Fake!
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Bletch the football punditās pundit
Same fucking oldā¦
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What do you think of the new signings?
First impressions of each.
Heās back! As strange as it seems, matchdays just arenāt the same with a bit of Barry nonsense. Love it!
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How did Ings do? Genuinely cannot remember the last time I saw him play.
I guess a draw was inevitable as we generally donāt win on the opening day!
We lost to them at home last year so on that basis, an immediate improvement on last term!
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Seriously I thought he was fantastic.
He even made the other players (Austin) up their games
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Didnāt really have long enough to tell but looked sharp.
Also benefited from the change of formation when he came on so he got more of the ball and got more support from midfield than Austin did before him.
Played quite deep at times when Gabbi came on trying to link up play.
Had a great shot which was saved by Hart (and he was offside anyway) which was really sharp. Jinked to the side to find some space and hit a really powerful shot with hardly any back lift.
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Ings was like a breathe of fresh air, thatās what a Ā£18m striker should look like
And Vestergaard must have a magnetic head cos the ball always seem to end up on it
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Any worries I previously had about Ings have well and truly disappeared. He played really well and Iād start him ahead of Austin - who I wouldnāt start at all.
TBH I thought Austin played better with Ings than Gabbiadini did. I think G is a better lone striker
We were dogshit for the first half hour. Looked like we were still on holiday. Burnley looked much sharper and itās only thanks to a couple of good saves from MC Car Thief that we didnāt go behind.
Vestergaard, Hoedt and Stephens are not blessed with pace. Playing those three at the back in a 5 puts the right fucking willies up me. Particularly if Cedric is doing his canāt be arsed shift.
Stephens was absolute garbage in the first half. Too casual in possession, gave the ball away easily and looked generally a yard off the required pace.
Lemina did nothing but give the ball away for the first half hour.
Austin was totally isolated up top in the first 45. Burnley were on top and we had no threat going forward.
Second half started a bit brighter but we only looked better once we went to 4-4-2/4-4-1-1. Cedric and Armstrong replaced by Elyounoussi and Ings.
All of a sudden Burnley had to deal with our threat and the game changed completelyā¦
Ings made a big difference and I reckon he is going to be a big success at St Marys.
All in all I reckon it was a fair result.
Hughes may have more questions than answers though.
Oh, and for all you haters, Redmond was my MOTM. A real threat in the 2nd half. One wayward pass but consistently beat his man and scared the shite out of Burnley.
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Didnāt go to the game today. Wonāt be doing too much on the home front this year. I am not regretting not doing a 500 mile round trip to see that.
That said, it could have been worse, by all accounts. And weāre not West Ham fans.
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On the plus side: Love the view form my new seat, couple to the left and couple to the right stayed until the final whistle and moaned about anyone leaving early. Threw a few fucks in and nobody moaned. Happy days.
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Agree with most of that, but Iād say that we looked better as the first half went on and ended the half looking the better side. The first fifteen or twenty minutes were horrible - as Bucks said to me at the time, did last season really finish, or is it somehow continuing?
After weād created a couple of chances, notably the header from Lemina, we started to play with greater belief, and looked to be more positive. But itās certainly true that the biggest difference came with the double change. Armstrong had played well I thought, but obviously couldnāt continue. Elyounoussi for Cedric was a surprising change, and one that worked very well. Stephens then looked decent at right back, I thought.
All the new signings looked good, with Ings standing out for me. Armstrong looks positive and committed, clearly wanting to get things moving forward at all times - we could do with that. Vestergaard is a fucking big beast - I noticed in the second half that the Burnley players were all nudging him first when competing for the ball in the air, as that was the only chance they stood of winning the ball. Somehow none of these got spotted by the referee. Elyounoussi delivered some lovely corners, ran at and beat opponents, kept and passed the ball well - just what youād want for a player in his position. Ings looked excellent in pretty much every way, could have scored more than once, linked play, passed the ball well and was a major threat. Looks an excellent signing.
Iād like to see us start with Ings and Gabbiadini up front, as it looks like a partnership with a great deal of promise. After that performance (particularly the last third of the game) I definitely feel that weāll score a few goals this season.
One last thought - as the match went on, Redmond looked better and better - like the player he clearly can be but only very rarely has been with us. A few times in the first half he ran at the defence, and got behind them to deliver crosses. Thatās probably as many times as he did that in the entirety of last season. Second half he played very well. I guess that Hughes has told him to forget all the risk-free bollocks and take a few chances. Wonāt come off every time, but itās what heās meant to be out there to do.
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Hughes is on record on having a lot of faith in Redmond. Always good when he played against us. Perhaps this is the season when he plays really well for us.
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Hereās hoping. You could see today so clearly that Redmond has it in him; he needs someone to give him the belief to do it. Maybe Hughes is that person. As the great John Lee Hooker put it:
One night I was layinā down, I heard Momma and Poppa talkinā
I heard Poppa tall Momma, āLet that boy boogie-woogie.
Cos itās in him, and it got to come outā.
John Lee Hooker knew where itās at.
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I actually saw the last 10 minutes while over Bulgaria. Ings looked lively.
Then I went back to Infinity War
Oh and how shit was last Jedi