Scott18]

Chelsea have just gone 3-0 up so looks as though it will be Kitchee on Saturday barring a miracle. They'll be used to the conditions but they have been pounded by Chelsea so far. Confident of a win.

[little_joe50]

Just read through the various reports from todays game as unfortunately I couldn't watch it. To summarize the majority, it sounded like we were neat and tidy but lacked a cutting edge. No surprise there then.

It is starting to sound like Formica will become a big player for us.

It will be interesting to see what Kean does in terms of selection as it seems like we have three players in Junior, Formica and Rochina whose best position is in the hole. Presumably it will mean Junior moving into one of the wide berths.

Although I have read many reports now about Formica, I have never actually seen him play. Is there potential for him to play out wide? Is there a possibility that we could ever play with all three in a 4-2-3-1 formation? I guess it would leave us light out wide from a defensive standpoint, but would offer us plenty of opportunities in transition(as Wenger would say).

[Tom]

4-0 and Sturridge looking class for Chelsea.

Fans will be against us on Saturday for sure!

[47er]

Pre season games are about getting match fitness and game time for the players.

Judge the team performance on the first game of the season NOT a pre season game!

There have been loads of suggestions as to when we should judge the team, the owners, the manager, the transfer window but one thing I've learned on here---------its never NOW!

[booth]

Was i watching the same game? I thought Formica was quite anonymous the entire game except for a couple of passes and his first touch was even worse than Roberts

You definitely watched a different game.

[47er]

And I thought it was all about gaining match fitness

Same for Villa then?

[Kai]

It was a blatant dive when viewed from the camera behind the goal!

So we already knew we have problems up front but I guess we didn't know the defense is all at sea as well.

Facing Kitchee could be a bit embarassing on Saturday. What this also means is we get two games in the heat of the day which will undoutedly mess with our pre-season fitness prep.

You just love to put a horror story slant on everything don't you? We'll be stepping up on Saturday at 6pm local time. By then any sun will have long gone. The heat and humidity would be about the same even if we beat Villa today and stepped up later for the final. I'd argue that our workout against Kitchee will be just as hard as against Chelsea since Kitchee will be well acclimatised to the conditions and will be playing with nothing to lose. We will do well to win that one, even if it is only a preaseason game.

As for the game, I followed it on Sky and it seems like the team as a whole has been instructed to keep it on the floor. It seems as if though Kean's now gotten a clean slate to work from and is implementing his own style and the way he likes to play after coming in at the middle of the season and then having to scrap to survive. I just hope that it works. I was a little surprised at the lack of substitutions but I guess some might be carrying some little niggles and the intensity of the game got a lot higher near the end.

Also I thought that the pitch was a bit of a horror. It seemed to be falling apart at an alarming rate and I saw quite a few slips. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise that we get to play first on it again rather than later when it's all cut up.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Not a bad workout,Formica looks promising.

Nothing has changed up front though,its clear to a blind man on a galloping Horse we need 2 quality strikers.Nothing will change from last season until this problem is addressed.

[slough_rover]

Looking like another loss to add to your pile Steve.

For Gods sake its a pre-season friendly. Seriously go slit wrists already and put us out of our misery. This tournament is all about gaging fitness levels nothing more.

[yeti-dog]

Looking like another loss to add to your pile Steve.

Most risible post of the day with 8 hours still to go.....

[niggit]

We played really well, with keeping it on the ground. Formica played well, and think will be there for a starting place. Which then leads to strikers, we do need a new one. But as for two quality strikers. If we go with just one upfront. What quality striker wants to sit on the bench.

[Rover & Out]

I thought Formica did well; good technique and linked up well.

He got into some good positions but people seemed reluctant to pass to him.

We need to hit him a bit earlier!

[Parsonblue]

I don't think there was anything to take out of today's game that we didn't already know. The conditions made it difficult to judge performances and this was little more than a training exercise geared to build up fitness. My only concern was the fact that our squad is so small that I thought too many of the players played the full 90 minutes. I would hope that the remainder of the squad will be used on Saturday and that the following week, at Kilmarnock, will see more or less the team that we want to start against Wolves.

At the moment we are short not only on quality but also on quantity. The Nick Blackman's of this world are not going to cut it in the Premier League and we need better quality in terms of back-up. However, first and foremost we need a quality goalscorer and decent playmaker in midfield.

I won't make any judgements on performances of players or management until the real action starts on 13 August. Everything up to that point is just preparation. However, from the Wolves game on it is for real and judgements will be made fairly quickly as to the quality of the squad and the ability of the manager.

[Al]

There have been loads of suggestions as to when we should judge the team, the owners, the manager, the transfer window but one thing I've learned on here---------its never NOW!

Can't see why you got -3 for that post. It was absolutely right!

[Ste B]

Crikey. Were we THAT bad ? I thought we had most of the chances, but struggled to create once behind again.

Could have been the beer goggles mind.

P.s did anybody see the brfcs or great harwood flags ?

[Ste B]

Out of interest would people rather play Chelsea or the Hong Kong team regardless of winning the tournament?

Chelsea would be a good test I suppose but we'd get battered

Glad it isn't chelsea. This entire tournament grated around that lot.

[Ste B]

Lots of Chelski shirts in that crowd

They had a chelsea megastore in ground and gave sway free flags.