I mean, it’s their first preseason game. I’ll cut them some slack.
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Felt like only 4 of our players were playing out there. I want to see more of P. Ortiz in a more active midfield.
Plenty of good things, Player not afraid plenty of daring play, commited to high pressure and overall good intensity. Some personal highlights. Ejuke could have scored his first, that wasn’t offside. Suso is a few levels above everyone on the ball. Carmona very active and doing decent also in central positions. Some canteranos are still to far behind but can’t say it wasn’t fun.
They are told to keep up the pressure 45 minutes as if that’s the full match, and swap 11 players for next half. Not realistic, but the goal of the intensity is all you need to start with. I’ve seen way lamer first preseason games.
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I don’t know if Marcáo is still injured 
And we have a squad of about 30 players at the moment, there’s just three on the pitch.
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2nd half XI:
Dmitrovic
Dario - Nianzou - Castrin - Pedrosa
Sow - Bueno - Guillen
Ocampos - Isaac - Idumbo
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Golazo zero a dos
If the Pirates didn’t put their better level squad, second half objectively worse
Less pressure, no teamwork, no daring play or creativity. Insecurity from the back.
Nico Guillen positive. Understand the flows of play and space. Won’t have much hope for Idumbo.
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It’s a first that Nianzou was our best player but there you go.
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No need to look at the scoreboard, its all about the ideas and intention. Which from a team perspective was good first half and missing second half. Not that they were not trying, but less for eachother. Like he lost the ball, i’ll do twice the effort to get it back and we pressure together. Yeah that was completely absent second half. Isaac running solo occasional Guillen helping or Lucas. Bad signs. But fact is, we ran two unbalanced teams and curious what we can do in a more seriously approached friendly.
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He didn’t look like the same player as with SAT early on. Really looked out of sorts today.
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Couldn’t watch this one… but it sounds like we didn’t take it that serious.
Let’s see what we’re capable of in the next one vs. Sporting. That should be a much better test.
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Couldn’t take too much from the match as it was full of cantera players. If anything, both Ramón & Castrín looked more at ease than Salas & Nianzou at the back.
In Nianzou’s case, he’s a prototypical CB who’s lost all the confidence he came here with. The injuries made matters worse, and all we get now are Jordán-level errors from him. I feel it’s all between the ears, but it’s looking like a Vaclík situation — this isn’t the same player we started with. But he’s still only 22yo…
Can’t wait for the next game at Sporting so we can get a look at the new signings. Very curious about Peque and how Pimienta wants to utilize him.
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8 years ago! @RayFK and I. Not sure if Ian is on here.
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Sevilla’s trek to Japan looks to be canceled due to problems with one of the friendlies. They will likely setup another match in Portugal.
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That’s a shame, but maybe it’s not such a bad thing for the players if it cuts down on travel time vs playing time.
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Also who’s going to the Liverpool game and where are you sitting? I’m looking at tickets, but have no idea where to sit. If anyone fancies a meetup let me know 
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Yeah, fully agree. These tours are a necessary evil for building the team’s brand, but definitely not great for the actual footballing. Given the bad footballing over the past two seasons, a break from long preseason travel seems warranted.
I also question whether Japan really has a big enough football-watching market to be a smart destination. I actually don’t know that, though. I could be wrong, tbh, like the folks who are always thinking there isn’t big football money in 
because it’s not a traditional football powerhouse.
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With the Japan trip cancelled - we played a friendly with the Sevilla Atletico team yesterday and won 1-0 (woohoo!)
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We got our 2nd (or 3rd?) friendly today vs Sporting Clube. Perhaps this one we take more seriously?
We don’t have Nyland due to injury and will miss 2 games. 
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New friendly scheduled now that we’re not travelling to Japan for the 2 friendlies.
We’ll play Granada in the Ciudad Deportiva on July 31st at 8:30pm - behind closed doors.
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