No Djed Spence, Joe Rodon or Tanguy Ndombele again amongst 13 subs named, others such as Scarlett and Whiteman known to be injured, Keeley u21 GK also not included. Sanchez probably not included due to transfer situation.
Match finishes 5-1 but :
First half - Kane penalty and concede one but about 25 shots on goals
Second Half - Richarlison hattrick (and 2 disallowed for offside) and Lo Celso scored and 2nd half with almost 20 shots on goal.
So our 'B' side is better than 'A' side - same as v Wham and an internal match. Something for Ange to analyse.
Positives include :
- Richarlison remembering how to score
- Perisic, Lo Celso and Sarr staking claims to stay, the first two surprise me, but its Perisic as a winger not wing back. Lo Celso ..... , maybe no Argentina matches coming up so puts in the effort ?
- I'm still not convinced we can play both Porro and Udogie as full backs as neither convincing as defenders : IMO might be we play with Udogie and Royal, playing the more defensive RB ? So we have possible solutions in the existing squad. But probably need more defensive coaching, whilst creatively/attacking wise we look fine.
But pre-season has not been testing for the players !