Well saved.
Game over.
Was Hutch on the bench today?
TV didn’t show him once, just his new assistant.
The hope is that him, Adams and Redmond, when playing at PL pace, with a high press, will look frightening to the opposition. Chuck in the pace of Obafemi and Long and that changes how the opposition plan their game(thank fuck😄).
Ralph wasn’t there.
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He’s in hospital. Knee OP
As pre-season friendlies go it was pretty standard, standout for me was Che Adams, think he will cause problems for defences this year, very industrious, strong, holds the ball well and can take people on and will actually give us an active option at throw ins (we are the worst team I have ever seen for throw ins since I started watching the team 28 years ago), I think £15m will turn out to be a bargain.
Ralph needs to have a little (loud) word in Danny Ings ear about how to take a penalty. Boufal seemed lively when he came on, think he will work better in a more forward pressing team.
Bednarek will be very important for us this year, he was pretty solid, as was Pierre. Hard to really rate the defence at this stage as Koln didn’t offer too much in terms of threat.
Overall a solid win, everyone got a run out and no injuries and the sun was shining, all reasons to go into this season full of far too much optimism and unfaltering hope, come on the saints 
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Ended up watching this from the Northam. That was one fuck of a crowd for a pre-season friendly - the Kingsland was full and there were a good few in the Northam and Itchen too.
I always try not to read too much into a friendly, but as this was the last one before the season starts it’s probably more telling than earlier ones. The line-up and subs give a fair indication of how we’ll line up when the real stuff starts. Most of this is as would be expected - if we play three central defenders it will be three from Vestergaard, Bednarek, Yoshida and Stephens; midfield engine room is Hojbjerg plus either JWP or Romeu, with Redmond, Ings and Adams further forward. Wing-backs in this formation are probably Valery and Bertrand. Put that together and we have a pretty good bench too.
Only a couple of players I hadn’t seen before. Adams to me looked very promising - he’s pretty quick, skilful, persistent and strong, and looked to me like a player who can read the game too. I reckon he’ll score a few and get a lot of free kicks. Would have liked to have seen a bit more of Djenepo, but you can’t have everything. Interesting that Cedric came on for Bertrand rather than Valery - he looked pretty decent there to me, but then he has done before. If he’s committed to staying then that’s no bad thing.
Not exactly a high-paced game, but we looked pretty decent a lot of the time. And as I’ve been reading Gav’s post while typing this one, I agree entirely about Bednarek. He’s classy.
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We’ve made some bad buys over the last few years, this one was a belter, £5m wasn’t it? Great signing.
One of the ones that has taken a season to adapt to the premiership but he’s come good…
Che Adam’s did look dangerous up front. I called him Ched Evans in discussions with S.o.s. He would be dangerous.
It didn’t help with Hughes not picking him!! Certainly seems to make a lot of good interceptions and how many goal line clearances / last ditch tackles last season? Virtually like a new signing!!
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If JWP is playing I’d rather he takes pens to be honest. He hits them good and true, a bit like Sir Rickie used to.
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Agree.
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