Pre season friendlies.

Absolutely devastating for Hernandez his team mates not being given Visas to play recently and the horrible scenes going on in Cuba.

So happy to see him back in the squad and hopefully he can channel that hurt and run through walls next season to restore some pride to his people.

 

Looks like a return to 4-2-3-1, is that necessitated by the lack of first team CBs? Sorensen seems to be missing, no Gunn either. Gilmour and Dimi were expected to be missing.

 

Placheta at left back again maybe Farke is moulding him as a lighting quick wing back

 

1-0 Pukki great team goal Cantwell on the break to Rupp to Teemu to flick it in close range

 

When we first signed him, I remember a journalist from Poland suggesting he might be better suited to the LWB position and could be moulded for it. Hard to know whether it's just because he's the only other left sided player in the pre-season squad.

Omobamidele with a mistake just now which any other opposition would have scored from. Lost the ball when he was basically last man and had time. Fortunately he was over the halfway line, so NCFC had time to recover and Huddersfield fluffed the final ball.

 

Lees-Melou pinging the ball about crisply and accurately; great positional sense and reading of the game. Looks a class player.

 

Very good half lots of slick passing , Mumba looking good and Omobamidele playing quite high up the field with some nice touches .
He's a massive unit at 19 looks to have been hitting the weights over the summer .

I'm wondering if we get priced our of a new centre back Farke will be happy to throw him into the spotlight

 

I wonder if Cantwell has been charged with trying to pick up the mantel from Buendia, playing on the right hand side primarily he is popping up all over the place picking up the ball from deep and starting moves.

I had been thinking the same about Placheta DD and DH. He’s looked decent enough so far, one poor touch bringing the ball down that went out for a throw. Interesting that he is on corners as well, you would think Dowell would take them if we wanted a left footed in swinger.

PLM looks a class above in this game so far, calm and assured on the ball spraying diagonals about, hopefully a dog of things to come.

Not much coming off for Rashica so far.

 

Lees-Melou looks absolute class pinging the ball all over the park .

We look to have more height in the side compared to recent seasons

 

Only two 45 min periods? I've bin cheated guv. (Why does the word bin get auto corrected to him most times?).

 

I think so far, these have been the wrong games for Rashica, and a different challenge for Placheta at LWB. Both of them are better suited to counter-attacking football, whilst our buildup play has largely been pretty pedestrian in the early pre-season games, because the opposition are happy to sit men behind the ball. There's not been the space to carry the ball forward into which both of them should be able to make use of. Unfortunately, if we want to play a counter-attacking style of football, I'm not sure we've got a pre-season game which will test that. Even Sheffield Utd and Newcastle aren't teams that dominate possession or play expansive football.

But you'd hope quality players can have an impact on the game regardless of opposition style when we should clearly be a better side. PLM, Cantwell, Pukki and Rupp all showed that today. I only really watched the first half, but Rashica and Placheta were fairly anonymous, whilst Omobamidele wasn't great.

Equally, they trained this morning and this is Omobamidele's third 90 minute appearance in a row I think? I'm not surprised there was a bit of tiredness.

 

Still very much pre-season, but there was a lot to like about that performance. The team passing and Pukki's finish for the first goal and Idah's excellent chest down and finish for the second goal. Like others, I'm very impressed with Lees-Melou, who reads the game well, sprays passes quickly and accurately under pressure and warms to physical challenges as well - very promising. Rashica seems to need more time to settle in and pick up the pace of the game. Placheta looks good at LWB and uses his pace well to get up and down the pitch and the same could be said of Mumba. Zimmerman has been very calm and assured at the heart of the back 3 and has supported Omobamidele and Mumba well. Our established players look to be getting back to their best and we still have Gibson and Hanley to return.

Edit: I missed out Rupp, who has been excellent in pre-season so far.

 

If only Rupp could score goals.

 

Curate's egg of a game -- good in parts. The Terriers were just that; pressed, harried, often quicker to the ball, and some good attacking play. For all the height added, we still too often got knocked off the ball by more physical opposition (PLM held his own). Didn't see much of Dowell apart from one good free kick while, for the second time, Thompkinson looked almost as composed and capable as Omobamidele in his brief appearance. Rupp and PLM looked as if they'd been playing together for much longer than just a few training sessions.

 

You need to remember Huddersfield are a week ahead in their pre season planning, so not surprising they were a bit sharper.

 

Sorensen and Gunn missed out today because they've tested positive for Covid, and are now isolating. Hopefully that doesn't spread further in the squad, and their symptoms are mild!

 

True, but one might still hope for a bit more by way of a response once the situation became evident?

Pleasing to see, incidentally, what a useful player H. Toffolo has developed into. Well done to him.

 

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Have to admit, I thought the filming/commentary facilities at Colney would be just a little bit better than this! Especially as this is the "top" pitch, with the new stand. I had a look the other day as to what was going on with that stand, wondering whether the pandemic had meant the club hadn't completed the investment there. It looks finished in this clip, probably ~200 seats?


In theory, academy games should be hosted on that pitch this season, and open to some fans to attend. I wondered if the Womens side might be based there too, as part of integrating them into NCFC, but it seems for now they'll be based at The Nest, on a pitch with seating for about 100 fans. https://www.thenest.org.uk/facilities/pitches/