The first Match Thread - Home to Villa, 17th Aug - 17:30

steve

Work to do i guess

thornburyiron

New manager and staff, lots of new players but same failings. The stats on that game were almost identical in every aspect but they always looked the more likely to score and we always looked the more likely to concede.

Pengeman

We looked so vulnerable in defence and Villa were good on the counter. We rarely win the first game of the season. May be a bit early to be phoning Moyes.

Lukerz

Lots of work to do.

MIAHammer

Disappointing result but I'm not too disappointed with the performance. We always knew there would be a bedding-in process.
Some progress shown over last season in terms of possession.

BubblesNeverDies

MIAHammer said:

What are the odds of Dhuran coming on as a sub and scoring?

This is down to you MIA

West Ham - same old, same old.

Just before they scored I was saying far too much space over on the (our) right, they'll score here. Surely I can't be the only one to see that.

jay_in_cpt

Lukerz said:

Let’s be honest, should’ve signed him over Fullkrug.

IMO I would never suggest that unless I watched a lot of other league football, but hey Luke, if that's your thought's, up to you....

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

First 30 minutes was pretty rubbish but thought we grew into the game and more then held our own with a very good Villa side

We just knew Duran was gonna score

Thought Kilman looked good, and thought Rodriguez grew into it after finding the pace hard, plus Summerville looked exciting

Kudus obviously our biggest threat, Paqueta and Bowen were poor and Antonio well off the pace

BerlinHammer

New manager, a lot of new players. We just need time... and maybe an athletic midfielder 👀

thornburyiron

That apparently was the 16th time we’ve lost our opening PL game. 4 more than any other team.

EXETERHAMMER

Kilman was very good as was Kudus.

Fullkrug us going to need bodies around him which means we will need much more possession higher up the field.

Things will get better.

secrethammersfan

It did look like last year's squad -more or less, with obvious necessary changes- was sent out at the beginning, and told to play as they know how to. I know that's what pre-season is for etc. etc., but I'm hoping to see small, incremental changes taking place over the next few months. Let's see if the squad is set out the same at next home game, with one or two changes. Evolution, not revolution. At least, I can only hope that's what Lopetegui is up to!

BubblesNeverDies

EXETERHAMMER said:

Kilman was very good as was Kudus.

Fullkrug us going to need bodies around him which means we will need much more possession higher up the field.

Things will get better.

You mean like Scamacca and Haller needed bodies around them. What happened to them?

steve

We need Alvarez back asap

Bazshuayi

I had to work so it was always going to be a check my phone periodically thing. After seeing our team I was a bit disappointed more of the new players didn't start. Defo would've started Summerville and Fullkrug along with Todibo and AWB ( He played a full match against Liverpool recently) as they've all been here training long enough (and aren't naive kids). Maybe a case of me also wanting the shiny new things on show.

First thing I did after I saw our team was to check and see if Duran was in their squad. Yes plenty of us knew the downside potentially of that. I did want us to cheer his intro and for him to have a stinker. If he hadn't celebrated the goal I'd have still wanted him. Now he's dead to me haha

Also, now Emery saying he wants him to stay... Nice change of tune (probably provoked by the sale of Archer).

Was aware we usually lose first game but really hoped an early win would boost the team and we would start riding a crest of a wave with everyone scared of us! Hopefully we will gel quickly and the quality of the new players allied to the good ones we already had will shine though and we will be Europe bound next season. Ended optimistically 😁

EXETERHAMMER

BubblesNeverDies said:

EXETERHAMMER said:

Kilman was very good as was Kudus.

Fullkrug us going to need bodies around him which means we will need much more possession higher up the field.

Things will get better.

You mean like Scamacca and Haller needed bodies around them. What happened to them?

Different manager who I hope can make it happen

MIAHammer

On the plus side, it was good to see the manager bring off Bowen and Paqueta, showing that no one is safe from being substituted.
On the downside I think our defence should have been bolstered more and earlier.

BubblesNeverDies

thornburyiron said:

That apparently was the 16th time we’ve lost our opening PL game. 4 more than any other team.

With Palace (one of our bogey teams) away next followed by Citeh at home, I can see us with null points after the first three games.

Lukerz

It will take time, but Liverpool started quickly, Brighton started quickly. It’s not a case of a new management team or/& new players means a slow start. It can be done. You can get a cohesive unit out on the pitch quickly. I think, ultimately, Villa are simply a much better side than us & it showed as they could easily have had five goals.

Palace will give us a fairer assessment but they are a tough team & we all know football is a results game & it doesn’t take long before the pressure builds & then the pressure to get the new style right increases. Our defending was abysmal yesterday & that’s all I can really take from the game.

Kilman looked very good. Kudus was good but his approach can’t be keep running forward with his head down trying to beat several players. We need to build our attacking play.

Pengeman

Coufal was neither a defender nor a midfielder, and got regularly caught out. A case of poor coaching, I think? A lot of defending looked last-ditch, Midfield didn't provide much of cover defence. We had a good 15-20 minute spell in the second-half, but there wasn't much of a cutting edge. Need changes for the Palace game.

Lukerz

Even though they weren’t all great, we became a worse team when Antonio, Bowen & Paquetá all left the field. We had relative control of the game until they went off.

IronHerb

BubblesNeverDies said:

thornburyiron said:

That apparently was the 16th time we’ve lost our opening PL game. 4 more than any other team.

With Palace (one of our bogey teams) away next followed by Citeh at home, I can see us with null points after the first three games.

We've lost 3 of or our last 10, winning 5, at Palace. More like were their bogey team.

thornburyiron

They took 4 points off us last season inc a 5-2 drubbing

MrsGrey

Lukerz said:

Kudus was good but his approach can’t be keep running forward with his head down trying to beat several players.

Team leader for fouls against and being disposessed ;hmm

IronHerb

Lost the ball 22 times. His runs were exciting but not enough end product.

IronHerb

thornburyiron said:

They took 4 points off us last season inc a 5-2 drubbing

So a draw and a loss makes them a bogey team?

thornburyiron

There’s not a lot of difference in the records between us over the last 25 years or so. The number of wins is about the same

chicagohammer

Palace is more of a test and an important game as realistically we should not expect much against city and we do not want to find ourselves sitting at the bottom after three games.

That being said, I think there were plenty of positives to be taken from yesterday’s game, for starters I thought that the new players all looked very promising indeed, I fully expect some of the old guard to give way to the new arrivals and I am quite excited to see how this season pans out

IronHerb

thornburyiron said:

There’s not a lot of difference in the records between us over the last 25 years or so. The number of wins is about the same

That's not the point though. Bubbles said they are one of our bogey teams, I begged to differ.

thornburyiron

Given that at any point in any season we very rarely win against a top six side whoever they may be at that point, you could say that probably about 60% of the teams are our bogey sides.