Feels like it’s going as expected, squads are very unbalanced
Very much so. It feels like Sevilla have started a young team with a spine of experience, which includes Nianzou & Iheanacho who’s barely trained. Idumbo has done ok at times, but cuts back too often. Agoume looks like he’s never left.
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The hesgoal streamstill working for me
Great goal from Peque!
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Bad sign… GP has no problem with being humiliated.
Ejuke looked quite good 
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Doesn’t that seem a bit harsh considering how fractured our squad is versus theirs? We have a lot of our talent just getting back to the squad or still out on international duty. They damn near had their full first team squad on the pitch the entire game.
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GP could’ve always fielded a better squad today. There was a lot of depth on the bench. Decided to go with a weak lineup instead, against a team that can humiliate you even with their B team.
Not a good sign for me, but not drawing any conclusions from this alone.
i watched the highlights and it seems that Ejuke is very dangerous and creates the sort of openings where a decent centreforward can score goals. We don’t have a decent centreforward, unfortunately.
We don’t have a defence either, unfortunately.
Liverpool’s first was an unstoppable shot, their third I think offside in the build up. Peque scored a great goal, but I didn’t see enough to say how he played. Same with Nianzou although he did stop a dangerous attack.
I think we need more games but the league is already upon us and the team will have to get a settled eleven to face the challenge.
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Just caught the replay of the game, so i’ll just leave some thoughts. It’s also the last pre-season friendly, so i’ll kinda summarize my overall feelings on where the squad is heading into the new campaign. Today was a good matchup to test our level, and it’ll clearly be a tough start to the season, regardless of the schedule. There were some bright spots, but also some glaring weaknesses that we could probably patch up during these first few weeks.
Defence:
Nyland still looks a solid choice in goal. Perhaps could have done better on Liverpool’s 4th goal and gone to ground sooner, but some of these shots he faced were top quality. Good save on Salah’s effort late in the game. He will be vital when it comes to starting our attacks with his ability on the ball.
Nianzou played his best half of football in pre-season, and probably in a while. He unfortunately was put in some tough spots after errors were made elsewhere on the pitch. His distribution was clean, recovered well, and had a decent read of the game. But as always, you need a few games to really see where a CB stands, and Tanguy will need to prove himself a helluva lot more than a good 45 minutes in pre-season. At least there’s some hope.
The other members that started the game is where the blame can mostly be attributed to. Ramon often got caught out of position by pushing up too far (may also be a Pimienta problem, but more on that later). LFC’s 3rd goal and the missed 2v1 chance before that were directly generated from him not occupying that space. You see him trailing behind on both plays. Dario stood no chance against Luis Diaz, and showed too much of the goal on the strike that put them 2-0 up. I still think he can be decent, but his inexperience was exposed today – trial by fire. Salah surprisingly didn’t trouble Pedrosa too much, cause that’s a LB that struggles defensively. I worry for that flank, particularly since LCB is a position we haven’t filled yet. Gudelj is poised to be the stand-in for now, but it’s obvious there are still doubts whether he can perform well as he did under Mendilibar.
Midfield:
Although under a different coach and different system, Agoume seems to be adapting well. He comes right on time with the injury to Sambi, at an integral position where most of our play will be generated. Looked decent on both sides of the ball, so midfield is overall less of a worry heading into Matchday 1. This is also backed by the likes of Saúl, who’s arguably been the best signing so far. He shows a lot of leadership on the pitch, and fills gaps nicely when plays break down. Sow has all the qualities of a good box-to-box, and simply needs to showcase them consistently. He’s often popping up in dangerous spaces, so he certainly understands the assignment. Rivera has been stellar on the ball whenever he’s come in. We’re pretty much covered at DM, so Sevilla Atletico has got themselves a stud in midfield. Collado however is still a bit raw, but doesn’t shy away from making plays. Will need more match practice, but he’s coming along well. Manu Bueno would be my 6th midfielder in the squad, as he’d benefit alot playing with the 1st team. We’re not in Europe this season, so we could use of these spots to develop young talent.
Attack:
I’m excited by our lineup of forwards this year cause we got younger, and we have proper coverage across the frontline. Yes! We finally have recognizable left-wingers! Ejuke looks to be the “Nolito” of this season, and will probably be the steady 1st choice at LW. We’ve been sorely lacking in 1v1 situations, that all we started to rely on were crosses. This also helps us put Lukebakio in his preferred position on the right. I hope he can stay healthy cause I look to him to be a main goalscoring contributor. I think he’s still working his way back to be at his sharpest, but with Suso & Ocampos still here, we have tremendous options to change the look of our offense. The centre-forward spot still looks up for grabs, but the competition is heating up at the right moment. Isaac scored a brace in his last outing, while Iheanacho displayed classic hold-up play that allowed our team to breathe and transition smoothly into the attacking third. Peque is a wildcard, as he’s naturally a support-striker, and his playmaking ability can be lethal in tight spaces. He showed great technique with that finish to give us our only goal of the game. It would be interesting if Pimienta ever decides to play him beside another striker. Also, should Idumbo get a spot on the 1st team?
Coaching:
Pimienta inherits quite the problem by giving a troubled team a new identity and implementing a progressive style of play. One thing that stands out is how often the fullbacks tuck inwardly. Lately, i’ve seen him push the CB into midfield (usually Gudelj; Ramon in the 1st half vs LFC), and the fullbacks going infield beside the remaining CB to form a back-3 to start off our attacks. I’m not gonna bore y’all with another convo about formations, but i’m just wondering how that will work with someone like Navas. I think Acuña would benefit the most playing out of those positions (will he even be here?), but I honestly just want to see us defend well first before we see any complicated ManCity-esque positional play at the back. He had quite the defensive record in the first half of the season with Las Palmas, so i’d like to see some of that replicated here.
TLDR: Yea our defense sucks, but overall the team got a facelift. Saul is future captain material. Pimienta might be trying to be too cute with his style of play, but we finally have a left-wing!
Final thoughts:
I’m quite optimistic to start the season because we’re visibly working towards something. There’s the obvious doubt in defence, but other longstanding problems are being addressed. Of course results will always be important, but I can go into Matchday 1 thinking that Sevilla will actually show up to the game. Pimienta’s job is to put the players in the right mentality to get us off the blocks on the right foot, regardless of the personnel. Every player on this squad can contribute and it is their duty to give it their all for the badge. Football’s back y’all!
VAMOS MI SEVILLA!!!
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Hello!
So my reflections from the match were:
In general, I’m still not totally sure of the style the team were trying to play. I’ve seen a lot of training footage of short, quick passing in rondos, but that didn’t seem to amount to a lot on the pitch, with a lot of passes going backwards and not a lot of progressive runners to receive the ball forwards. The ball often seemed to get turned over in midfield with players passing loose or into easily-defended spaces.
The wingers in the first half were mostly ineffective, with both Idumbo and Suso running forward only to stop and pass the ball back inside. Ejuke and Lukebakio were more effective in the second half driving at the Liverpool full backs and pushing them backwards.
There was a moment in the first half when Saul was shouting at Iheanacho to come short, whereas he was gesturing to play the ball for him to run onto. Then at half time Nyland and Saul were out on the pitch before the rest of the team having a private chat.
The team tried to find Iheanacho with crosses, but he was being marked by Van Dijk, so that wasn’t working. When crosses continued to be used in the second half, Peque wasn’t winning anything. Peque’s goal was class, after some effective work from Ejuke. Otherwise Peque spent most of the game trying to cut passing lanes, but he did have some good touches to try and create 1-2’s.
Luis Diaz definitely had a productive day coming in off the left against Dario and Salah was often easily found out on the right with Pedrosa having to sprint back after moving too far forward. I thought Salah looked very off his game though, almost tired.
Defensively we were caught out along the flanks or with long balls. Nianzou made a good goal-saving block in the first half and in general didn’t look too shaky. I thought Ramon looked alright as a back-up CB, but he was a little too naive at times. Jota’s goal was a peach and the 4th from Nyoni was off a quick finish from a loose ball, although as Edi said, maybe Nyland could have done better.
Given Liverpool changed out a few key players at half time & more in the second half AND played Las Palmas with an entirely different team immediately after, I guess it just shows the financial disparity between the EPL and the rest. Sevilla don’t have the money for a deep squad and Atletico roster in the same way EPL teams do.
Great seats up in the Kenny Dalglish stand for the away fans, felt like I was playing/watching FIFA.
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Great seats, indeed! It does look like the exact angle used in the video games!
Thanks for the report. Was the beer cold? Were the seats comfortable? Haha, just trying to get the inside story since it’s been far too long since I’ve been to European football.
Also, thanks @Edinho for your preseason summary there. Great job balancing the typical anxiety of this time of year with the factors that look exciting. Overall, I’m not too terribly concerned about yesterday’s result. Preseason is just never that predictive of how the season will go. I’m most excited about Ejuke and Lukebakio’s potential this year. I’m hoping both will show their best and leave some defenders in the dust. What was the phrase they used to use in the NBA for Allen Iverson? Break their legs? Something like that, lol. But I think it’s appropriate the in basketball and football 
the term “juke” is used regularly to describe a movement that fakes out a defender.
If those two show the moves I’ve seen them as capable of, we might need to coin a new term: “luke-ing and juke-ing” (verb) the action of leaving your defender looking foolish based the attacking player’s skill on the ball
Beyond those two, I hope Saúl and Agoumé will become a solid midfield combo.
And yes, back to the anxiety, I really hope we don’t sell Badé last minute with no replacement. Not to mention that we need more than one top notch CB. I was pleased to hear a dose of optimism about TANK. He was a player with so much promise, I’d be thrilled to see him dig out of his mental hole this season and show another side. I wonder if the problem is that he didn’t take Mendilibar’s Spanish tutoring lessons, lol.
Here’s to hoping for an amazing season of exciting football, nervous anxiety, but ending with a place in the table we can be proud of again.
Vamos mi Sevilla, vamos campeón.
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I watched a La Liga preview yesterday and they left Sevilla till last and didn’t have much to say about our chances. They kindly airbrushed the situation as ‘Re-dimensioned finances’, last time I heard that was in regard to Lehman Brothers.
I was impressed by Villarreal’s acquisition, Nicholas Pepe, one to watch.
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Suso missed training for an injured right knee. He’s likely to be out between 4-8 weeks. Thankfully there is depth in the forward positions, but he is unique as one of the only playmakers on the team.
We used to be a nation… 
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A broken nation.
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