18/19 Pre-Season & CL Qualifiers | Page 5 | Vital Football

18/19 Pre-Season & CL Qualifiers

Sorry wee_od, have been promising to respond properly to your transfer section pieces for a while mate, just not had time to sit down and do so.

On McGinn, I'd wait and sign him on a pre-contract. No point in paying way over the odds to that Bastard Petrie.
 
The draw for the 3rd round of qualifiers was made today. If we can get past Rosenborg then we'll be up against AEK Athens! The Greek Champions won the league by 6 points last season scoring 50 goals and conceding only 12 while also losing only 2 games! AEK will be no easy game that's for sure!

Looking at their team however, they have some good players in attack and midfield but their defence has nobody who stands out as a quality player. That suggests they may be very well organised and probably play a "defend from the front" kind of style. That could prove difficult for us as we tend to be shaky at the back when put under pressure. However I also believe we have enough to really trouble them when we go forward!
 
Dembele is out for 3 weeks! That's a real blow for us! He's been looking so good early in this season. However Edouard had a slight knee problem which he has recovered from. Griffiths isn't quite ready to return yet which means we're going into the games against Rosenborg with only 1 fit striker! That's 1 striker more than we had last season against them!

Rogic should be back in contention to start tonight and will likely play behind Edouard. It should mean we're also going to a back 4 with Hendry and Ajer as the CBs and Gamboa and Tierney as the fullbacks. You would have thought Scott Sinclair would come in on the left wing but in actual fact I'd be surprised if we didn't see McGregor play instead. The shape might not be particularly strict tonight with both fullbacks liking to get forward but obviously Forrest likes to play out wide and cut in, we may see him playing inside a bit more often to allow Gamboa to get forward. McGregor on the other hand is happy to play more inside and free up the space for Tierney to overlap but is also good enough and clever enough to drop back in and help out the midfield and defence should it be required.
 
Expected team for tonight's game:

Gordon
Gamboa - Hendry - Ajer - Tierney
Brown - Ntcham
Forrest - Rogic - McGregor
Edouard

Subs: Bain, Ralston, Miller, Kouassi, Sinclair, Christie, Allan
 
Almost got the team right but Rogic won't be starting tonight.

Gordon
Gamboa - Hendry - Ajer - Tierney
McGregor - Brown - Ntcham
Forrest - Edouard - Sinclair

Subs: Bain, Rogic, Christie, Allan, Ralston, Johnston, Kouassi
 
G'Day Wee Od! I'd have started Rogic, but I like this lineup pretty well. Hopefully Gamboa is up for the challenge and Sinclair is sharp.
 
Well both Edouard and Gamboa have looked bright in these opening stages. Forrest playing in behind the striker with McGregor playing over on the right and cutting inside a lot which is giving Gamboa plenty of space to break forward and he looks like he wants to get forward and is going to be dangerous! We can but hope!
 
Being forced to look for shots from distance a bit more than we'd like but we knew Rosenborg would sit in and be difficult to break down and we weren't going to be able to catch them on the counter. Ntcham moving out quite wide on the left a lot and Tierney sitting back quite a lot to almost make a back 3 when we're attacking.

You've got to be kidding! Goal for Rosenborg. Hendry came forward from defence and his pass was intercepted and we were then struggling to get back and we couldn't block the shot. That's what we need to very careful of! Now got a more difficult job with losing an away goal!
 
If we had our fist choice XI out tonight, we'd probably have scored and not conceded by now......such is football though, we don't have our first choice XI.
 
Hendry is getting caught too high up the pitch far too often for my liking! Gamboa has had to cover for him as well as the rest of the defence. This is why a lot of fans aren't convinced by him yet!
 
Feel the game is opening up a little bit and we're starting to create chances again.
Just feel we need a slight change of shape to be more compact in midfield and not so open in defence but that probably won't happen.
 
Or I could be wrong as we do seem to have made a change. Forrest has moved back out to the right hand side which should see Gamboa sitting back a little more. McGregor has moved inside to play behind Edouard. Already Forrest is causing problems. Cut inside and passed it to Ntcham in the box, he tried to spin the defender and a tangling of legs sees Ntcham go down.....could have easily been a penalty!
 
GOAL! Edouard! 1-1! Great finish from inside the box. Not easy, not a lot of space but the keeper couldn't react in time.
 
Well that tactical change helped a lot. But we need two more and have to hold them. They may still be content to sit back and hold for a draw with the away goal. We need a quick one to draw them out.
 
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