RPL Athletic Dressing Room

[SaintM]

I might not be in.

Gay.

[SaintM]

Assuming Craig can make it, here is the lineup.

----------Hereticboy-----Razzle-------------
-Scratch-------------------------------TMB--
-------------------Vincenzo-----------------
--------------------------------------------
-SaintM------------------------------SaintM-
--------------------------------------------
-------------------Outsider-----------------
--------------------------------------------
-------------Chris303---------Sith----------

I may change things around for the second match, but will play it by ear.

First match kicks off at 9.30, so please be online by 9.25 at the latest. I'll be around a bit earlier than that, so if we have a few people on we can have a kick around.

[vincenzo]

yep, looks fine with me, Ill be on a bit earlier too

[Razzle]

I'll be on early for practice if I can.

[Chris303]

Cool, bags of goals from me tonight then. I can be on early too.

[Chris303]

Now, anyone?

[SaintM]

I'll be on in 5

[sith]

On my way also.

[hereticboy]

Sorry, lads. Won't be on tonight.

I am genuinely very sorry .

Edit - I'll be checking how you're getting on though, so do me proud!

[vincenzo]

im on now, lets squeeze a game ortwo in beforehand shall we?

[pompey88]

Chris...

[SaintM]

We were not doing too badly until the OG.

I think that knocked the stuffing out of any momentum we had, and after that the simple passing and movement turned into long through balls and attempts to chip from outside the box.

[SaintM]

LB went a bit AWOL at times too.

I was thinking that we could have a bit of free reign in the WB positions, but on tonight's evidence I think it's best we just keep them back in our half.

[vincenzo]

Considering this is the first time playing together, we were always going to need some gel time.

Lets get some practice together before the league proper

[SaintM]

Other than that, it was not too bad.

Pretty much the same old story against City. They overload the attack and put the back four under huge pressure for the entire game.

Keeping hold of the ball should be a priority for us. We have not got the strength or height to muscle our way into possession, so we don't wanna give it away too easily.

[SaintM]

Considering this is the first time playing together, we were always going to need some gel time.

Lets get some practice together before the league proper

Aye, there were certainly some positives to take from the games. The last 45 mins of the night may of been quite tough, but the rest of the time we were more than holding our own.

I'll try and wangle the fixture list to give us City last

(j/k Disciple. It'll be random..)

[pompey88]

It's going to be hard season, Mexico aren't very good let's be honest. Two very good squads in City and United also have in my opinion the best teams in America and Greece. It's going to be tough for the rest of us.

We played OK tonight though, things could have been different if Chris didn't have a few moments.

[Baring]

I'd say Uruguay are alot better than USA, its just we play to their strengths.

[sith]

I thought we did ok considering it was our first proper night as a team. Our first goal was pure class for example.

Franco has got to go however, no pace, not much physical strength and slow on the ball - just awful.

[SaintM]

Scout out some players you wanna try in the next praccy session.

(Tuesday at 10pm chaps!)

[vincenzo]

Well tbh you're not going to get much better, Blanco can maybe play the CAM so pushing Guardado up to ST, but the main thing is to move the ball a lot quicker, dont leave gaps at the back and not use the throw ball pass so much.

Like City use the US, the strengths of Mexico are good technically and fast on the ball, its not a flick on from a 7ft CF or battering through the middle - we should use what they got

[Chris303]

Omg guys, omg. Apologies!

[Mercury]

LB went a bit AWOL at times too.

At Wanderers I never got out of our penalty area so going forward was all new for me

Seriously though, I thought I did okay in the first game but kept wandering in to my old position of CM in the second game. Haven't played at LB for a while so sure things will improve. I thought we looked good going forward but clearly need a bit of practice to get the defence organised.

Omg guys, omg. Apologies!

Better to get it out of the way in the cup.

[vincenzo]

No worries Andy, I guess it must have been frustrating when ball kept coming back to the back four.

FWIW I always thought you were a tidy DM so naturally you would play the short pass whereas a Def might hoof it instead

[SaintM]

Aye, we all drifted a bit at times but overall did ok.

A bit of praccy ironing out the positioning should set us up for the league.

The main lesson learned is not to give Chris any opportunity to gaffe

[RickyDVT]

You were shit, theres no hope for you.

[PeterUK]

Ricky -

Don't.

Give.

Tips.

To.

The.

Opposition!!

Even if we did find the pace a bit hard to deal with last night.....

[RickyDVT]

lol, there not tips! Just observation.

Edited.

[PeterUK]

That's better

(I was only kidding btw)

[SaintM]

Well guys, now that Ricky has cruelly taken away the step-by-step answers to our prayers, we'll have to work on few things ourselves.

What a bastard!

...

Anyway, if anyone has suggestions on what we need to work on just let me know before tuesday's praccy. I've got a few things I'd like to us to work on regarding defensive play, but didn't get much chance to see how things were working further up the pitch.

We don't need to make any major changes, just a few refinements here and there.