[Albion] Villarreal friendly 10/8/24

[SeagullinExile]

Important to remember it’s our last pre season game and one of their first. La Liga starts later than the Premier League so you’d expect us to be sharper

You sure about that?

They’ve played 4 pre-season matches.

Their first La Liga match is on August 19th

 

[heathgate]

Rather than be so adversarial, maybe just accept that someone made a mistake?

Don't be silly, you've got to go through the whole process,... NSC Inner Sanctum will scatter a sprinkling of 'ignore' on your profile, ... overlapped by comments about Gillingham, Hereford, WSU seat perspectives, trips to Marseille, Athens, Rome and the Dam..... but never fear, after a suitable period of rehabilitation, you will receive a random 'like' on a post, you will know then that you are back in the fold.

 

[trueblue]

Only seen the highlights but again looks like the attackers are much more selfish, in a good way. First thought around the box seems to be to shoot or, a bit further out, look for a quick forward pass. Maybe Hurzeler hasn’t got the XG obsession that characterises so many coaches, always trying to score the perfect goal, Guardiola-style. Would be quite happy with that as getting lots of shots away builds real pressure I think - and then anything can happen.

Whether we can do it against a low block in the Premier League without the big spaces we’ve seen in preseason is the question. Perhaps we’ll be back to endlessly knocking the ball about, patiently waiting for an opening. Or maybe it’s Hurzeler’s tactics that are causing those open spaces? That would be good. Looking forward to seeing how it pans out.

 

[The Wookiee]

Um, but we had a clean sheet today…?

I feel confident we’ll do better than last year when we went to somewhere round Christmas before keeping a clean sheet!

And last week

 

[Mike Small]

Y

Everton play it out from the back? I assume you watched Pickford for England in the Euros? It was like the Peter Kaye John Smiths advert at times.

You're right of course but they may try once or twice in the first 10 minutes! Let them do it the first time, give them a false sense of security, then pounce the next time. You can be sure the moment they lose possession it will revert to Wimbledon tactics for the rest of the game. Dave Bassett lives on!

 

[BrickTamland]

The press was fantastic. Remains to be seen how it will work in the PL and I imagine it will take a few games to fully click, but when it does teams won’t enjoy playing against us.

 

[severnside gull]

On another day they could have been 3 up inside 15 minutes.

That is undoubtably true and Everton will play long balls on the counter. Will we modify our approach? We shall see……….

 

[NorthstandRacoon]

Only seen the highlights but again looks like the attackers are much more selfish, in a good way. First thought around the box seems to be to shoot or, a bit further out, look for a quick forward pass. Maybe Hurzeler hasn’t got the XG obsession that characterises so many coaches, always trying to score the perfect goal, Guardiola-style. Would be quite happy with that as getting lots of shots away builds real pressure I think - and then anything can happen.

Whether we can do it against a low block in the Premier League without the big spaces we’ve seen in preseason is the question. Perhaps we’ll be back to endlessly knocking the ball about, patiently waiting for an opening. Or maybe it’s Hurzeler’s tactics that are causing those open spaces? That would be good. Looking forward to seeing how it pans out.

Great post, I'm hoping that is the case, I think we play around with it waaayyy too much around the oppositions area.

 

[Seagull58]

Bit of both. Our pressing was so aggressive and effective they simply couldn’t get out………same for QPR last week. Interesting to see how it works against better teams, and

Bit of both. Our pressing was so aggressive and effective they simply couldn’t get out………same for QPR last week. Interesting to see how it works against better teams, and Dycheball.

Pickford coaching video

 

[Anger]

Pickford coaching video

That is quality!

I could happily watch hours of that.

 

[Seagull58]

That is quality!

I could happily watch hours of that.

Here are some quality goalkicks. Let's see Hurzeler's boys press these.

 

[Greenbag50]

Was at the game and though we looked great going forward….
Massive gap when the 2 FB’s push up to press leaving the 2 CB to cover if we lose it.
As mentioned before, huge gaps at RB, they were playing that diagonal all day. Minteh was asleep and JV has no pace to catch up.
Need a fast and dynamic RB in this system.

 

[Dave the hatosaurus]

That was crazy skill! The reaction to it around us was brilliant. He’s still not at 100% as he showed with the one on one chance in the second half when he took a heavy last touch which gave him a bad angle to then shoot from, but when he is 100% again, good luck to all other PL defences!

Minteh, Joao Pedro and Mitoma playing together week in, week out in our attack is a mouth watering prospect!

I really enjoyed yesterday, it felt really refreshing and positive after the drudgery of the last few months of the previous season. After the first 10 minutes we comfortably outplayed a decent Villareal side. Our press was superb all game and Wieffer looks like an excellent signing, our centre midfield will not be bullied this season like it was so often last season. Minteh also a superb piece of business. Barco was excellent and I really enjoyed Sarmiento’s perfornce too - so much confidence and desire.

Only two negatives for me really - Veltman who was better in the second half but really struggled in the first, we do need a new right back in this system. The difference with Barco on the left was huge.

And the second was Dunk who looked rusty, understandably as it’s his first game back but is he ready for next week? I don’t know if it’s the new shirt but he also looked massive like he’d been lifting heavy weights in the gym when not playing for England this summer?! Looked heavy. Hopefully they have a behind closed doors game for him and Joao Pedro this week.

Funny how people see different things, i thought Veltman was ok but was obviously under orders to take up some strange positions for a right back. Quite often in the first half both he and Minteh were towards the middle of the pitch even popping up in the centre circle. I suppose that is something to do with backing up the high press when Villareal had possession on their right hand side deep in their own half but seeing their number 25 in oceans of space on their left did give me cause for concern. However the longer the game went on the fewer the times he received the ball so something was obviously working out.
Everton will be a real test as i think their low block/quick break style of play may be able to exploit that space. Also as the season progresses and all the backroom analysts of the other clubs have picked over our tactics and looked for weaknesses, will we be able/need to adapt?
Time alone will tell...........

 

[Jimmy Grimble]

Pickford coaching video

Lol. Stick a boomer in front of that, they’d lose their nostalgic head. Absolute dog shit.

 

[Farehamseagull]

Funny how people see different things, i thought Veltman was ok but was obviously under orders to take up some strange positions for a right back. Quite often in the first half both he and Minteh were towards the middle of the pitch even popping up in the centre circle. I suppose that is something to do with backing up the high press when Villareal had possession on their right hand side deep in their own half but seeing their number 25 in oceans of space on their left did give me cause for concern. However the longer the game went on the fewer the times he received the ball so something was obviously working out.
Everton will be a real test as i think their low block/quick break style of play may be able to exploit that space. Also as the season progresses and all the backroom analysts of the other clubs have picked over our tactics and looked for weaknesses, will we be able/need to adapt?
Time alone will tell...........

Barco was doing exactly the same on the left and coming inside when we were pressing but he pressed better, dealt with their threats more efficiently and was able to recover more effectively than Veltman with his greater pace.

I watched them both closely as it was one of the most intersting parts of our play yesterday and there’s no doubt Veltman struggled.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

Barco was doing exactly the same on the left and coming inside when we were pressing but he pressed better, dealt with their threats more efficiently and was able to recover more effectively than Veltman with his greater pace.

I watched them both closely as it was one of the most intersting parts of our play yesterday and there’s no doubt Veltman struggled.

This is a good analysis. I was at the Tokyo Verdy game and we had the same issue down our right then too. They would often have two players in acres of space down that side. Unfortunately I was watching less closely and couldn't work out what we were trying to do so it's good to see a concise precis of the issue. Is the guy from Turkey the answer?

 

[scwiffy]

Funny how people see different things, i thought Veltman was ok but was obviously under orders to take up some strange positions for a right back. Quite often in the first half both he and Minteh were towards the middle of the pitch even popping up in the centre circle. I suppose that is something to do with backing up the high press when Villareal had possession on their right hand side deep in their own half but seeing their number 25 in oceans of space on their left did give me cause for concern. However the longer the game went on the fewer the times he received the ball so something was obviously working out.
Everton will be a real test as i think their low block/quick break style of play may be able to exploit that space. Also as the season progresses and all the backroom analysts of the other clubs have picked over our tactics and looked for weaknesses, will we be able/need to adapt?
Time alone will tell...........

A lot of that was down to the excellent defensive work form Mitoma and the complete lack of tracking back from Minteh. Despite all the Minteh positives and plaudits, I think Herzeler will be in his ear about his defensive work. Having said that, Barco was surprisingly excellent defensively, his positioning was scary at times (although this seemed by design/tactics) but his recovery’s and interceptions were spot on - didn’t expect that from him.

Back on topic, I found it funny that after all the deep dives and breakdowns of Hurzelers tactics, we have ended up with a 442 (although to be fair at times it was melding into a 4213 with JP dropping deep)

 

[marlowe]

Both speak very well…….

Good to see he's keeping the GP teeth sucking tradition going. Thats something I always missed in RDZ's interviewing technique and it maybe even played a part in his departure . I wonder if it was one of the main criteria TB and PB insisted on when they hired the new manager. All the candidates probably had to demonstrate their teeth sucking technique during the interview. FH was clearly the obvious choice.

 

[el punal]

Barco was doing exactly the same on the left and coming inside when we were pressing but he pressed better, dealt with their threats more efficiently and was able to recover more effectively than Veltman with his greater pace.

I watched them both closely as it was one of the most intersting parts of our play yesterday and there’s no doubt Veltman struggled.

It did seem to be the only weak area in an otherwise very good performance.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

Having said that, Barco was surprisingly excellent defensively, his positioning was scary at times (although this seemed by design/tactics) but his recovery’s and interceptions were spot on - didn’t expect that from him.

This isn't a 'new' feature of his play, numerous videos before he came to us, showed his ability with interceptions. He is a ball winner and his tackling skills are amazing!