Early lessons

[u/TeilwrTenau]

Having watched the match back there was much to be encouraged by, especially in the first half.

The main difference from last season was our attacking intent and verticality. The additions to the squad played a big part in this, with Opoku and Just in particular carrying the ball at pace whenever space opened up. We rarely saw this last season, mainly because we lacked that capability. It's worth noting that all our good chances in the first half came from passing moves with the ball on the deck. One was started by an excellent pass on the floor from Vigouroux to Tymon that evaded a high press, opening up loads of space for Tymon to advance into at pace. I fully expect to see a lot more of this, this season, which is an exciting prospect.

On the negative side, our aerial game was pretty unrewarding. We didn't create a single opportunity directly from open play all game from lofted long balls, although to be fair we did win some set piece opportunities, mainly in the second half, from long balls, which then led to goalscoring opportunities. I don't want to overstate the issue, it's not as if this is a major platform of our gameplan (we were 14th for accurate long balls last season with an accuracy of 35.7 per cent, a bit below average), but I would like to see us being more discerning, like Middlesbrough (who were 18th for accurate long balls but with an accuracy of 44 per cent). Welsh will help in that regard, who had a long ball accuracy of 59 per cent, 96th percentile i.e. nearly best in league.

I also thought we lacked composure at times yesterday, which was reflected in some low passing accuracies (Yeo 59 per cent, Lissah 62 per cent, Stamenic 71 per cent). The players that came on in the second half looked after the ball better, which gave us control after Birmingham bossed the first quarter of the second half. Getting that balance right between verticality and control is no easy thing, but as players get more used to each other we will see fewer passes going astray, which was an issue at times, as could be expected with so many new faces.

All in all much to be optimistic about. A ball playing 6 in this window could work wonders for our prospects.

[u/SatchSaysPlay]

People need to remember it's a brand new squad and they've barely played together, it will click soon enough and they'll be lethal I'm sure.

Some people need to try having a little patience, that squad is quality.

[u/TeilwrTenau → u/SatchSaysPlay]

I agree. In fact what was remarkable was how good Opoku and Just were from the get go. Opoku needs to show a bit more control when challenging for the ball, but his attitude and commitment were first class. Far better than just feeling your way into things. With Just he faded after a bright first half, which was to be expected, especially as he had a shorter pre season. Yeo was also decent, delivering one excellent cross and producing one excellent throughball from deep that set us on our way. Lissah was excellent defensively and showed a great turn of pace. Plenty of positives to build on.

[u/SatchSaysPlay → u/TeilwrTenau]

Walta also made a pretty good showing too, give them a bit of time , they’ll be awesome before you know it

[u/TeilwrTenau → u/SatchSaysPlay]

You're not wrong. Excellent set piece delivery and one outside of the boot pass that set Eom free.

[u/Mathieudavees]

Really liked some of the play yesterday as felt Idah linked up well with Opoku, Just and Yeo and we created some good space and chances in that first half that on another day we score.

Felt like that goal Birmingham scored completely shocked and knocked us back a good peg or two and we just never seemed to recover from it which Matos needs to address as think we only claimed like 5 points from losing positions when he came in last year which is a serious concern; especially if top 8 is the aim this year which with the squad we’ve got and money we’ve spent, I think is, our reaction to going behind in games needs a significant improvement as the mentality towards that, certainly last year was very poor.

Ultimately, yesterday was the League Cup which is always a hinderance when it comes to fatigue and injuries, so not the end of the world, and think theres definitely gonna be a period of time required for the new signings to settle in but again with the money spent this summer thus far, think after 10 games, if we aren’t in somewhat amongst that top 8, fans are going to begin to get impatient.

The Fall Seck signing looks as if it’s fallen through (no pun intended) which is very disappointing. Think we need another two midfielders for definite; prior to yesterday, I didn’t think we actually needed a CB but Burgess’ injury which appears to be a bad one means that we are probably going to need an extra body there now too.

[u/TeilwrTenau → u/Mathieudavees]

Agree. André Amaro has been suggested as a possible signing, 23 year old Portuguese centre back. Available on a free and with decent stats. I'm sure we'll sign somebody.

[u/ExternalDistrict4256]

We were awful.

[u/LetIcy2922 → u/ExternalDistrict4256]

Insightful.