PSF: Luton Town 1-1 West Ham Utd (23/7/22)

[BigFatSam]

We won't need our attack for the first game of the season.

Stop stressing.

In fairness the reason we drew with Man City at home was because we took the game to them.

If you try to sit of them you ask for trouble, which is why they scored 2 in the second half!

[alf git]

Losing in the last minute or two really is a strange quirk with us. Still, as someone said, it'd been coming for a while. Rice in particular is irreplaceable. They just ran through our midfield and easily pressured us into turnovers after he went off.

1-1 is a loss now!
Must have missed that rule change. Is it something to do with home advantage?

[SullySpecial]

Twist.

[S-H]

In fairness the reason we drew with Man City at home was because we took the game to them.

If you try to sit of them you ask for trouble, which is why they scored 2 in the second half!

I was joking.

It's pre season, means nothing.

[Dimension Diver]

Ha, my mistake. Conceding in the last minute.

[funky chicken]

Considering we had only 1 recognised centre half in the squad today, we did as well as we could have.

If we had put at least 1 more of our chances away that late goal wouldn’t have mattered.

Positives to take out of the game:

- An improvement from Areola with how he deals with crosses;
- More minutes for Areola, Soucek, Coufal and Rice. Some played the full 90;
- Johnson did okay at centre half considering it’s not his natural position. Not superb, but he ‘did a job’;
- Good performance from Soucek;
- 2 goals in 2 now for Soucek;
- Another promising cameo from Vlasic;
- Ashby did alright during his minutes on the pitch;
- Another neat and tidy showing from Lanzini;
- Even though we are missing chances we’re still scoring goals. We’ve scored at least 1 goal in every friendly so far.

[Lovejoy]

Don’t think we look ready for the season at all. We’ve been poor in attack all pre season. Little bit concerning.

I don’t think we’d be ready even if we’d of had a good pre season.

[OFT]

I'm not ready, the close season...it's sooooo stress free :arry:

[Take It to the Limit]

Sort of performance you’d expect pre season. Nothing majorly wrong, but nothing to whet the appetite. No injuries… that’s the main thing.
Always felt that Vlasic will prove to be a solid signing. And he’s not done much wrong imo during these friendlies.
Not sure what’s going on with Zouma. He’s looked sluggish. Just going by performances in the friendlies, it could be him and Antonio who will need to fight for their places in the starting XI if the new signings materialise.

[BigFatSam]

I was joking.

It's pre season, means nothing.

I agree

[EastleighHammer16]

I’m not seeing what people see in Vlasic at all. Think Soucek looks back to his best though.

[EastleighHammer16]

I was joking.

It's pre season, means nothing.

Results are irrelevant but the patterns of play and how slow we move the ball isn’t something you can just turn on and off. Hopefully next week we will ramp things up a bit.

[MrHammer73]

Watched the last 20 minutes. My big worry is Antonio. He is devoid of confidence in front of goal and he is a confidence player. He just does not look like scoring. For his sake and the team's sake, we need to bring in Scamacca in quickly and hope he hits the ground running.

[Pob!]

I’m not seeing what people see in Vlasic at all.

Thought he looked really positive when he came on...

Good vision and passed the ball well .

[Monkeybubbles]

Zoums looked crocked, like he could hardly move. Was definitely limping towards the end. That's a bit worrying.

[hammer1975]

Am I the only one that thought we grew into the three at the back formation? - until loads of subs changed the flow of the game anyway.

Johnson looked decent in that RCB role to me, Cresswell was a massive improvement on Rangers game. Masuaku and Benrahma wee busy and saw lots of the ball - neither clearly ‘sharp’ though. Coufal looks back to his best and can play right wingback as well as right back. Ashby, playing on the wrong side, looks a real player.

Vlasic did better than last season - still want him to really grab hold of a game and hoped he was building to that given some decent bits of play. Now he’s getting a bit more involved in expect him sold imminently!

We lacked a cutting edge and Zouma was terrible when pressed were the two negatives, but hopefully the planned signings address the first and a bit more pre-season solves the other.

[bonzosbeard]

Funny thing pre season games. Veery pedestrian really.

I hate seeing big challenges.

[EastleighHammer16]

Thought he looked really positive when he came on...

Good vision and passed the ball well .

I don’t think he’s looked any different to when he played last season personally.

[mattyD]

We look flat, really off it. Maybe I'm paranoid but something's not right.

[mattyD]

Zoums looked crocked, like he could hardly move. Was definitely limping towards the end. That's a bit worrying.

Looks like he needs to lose some weight.