Chelsea 1-1 Inter Milan

[Vesper 29,189]

8 minutes ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Ouzo overload or Communist infiltration ? Either way Preston were in Championship last time I looked

communist ouzo

[Pizy 18,515]

I think we just need to be patient and expect things to take a bit before we see everything click. But the signs are there that Maresca CAN get us playing good football. 

I’m much more confident in these ideas we’re seeing than I was with Poch who had much longer and never created anything resembling a specific style.

If we can get Palmer, Nkunku, Neto, and Jackson all cooking and clicking with one another I think we’ll be great to watch and SUPER dangerous.

 

[Vesper 29,189]

I saw potential in Ugo over a year ago 

hopefully he comes good even halfway to this:

 

[DDA 9,709]

Weird that because i thought when he went though the 2 Inter Milan midfielders with a flick he looked very much like Patrick Vieira

[mkh 337]

Maresca doesn't seem to be a fan of players like Disasi, Chukwuemeka, Casadei, Angelo, Broja, Datro Fofana, Washington, Petrovic, Chilwell (Kellyman is still injured)
These players will probably all be transferred before deadline day.

With Lukaku, Chalobah, Kepa we have known for some time that they will or must leave!!!

[cosmicway 1,333]

24 minutes ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

If you keep with these shit postings you will not be welcomed at this forum any longer. Every post lately has been extremely negative, even in situations that are positive. We will not tolerate people that come here to just wind up actual fans of the club. 

So was that what you expected to see ?
Last minute equalizer against a team sized as Everton - Bournemouth ?
I won't write anything on the topic Man. City - Chelsea next week.
Let's have the match against City wiped out from memory unless we win and see what happens next.

[Strike 7,294]

22 minutes ago, Pizy said:

I think we just need to be patient and expect things to take a bit before we see everything click. But the signs are there that Maresca CAN get us playing good football. 

I’m much more confident in these ideas we’re seeing than I was with Poch who had much longer and never created anything resembling a specific style.

If we can get Palmer, Nkunku, Neto, and Jackson all cooking and clicking with one another I think we’ll be great to watch and SUPER dangerous.

 

Nowhere close to season-ready. But not a bad game today I thought.

[cosmicway 1,333]

6 minutes ago, Strike said:

Nowhere close to season-ready. But not a bad game today I thought.

Much better than Celtic.

[YorkshireBlue 3,135]

11 minutes ago, cosmicway said:

So was that what you expected to see ?
Last minute equalizer against a team sized as Everton - Bournemouth ?
I won't write anything on the topic Man. City - Chelsea next week.
Let's have the match against City wiped out from memory unless we win and see what happens next.

You think inter Milan are the same size as Bournemouth or Everton, wtf have you been smoking? Your either clueless or completely delusional, my money is on both.

[cosmicway 1,333]

18 minutes ago, YorkshireBlue said:

You think inter Milan are the same size as Bournemouth or Everton, wtf have you been smoking? Your either clueless or completely delusional, my money is on both.

Well, Everton of a couple of years back.

[Pizy 18,515]

Biggest positive by far out of that preseason is that Lavia, Nkunku, and even Fofana survived injury free. They badly needed a nice run of games to get back into the rhythm of playing consecutive matches.

Lavia & Nkunku will be HUGE for us this season if it stays this way.

[Vesper 29,189]

58 minutes ago, mkh said:

Chukwuemeka

has had some minor knocks

I think he is the one on your list that Maresca does rate

Angelo is still really raw but I can see glimmers there, deffo needs another loan move

the rest absolutely agree agree with

[cosmicway 1,333]

I hope it's the last we saw of Mudryk.
Sterling despite his antics proves useful sometimes.
Mudryk never.

[ZAPHOD2319 4,543]

50 minutes ago, cosmicway said:

So was that what you expected to see ?
Last minute equalizer against a team sized as Everton - Bournemouth ?
I won't write anything on the topic Man. City - Chelsea next week.
Let's have the match against City wiped out from memory unless we win and see what happens next.

Inter won Serie A last year. They are a well coached team that delivered all year. I thought we looked better than we have all preseason. I don’t care about the score line in preseason games. Maresca split the starters again. Allowing all players experience in his system and allowing him to assess the fringe players on who stays and who goes on loan. This is what I expect out of all preseason games. 
 

New Manager, new system, I honestly do not expect we get any points from Man City in the opening game. We are nowhere near their level currently. We would need to play our best and they would need to play really bad. The next five games could be every opportunity for points.

[Fulham Broadway 16,967]

24 minutes ago, Pizy said:

Biggest positive by far out of that preseason is that Lavia, Nkunku, and even Fofana survived injury free. They badly needed a nice run of games to get back into the rhythm of playing consecutive matches.

Lavia & Nkunku will be HUGE for us this season if it stays this way.

Also Gusto is very solid most of the time -which will be needed as James (injury wise) cant be relied on

[Mhsc 943]

I think the manager (and we!) learnt a fair bit from the games in terms of what could look quite promising and what probably isn't going to work.

Also think Maresca has been more flexible with tactics than many told us he would be. We've seen him go with inverted fullbacks on either side, and then sometimes playing with one of the fullbacks bombing forward while the other one stays back. Mostly 3-2-5 in possession but I reckon there was a bit of 3-1-6 today with Caicedo, but would need to rewatch to be sure.

Based on purely preseason, I for one saw some positives, but for sure there are some reasonably serious concerns.

Positives: Nkunku, Lavia, Malo, Cole Palmer (yes despite only playing half a game, thought it was great to see how Maresca integrated him), Veiga

Middle of the road: Madueke (might be harsh - simultaneously looks a menace in the system but also poor end product). Guiu a beautiful pressing machine that any fan would love, but obviously he needs to be more dangerous in front of goal which he will become over time - definitely one to watch for the future, much more excited for him than I was for Broja/Solanke etc, but honestly think he is years away from being a serious player (he's literally 18!). I also thought Enzo/Caicedo looked a bit average when they played.

Negatives: Biggest concern is probably CB situation (based on what we've seen, we do not have a single in form CB - I wont say they're all actually bad as I'm not sure they are, but clearly none of them are playing well right now and all look liable to make serious mistakes at least once a game), GKs (we've got one great shot stopper and one great passer, if you can merge them we'd be alright but you can only play one at a time...), Reece James honestly not looked that good all preseason plus already got a small niggle again (not bad either, but doesn't look WC aside from perhaps set piece delivery), Mudryk same old Mudryk (honestly be tempted to loan him to Strasbourg and see if a full season playing every game could do something to the man as a last ditch attempt with him). Chilwell we need to get rid asap.

[Pizy 18,515]

Biggest concern for me (and keep in mind that I haven’t actually watched a single one of these preseason matches) is all the stuff I’ve read this summer about how poor Colwill has looked. He genuinely looked like a future world class CB who would lock down an undisputed place at the back for us for a decade or more when he returned from Brighton. We fought off multiple suitors that were after him for that exact reason. We gave him a big, long contract.

But apparently he has been poor this summer. I wonder what the deal is? His best qualities when he was in the Brighton team were his composure/class on the ball and his passing. So what happened?

[ZAPHOD2319 4,543]

11 minutes ago, Pizy said:

Biggest concern for me (and keep in mind that I haven’t actually watched a single one of these preseason matches) is all the stuff I’ve read this summer about how poor Colwill has looked. He genuinely looked like a future world class CB who would lock down an undisputed place at the back for us for a decade or more when he returned from Brighton. We fought off multiple suitors that were after him for that exact reason. We gave him a big, long contract.

But apparently he has been poor this summer. I wonder what the deal is? His best qualities when he was in the Brighton team were his composure/class on the ball and his passing. So what happened?

He looked good with Silva guiding him on the pitch. He has looked lost at times out there. He still has all the physical attributes, he just needs to make better positioning decisions.