Vs Sevilla

Well that wasn't very friendly was it! Not surprised Wee Man got frustrated, I only saw the last 35 minutes but all Sevilla wanted to do was kick him. Nice goal my Jordon. Not sure Arter was booked for gobbing off or was he? I thought the ref got the wrong man for the tackle because he seemed to take ages to book Gosling. We looked the better team in the period I saw but Sevilla will be a couple of weeks behind us in pre season prep as I think their season starts later.
Sevilla kick off in the Europa League on 26th July so they may have started pre season earlier
 
Sevilla played dirty too often, imo.
Interesting, but not better, to have no Kris or Willo and hear the players instead.
Somewhat different to the ‘old days’ of friendlies v. Hamworthy, Poole Town, Eastleigh etc.
 
I’ve done reasons to be cheerful, now reasons for concern (albeit early in pre-season)
Arter - ineffective, gobby, a walking booking
Gosling (or Daz Gonling as he was announced) - didn’t impress
Pugh - looked slow and out of the game
Callum - seemed slightly off the pace

But, to finish on a high....
Ibe - great finish and lively throughout
Mousset - he was superb tonight
Surman - could do a job at CB, very organised, although lacks a bit of height
Franno - very good defensively and pushing up to midfield

And again:

Mings - what a player he will be if he stays fit, he was awesome. I was sitting next to two Rangers supporters and they couldn’t believe how good he was
 
We have a decent side, but my goodness our front players, whilst lively and exciting, could certainly be a little more effective. Josh King is great at running at players but struggles to play in others, Fraser similar to King but probably a little better at threading others through, Callum has completely lost his shooting boots, Defoe can't quite get the movement right. Not sure what I would change though other than Josh as the top man.

Loads of positives though, great to see us pressing high, even if only a friendly. Ake and Cook were solid enough. Loved Arter and Gosling's harrying at the end. Actually thought Surman was very classy as a CB. Mings strong and fast, albeit a little clumsy. Boruc was solid and distributed well.

As a side note, I would be livid if we conceded our goal in the manner Sevilla did. It was surreal how Ibe was allowed a free ride to be 1 on 1 with their keeper.
 
Just finished watching
FWIW... a few thoughts

Simpson looks very cultured
Ake superb
Mings was impressive
Brooks loôks lightweight and would be surprised to see him much this season
Mousset was great tonight in a withdrawn role
Arter -another booking for dissent

First half poor - slow build up. King out wide again...
Second half better performance

Very feisty friendly
 
Wilson has been slightly off the pace for the last 2 years, I think it's time to accept he will never be the same player he was in the Championship. He will still just about cut it at PL level but he won't be as good as he could have been without the electric pace which is a shame,he also doesn't seem as strong as he once was.
 
Thought we out played them our passing was slick.
Seems like we have our own Modric in Cook, very impressive, England missed him.
The new boy Brook played well but needs to chase down the defenders when they have the ball. Eddie will point it out to him.
S Cook still passing out bad balls from the back is a worry.
Why wasn't VAR used when Defoe was throu on goal, being pulled back making him shoot wide? A certain penalty.
 
Went last night and enjoyed the game. Competitive and a decent work out in contrast to everton’s waste of a game in Austria. Curious mixture though of intense heat and waterlogged pitch in places!

Anyone watching on Afcb TV notice if there were many empty seats in the one stand there? Warnings of “first come first served” were correct as quite a few people couldn’t get in: and by half time there was c20-30 fans outside the gate still queuing and a lot of fans watching through the fence outside for the whole game as couldn’t get in. Quite a few fans let in to the ground in batches during first half.

PS well done the club/sports centre for doing a team sheet (offered to fans for free) as it’s always good to see to see who is playing for the opppsition plus quite a few neutrals there.
 
Positives:
- Mings was fantastic, classy, dominating showing. Should be starting regularly when fit based on that performance.
- L. Cook and Ake, same old, same old.
- I thought Brooks, for a first appearance, looked great. Could be the bridge between attack and midfield that we’ve needed.
- Simpson looked pretty good again. Please remind me why we need Mepham for £12+ million?
- Mousset best striker on the night.
- If we could get the Jordon Ibe of friendlies on a regular basis that would be nice. Confident and direct; great goal.
- Smith, should never be benched for Francis ever again.
- Fraser looked pretty good; shame he kept getting hacked.
- I thought Arter looked good, though I feel for the refs that have deal with him for 90 minutes. “REF. REF. REEEF!?!?”

Negatives:
- Wilson looked completely ineffective and off the pace.
- King made no impact whatsoever.
- Hyndman didn’t really standout, which is a shame. Can only see another loan for him.
- S. Cook didn’t look terrible, but Mings, Simpson and Ake all outshone him and all play on the left. Could’ve been better.
- Pugh looked slow, ponderous, ineffective with poor decision making.


Overall, second half better than the first. EH said some of the players in the first half would be disappointed with their performance; I’d agree with that. Feel that we actually have decent squad depth, just need a bit more in certain positions.
 
I thought it was interesting that like we saw for England, both Ake and Mings would carry the ball forward from CB. We didn't really see that too much last season but you could see the problems it caused opposition defences against England
 

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