18/19 Pre-Season & CL Qualifiers | Page 7 | Vital Football

18/19 Pre-Season & CL Qualifiers

All too often we're unable to put out our first choice XI and we simply don't have enough depth in the squad to make these games more comfortable when we can't choose our top XI.

Looks like we're getting a young winger in; Daniel Arzani, 19 year old from Australia, been playing for Melbourne City and is to move to their connected club Manchester City but Man City approached us about taking him on a loan for at least one season, potentially two. Seen footage of him and he's good. Great with the ball at his feet but he appears to lack a final ball or end product which is why he's coming to us. Definitely a work in progress player which is the annoying bit. Hopefully I'm wrong and he can deliver like Patrick Roberts did for us.
Meanwhile we need a CB and probably another midfielder both of good quality.

I thought we looked better than them overall especially as they should have been much fitter and more up to speed with being halfway through their season. We started to tire in the second half but showed good energy for the last 10-15 mins after taking it easy from about the hour mark. Was surprised to only see the one sub but Rodgers obviously didn't feel the game was comfortable enough to take anyone else off and that shows that he's not really ready to trust any of our subs except Rogic in European games.

I thought Ntcham was excellent, Edouard is looking a bargain at £9m, McGregor ran his socks off again and works so hard for the team, Ajer was dominant and classy, Gamboa I actually thought had a pretty good game; the system suited him whereas last season it didn't I don't think, Hendry had a good second half after his mistake in the first for their goal; still has a long way to go but he's got something about him. However should we be relying on a player like Hendry, at his age, that we're hoping he's going to come good? It's not going to happen overnight for him and if we get to the groups there's no way we'll want to be relying on him to play.
 
Relying on half-fit or squad players and or asking them to play out of position for these crucial ties has become the norm with us.

With their recent injury records we'll be lucky to get 20 full games from Moussa and Griff over the course of the season, and in how many of those will either be fully fit and match sharp?

Don't get me wrong, we can't keep signing strikers, but the reality is that French Eddie is our only reliable striker in terms of being injury free and available - touch wood!

Don't know where an injury to Broony or Ntcham would leave us?! Had high hopes for Kouassi but it hasn't happened for him at all. Suspect that is why we're trying to sign McGinn.

Defensively I have no idea wtf is going on. Ralston seems to be out of the picture entirely, Hendry is a work in progress and too raw for Europe at this stage. Hendry looks more like Lustig's understudy to me but I wouldn't want to rely on him there, and the same goes for Gamboa on the other side.. Ajer is a classy big basturt who has come on leaps and bounds but, injuries aside, should he be starting crucial CL games?

Compper? ahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Jozo and Boyata are our first picks but Jozo has been wanting away since half an hour before he arrived! And Boyata has garnered interest after Russia. Eff knows what type of mercenary CB's we'll get from England if Congerton has scouted them!

We still don't have a 'bums aff seats' player. Ever since Sinclair found that jar of vanishing cream, Rogic is the closest thing we have but he's not suitable for certain games, especially in Europe.
 
I think we need someone like a modern day striker, the likes of Ronaldo, Messi and Salah.....obviously we could never afford a player like them but you know how they have that ability to play anywhere across the front? They can play on the wing, comfortable in the middle playing just off the striker or even playing as the striker if it is needed, that's the sort of player and sort of versatility we need. That way we can continue them playing as a winger when we don't need them as a striker, but when required we can put them up front and they'll be quite at home. Rodgers tries that with Forrest, Sinclair, Christie and even last season we tried it with Roberts too......it never quite works though does it?

Kouassi is still in the plans but it feels a little bit like he's got one role in the team and that's it now.....he's Broony's replacement in the heart of the midfield. We used him to good effect in the Europa League last season where him and Ntcham were pushing forward from midfield with Broony sitting back, but Rodgers doesn't seem keen to use him in that way. He's a steady replacement but we're not seeing enough of him and that's why there was talk of him going out on loan, something that would more certainly have happened if McGinn signs. Reports suggest he's made it clear that he sees his future with his boyhood heroes (that's us btw) and he'll wait and sign a pre-contract or move in January if needs be. I'm still not absolutely sold on him, I like him as a player but just not sure about him playing here. I hope to be proven wrong!

Ralston is a strange one, trusted to start and mark Neymar last year against PSG but not trusted enough to start ahead of Gamboa against Rosenborg........I can see him potentially going out on loan again this season if Gamboa is going to be the preferred RB after Lustig. It also depends what BR plans as his usual formation....personally I think it's going to be more of a back 3 of Lustig, Ajer and Boyata and he'll use Tierney and Forrest as wing backs. Forrest has improved immensely in that aspect of his game! It will also see Sinclair become a bit part player!
I don't think Rodgers quite knows whether Hendry is a RB who doesn't get forward too much, a RCB because he's mobile enough to play as part of the back 3 or just a regular CB. For me he's only one of those and that's a RCB. He's not solid enough to play CB and he's not good enough going forward to play RB. Even if we play a 4 in defence these days, it's usually turning into a 3 because Tierney will push forward and even if Lustig is playing he'll sit back and make it a 3!

Compper needs to be shown the door and a new CB brought in. We can't continue to have passengers like that! Get fit or get out!

Jozo might play second fiddle to Ajer this season. I'm not convinced that Rodgers has full faith in him and I think the way Ajer is performing, nobody is going to shift him out of that starting XI!

Agree about an exciting player, Roberts has been that player the last few years, at the moment Edouard is the only one to really do that.
 
Well we got through against Rosenborg but it wasn't pretty! They were cutting us open far too easily particularly in the first half and against the better teams like AEK Athens who we face next or if we get past them and into the groups, the better teams will tear us apart! The damage will be done by the time Rodgers reacts and tells the team to play differently. We saw it last week against Rosenborg, we had to change the setup a little by switching Forrest out the right wing and it changed the game, this week it seemed to take us until half time to make some sort of change that influenced the game in our favour. The better teams will have already won the game by then if we're as open as we were on Wednesday night!
That said, the second half performance, away from home and this early in the season was pretty good! Hendry is starting to show glimpses of how good he is! He was winning headers all over the place on Wednesday night! When you consider that he's playing alongside a younger converted CB in Ajer, it was a really good performance from both players!
Edouard lead the line well with little help and he was being marked tightly this week.
McGregor was tireless going forward and back!
Sinclair I thought was fairly pish again, he slows down the attacks and always wants to cut inside onto his right foot. For whatever reason he doesn't have the confidence to go down the outside anymore. I wonder whether a switch to the right wing would see him play better?
Ntcham came into the game second half but was almost non-existent in the first, we need him on the ball to make things happen!
Big thumbs up for Christie when he came on. He replaced Edouard and to be fair to Christie he ran his socks off and gave the defenders a real problem! Exactly what we needed from our sub, pushing the play and forcing them back and with a bit of luck could have actually got in on goal on a couple of occasions! Much more like what we want and need to see from him!

Anyway, onto the next round to face AEK Athens, this is going to be very difficult and we'll still be without Moussa Dembele for the game. Simunovic will be back from suspension while Lustig made his comeback as a sub for Tierney on Wednesday night after Tierney took a sore one. Don't know the extent of any injury to Tierney but it was wise to just take him off as a precaution. We'll hopefully be able to call upon Boyata soon as he's been back in training as well as Griffiths while Johnny Hayes made a return to the bench on Wednesday night after overcoming his latest injury. We're getting players back at just the right time for AEK which is good so hopefully that can help us on to victory!
 
Tonight's team to face AEK Athens:

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

Subs: Bain, Simunovic, Hayes, Johnston, Sinclair, Griffiths, Kouassi

While on the face of it it looks to be a 4-2-3-1, I think we might see a lopsided formation where Tierney will be pushing up and Forrest operating more as a wing back so it will almost become a 3-5-1-1.
 
McGinn has signed for Aston Villa. Done deal this evening.......that's a blow, maybe now we'll find out who else we're considering for bringing in to strengthen the midfield.
 
We are playing more of a back 3 tonight with Hendry moving over to the LCB position and Ajer staying in the middle of the back 3.
 
Looking good going forward so far.

That was SO close to a penalty for the foul on Tierney. Not convinced it wasn't one!
 
YYYYAAASSS! Great work in the box from Tierney carves out a sliver of a shot for McGregor and he fires it home. 1-0!
 
GOAL! 1-0! McGregor! Good finish! Got himself in the box, Tierney crosses it, well controlled and on the turn he smashes it into the net!
 
They will foul our players in the box. We we close to a penalty already. Keep charging into the box.
 
Usual defensive shit show in Europe. Then again we shouldn't be playing with two inexperienced defenders in crucial CL qualifiers. Always gambling and this year could bite us on the arse. PL won't give a fuck - he gets his bonus regardless!
 
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