zildjian Posted July 16 Share Posted July 16 Decided to buy tickets for the friendly on Friday night. Bought it off the back of Robbo saying going to go into this match like a proper match in lead up to Europe. Interested to see how we line up on Friday as manager said it didn’t really work against fleetwood. Could it be a system change with the lack of natural wingers? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPAFKA Jersey 2 Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 I see Strain done his hamstring last night for United. Out for up to 3 months apparently. That sounds a bit pessimistic for a hamstring injury does it not? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meadowroadsaint Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 21 minutes ago, TPAFKA Jersey 2 said: I see Strain done his hamstring last night for United. Out for up to 3 months apparently. That sounds a bit pessimistic for a hamstring injury does it not? Re Hamstring injuries, I remember Souness saying in an interview that most of the hamstring problems were caused by players failing to prepare properly for Matches, particularly not stretching and or warming up properly. If you were his player then a fine was incoming..... Certainly the "Warm Down" is now the normal pattern after games.....don't remember doing that one at the Racecourse... Maybe I should do some stretches as I've been wakened since 03.20 with both my knees screaming in pain 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomGuy. Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 48 minutes ago, TPAFKA Jersey 2 said: I see Strain done his hamstring last night for United. Out for up to 3 months apparently. That sounds a bit pessimistic for a hamstring injury does it not? It would be interesting to know what side it's on, as he had hamstring injuries while in Australia and in Israel. There's a chance its the same one happening over and over again. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coventry Saint Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 26 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said: It would be interesting to know what side it's on, as he had hamstring injuries while in Australia and in Israel. There's a chance its the same one happening over and over again. It's the big frontal lobe hamstring that affects decision-making and impulse control. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coventry Saint Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 (edited) 20 hours ago, medals said: Agreed on the tougher season for sure. Can you please flesh out your thoughts on width? Won't Roland, Tanser and possibly Sutherland, give us a bit of that? We never played last season with wingers really except Conor who should play more this season. What's your balance concern too? I think at CB we've got 4 good guys for 3 positions and if any one is out we can still be strong. 2 out is another matter though. Fair questions. I have to preface this with the fact that I've not seen any of pre-season yet. Re the balance, I'll admit that's more of a hunch, and it may just be concern based on seeing more squad churn than we were perhaps expecting. I think we've had to go off-plan to build the defence out and, while the caveats about Robinson's excellent transfer record still apply, it's tough to see at the moment what our ideal defensive line-up will be. But that will be sorted and I'm sure it'll be fine. In terms of the width, that is a legit concern and one that is a slight hangover from last season. Assuming we stick with the 5-2-3, two of our first choice wider players in Kiltie and McMenamin are injured. Kiltie hopefully not for too long, but Conor is out for a while and it's a tricky injury to overcome. I remember it effectively retired Owen Hargreaves. Fingers crossed the surgery is a success. As you said, we've still got Tanser, and in a ideal world Rooney will do what we all saw him do at St Johnstone at RWB. But up top is a worry. Robbo has talked about playing with 'two 10s' - which gives me the fear because that's what England did and they were dogshit. I'm not a fan of inside-out wide players and I'd like to see us play with two wide forwards on their correct side, especially on the right where it'd take pressure off Rooney to do what peak Strain was doing. In Mandron we have a player who would thrive on whipped crosses and I want to see more of that. Again, as you've said, Sutherland might be an option here. I would love to see Sutherland playing in front of Tanser. I think it could be a low-risk way of integrating him into the first team without potentially exposing any defensive frailties. A starting front three of Sutherland, Mandron and Olusanya (from left to right) would be dynamic and terrifying. I suspect Idowu will be getting the nod instead of Sutherland, which is probably fair based on pre-season appearances. Don't get me wrong, I'm not being doom and gloom, I just think the combination of players moving on unexpectedly, and a couple of injuries to two of our absolute standout players from last season, has left us weaker and less balanced. Edited July 17 by Coventry Saint 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pozbaird Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 Don’t know if anyone else has dipped into the main Port Vale fan forum to gauge the reaction to Iacovitti leaving them. Like all of these things, best to read a lot of posts and try to take an overall general view. That seems to be ‘no great loss’, ‘gie’s a new signing’, ‘cannot fault the guy’s attitude, always wore the shirt with pride’. That, plus the Vale fans had made up some sort of ‘Yak’ song that they will all seem to miss singing about him. No great surprises really. Same as fans of any club seeing a player leave. Strain for example. Any United fan reading our comments would surely think ‘they liked him, but he’s not a great trainer, can’t last the ninety minutes, and will be needing oxygen after sixty’. I’m more interested in what Iacovitti does in the stripes than what a fan forum says anyway. Mandron anyone? He’s done way better than his ‘nice guy but just runs around like an octopus thrown out of an 18th floor window’ reviews. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buddie06smfc Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 It was only a friendly at the weekend, played half-arsed but if Saints lined up with two 10s then it did nothing to help Idowu and Olusanya, who would have been the 10s. Neither of them could get in the game. I don’t think it helped the wing backs either, Brown and Bwonomo had everything to do themselves down the wing. At least in 3-5-2 the wing back could rely on the centre mid to drift wide to help. 3-4-3 last season the wing backs could rely on Kiltie/McMenamin. I’m no football manager or pretend Twitter football know-it-all but 3-4-2-1 is a pretty brutal setup IMO, just concentrates everything in the middle of the pitch and often ends with players on top of each other. Maybe it’s a case of needing to adjust to the new set-up as we did last season going from 3-5-2 to 3-4-3. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FTOF Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 (edited) Robbo did say he'd tried things that didn't work. Hopefully, on Friday we'll see that he has learned from Saturday's game. I suspect that there are only a couple of places up for grabs. If he goes 3 - 5 -2 then it would probably look something like this: Balcombe Fraser Gogic Iacovitti/Taylor Rooney Boyd-Munce O'Hara ?????? Tanser Olusanya Mandron If we're looking for a defensive midfielder Adeniran fills up the midfield unknown. Smyth looks like a great signing and i'd have him in front of CBM, but that's not going to happen. Although, if we're going all out attack, he may find a way into the starting XI. I'd like to fit Sutherland in the team, but not sure how. Anyway, when Friday's team appears, it will probably show that I have no clue about team selection. Edited July 17 by FTOF 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Jean King Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 3 hours ago, TPAFKA Jersey 2 said: I see Strain done his hamstring last night for United. Out for up to 3 months apparently. That sounds a bit pessimistic for a hamstring injury does it not? My Utd supporting mate was watching it and said he did it trying some sort of flick trick (just what he described it as not seen it). Bizarre way if right enough. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan Bo Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 34 minutes ago, FTOF said: Robbo did say he'd tried things that didn't work. Hopefully, on Friday we'll see that he has learned from Saturday's game. I suspect that there are only a couple of places up for grabs. If he goes 3 - 5 -2 then it would probably look something like this: Balcombe Fraser Gogic Iacovitti/Taylor Rooney Boyd-Munce O'Hara ?????? Tanser Olusanya Mandron If we're looking for a defensive midfielder Adeniran fills up the midfield unknown. Smyth looks like a great signing and i'd have him in front of CBM, but that's not going to happen. Although, if we're going all out attack, he may find a way into the starting XI. I'd like to fit Sutherland in the team, but not sure how. Anyway, when Friday's team appears, it will probably show that I have no clue about team selection. The ???? would be Smith initially if we play 352. I still think CBM will be off at some point. I think he will stick with the 343 with the wingers being able to drift inside to become 10s. In my opinion that formation works best with Kiltie. But I'm sure Robbo will work something out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glenburn bud Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 3 hours ago, meadowroadsaint said: Re Hamstring injuries, I remember Souness saying in an interview that most of the hamstring problems were caused by players failing to prepare properly for Matches, particularly not stretching and or warming up properly. If you were his player then a fine was incoming..... Certainly the "Warm Down" is now the normal pattern after games.....don't remember doing that one at the Racecourse... Maybe I should do some stretches as I've been wakened since 03.20 with both my knees screaming in pain After a game at the racecourse, the warm down was mostly done in the Tudor 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AW saint Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 The main task for Robbo is to balance the side. I thought our shape was wrong against Fleetwood. I suspect he knows this. Will be interesting to see how we line up. Would love to see a place for Sutherland as he looks a player who could unlock defences and deliver crosses we have been crying out for. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddie Holly Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 is it set in stone that our away leg is the 25th? i would hate to think there could be any changes this late 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPAFKA Jersey 2 Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 Anyone received their season ticket card yet (or know when they usually get sent out)? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AW saint Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 1 minute ago, TPAFKA Jersey 2 said: Anyone received their season ticket card yet (or know when they usually get sent out)? I still haven't received mine 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arch Stanton Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 12 minutes ago, TPAFKA Jersey 2 said: Anyone received their season ticket card yet (or know when they usually get sent out)? No 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medals Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 3 hours ago, Coventry Saint said: Edited... on seeing more squad churn... had to go off-plan to build the defence out... In terms of the width, that is a hangover from last season. Kiltie hopefully not for too long, but Conor is out for a while and it's a tricky injury to overcome. ... a couple of injuries to two of our absolute standout players from last season, has left us weaker and less balanced. Thanks for taking the time and for your detailed reply. As you say the manager usually does good but only time will tell. I had hoped both injured players would be back in around 12 weeks. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPAFKA Jersey 2 Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 22 minutes ago, Arch Stanton said: No You answering for everyone? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Jean King Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 49 minutes ago, Buddie Holly said: is it set in stone that our away leg is the 25th? i would hate to think there could be any changes this late Unlikely as although there are possibly other Icelandic ir Albanian clubs still in it next week, Shkoder is a 1 team town and Valur is the only Reykjavik club so can't see any reason for a switch 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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