BFTG - Preston Home

[CountryRoyal]

Just a point on Gunter, it was him that gave the ball way not once, but twice which resulted in their disallowed goal.

He's a liability.

[maffff]

Just a point on Gunter, it was him that gave the ball way not once, but twice which resulted in their disallowed goal.

He's a liability.

Would you be happier seeing Watson starting over him?

[Maneki Neko]

Was it a new stadium announcer or DJ megaparty just chilled out a bit?

new

probably just a stand in though


we should send the club a barrage of support for stand in stan and his conservative approach, so they can tell shouty mc shoutymouth to piss off and not come back

[CountryRoyal]

Just a point on Gunter, it was him that gave the ball way not once, but twice which resulted in their disallowed goal.

He's a liability.

Would you be happier seeing Watson starting over him?

I'd be foolish to say yes based on how many times I've seen him (cameo against Preston and an U21s game). He has impressed me but i've just not seen enough to warrant a start without injury. Let's see how he gets on tomorrow, assuming he plays. I'd have liked to have signed a strong RB to really challenge Gunter/displace but I'm happy enough with Watson's progress to give that one a miss.

[tidus_mi2]

Watson came on and was caught out of position on Preston's first attack, other than that he was solid.

[maffff]

With the style of play we want, fitness is going to be key right?

Did we run out of puff against Preston in the second half? It doesn't seem like that long ago when we were one of the fittest teams in the league, overcoming many late on through our superior fitness when others would start to flag. Will the high intensity that Jaap wants us to play and given the personnel that we have mean we might find ourselves on the reverse later on? Since we came down from the Prem we don't seem to have been one of those teams leaps and bounds above others in the fitness stakes.

Be interesting to keep an eye on that as we settle into to the season.

[Forbury Lion]

With the style of play we want, fitness is going to be key right?

Is everyone doing that sports science stuff these days? I recall when Pardew introduced it we started winning games late on as the team were fit through to the end, this continued after he left through to the Coppell era but it seemed to fizzle out.

I'd like to see us get back to having a team of players who remain fit and alert for 90+ minutes who can capitalise on the opposition flagging in the later stages.

[Hoop Blah]

With the style of play we want, fitness is going to be key right?

Is everyone doing that sports science stuff these days? I recall when Pardew introduced it we started winning games late on as the team were fit through to the end, this continued after he left through to the Coppell era but it seemed to fizzle out.

I'd like to see us get back to having a team of players who remain fit and alert for 90+ minutes who can capitalise on the opposition flagging in the later stages.

I've long held the opinion that losing Niall Clark was quite a blow back then. It appeared to be his work that made us so fit and resilient and once his influence waned with players and Jon Fearn moving on we saw more injuries and looked less fit.

[Ian Royal]

Just seen the 10 minute highlights on player, which is a decent slice of game, unlike the normal 2-3 mins on youtube.

The change in player application from the end of last season is remarkable. They're looking for the ball and the runs, they're moving off the ball and picking positive forward passes, they're calm under pressure. There's little hesitation or unnecessary extra touches. I don't think there's any sea change in what the aim is... I just think they're doing it properly. I think we've lacked a player like Swift since Gylfi left.

It's amazing what a few fresh faces who bring a bit of attacking class into the start of a new season can do for a bunch of players who looked like rabbits in headlights from about November onwards last year.

Looks like we should have won that 3-1. Left ourselves open to the draw if Preston were better by not taking our chances, but we appeared deserved winners. Pretty much as I expected from having listened - and in line with most the reports on here. The question is, will we start taking our chances to kill games off, or will we relapse into getting punished. Fingers crossed for the former.

[Snowball]

Not sure I understand how people are connecting our new style with the need for extra fitness.

Isn't it the opposite?

Every pro will tell you that you waste energy when NOT in possession. It takes energy to win the ball back.

In the first fifteen minutes Preston were chasing hard and then they had to rest.

They were always going to go for it immediately after half time, and they were bound to have one last hopeful fling in the last ten minutes because it was still only 1-0. This, really was a classic 2-0'er where the home side gets the deserved goal, plays within itself, then at some point opens up the opposition on the break when they are trying to pull the goal back. The second "goal" was Rakels's miss.

[Top Flight]

The one really major chance that Preston had in the second half was when Joey Van den Berg, trying to play out of defence passed the ball straight to Dan Johnson who quickly barged through one on one with Al Habsi. Fortunately our brave shot stopper was fast off his line, closed down the angle and made a good save to keep our lead in tact.

Our overall possession based performance against Preston worked really well, but we did make a couple of huge mistakes that could have cost us badly and lost us the game.

I'm sure other teams will punish us this season and we will lose games and drop points. But, we have to accept that as Jaap imposes this new style of play on the team and they work to improve and get better at it.

We got a bit lucky with this result. Our luck won't last forever though and we will suffer numerous defeats this season.

The great thing about this performance in a way was that the serious chances that Preston had were created by ourselves. That was the level of our domination in the game. We created all the chances for us and for them. I think we had 82% possession in the first half. I heard that somewhere.

[CountryRoyal]

The one really major chance that Preston had in the second half was when Joey Van den Berg, trying to play out of defence passed the ball straight to Dan Johnson who quickly barged through one on one with Al Habsi. Fortunately our brave shot stopper was fast off his line, closed down the angle and made a good save to keep our lead in tact.

Our overall possession based performance against Preston worked really well, but we did make a couple of huge mistakes that could have cost us badly and lost us the game.

I'm sure other teams will punish us this season and we will lose games and drop points. But, we have to accept that as Jaap imposes this new style of play on the team and they work to improve and get better at it.

We got a bit lucky with this result. Our luck won't last forever though and we will suffer numerous defeats this season.

The great thing about this performance in a way was that the serious chances that Preston had were created by ourselves. That was the level of our domination in the game. We created all the chances for us and for them. I think we had 82% possession in the first half. I heard that somewhere.

Are you foreign?

Not in a racist way, its just the way you write. Like English isn't your first language?


JW

[Top Flight]

The one really major chance that Preston had in the second half was when Joey Van den Berg, trying to play out of defence passed the ball straight to Dan Johnson who quickly barged through one on one with Al Habsi. Fortunately our brave shot stopper was fast off his line, closed down the angle and made a good save to keep our lead in tact.

Our overall possession based performance against Preston worked really well, but we did make a couple of huge mistakes that could have cost us badly and lost us the game.

I'm sure other teams will punish us this season and we will lose games and drop points. But, we have to accept that as Jaap imposes this new style of play on the team and they work to improve and get better at it.

We got a bit lucky with this result. Our luck won't last forever though and we will suffer numerous defeats this season.

The great thing about this performance in a way was that the serious chances that Preston had were created by ourselves. That was the level of our domination in the game. We created all the chances for us and for them. I think we had 82% possession in the first half. I heard that somewhere.

Are you foreign?

Not in a racist way, its just the way you write. Like English isn't your first language?


JW

No, but I was schooled in Reading. That should tell you all you need to know.

[No Fixed Abode]

Interesting that the game v Preston at the end of last season despite the terrible season drew a bigger crowd than the game on Saturday.

What happened to new season optimism?

It's on holiday.

What is?

[genome]

Interesting that the game v Preston at the end of last season despite the terrible season drew a bigger crowd than the game on Saturday.

By a massive 70 people

[Hendo]

I was playing cricket so make that 69 people unaccounted for.

[Maneki Neko]

Interesting that the game v Preston at the end of last season despite the terrible season drew a bigger crowd than the game on Saturday.

What happened to new season optimism?

It's on holiday.

What is?

new season optimism

[genome]

Worth seeing what Preston brought down, that could account for the 70 people. Was it more or less than last time?

[Maneki Neko]

Fewer

[genome]

Are you correcting me or confirming that it was fewer/less?