Everyone was bad today. Reffing was atrocious. Coates was atrocious. Our defense is atrocious. Our midfield is atrocious. Keizer is atrocious. As the coach would say: "Not good enough"
We won in a friendly match vs. Setubal 1-0. Battaglia played the 90 minutes - a good sign that he can be an option in the near future. Vietto scored the only goal. We played with the following lineup chosen by Leonel Pontes: Renan (Diogo Sousa), Valentin Rosier (Flávio Nazinho), Luís Neto, Tiago Ilori, Jérémy Mathieu (Echedey Carpintier), Rodrigo Battaglia, Eduardo (Matheus Nunes), Yannick Bolasie (Joelson Fernandes), Luciano Vietto, Jesé Rodríguez (Tomás Silva) e Luiz Phellype
How do you foresee our lineup/formation playing out after this transfer window? I feel like we have a ton of options suddenly
Well this is our squad: GK: Renan, Maximiano, Diogo Sousa CB: Coates, Mathieu, Neto, Ilori LB: Acuna, Borja RB: Rosier, Ristovski DM: Battaglia, Doumbia CM: Wendel, Bruno Fernandes, Eduardo, Miguel Luis LW: Bolasie, Fernando RW: Plata, Camacho, Jovane FW: Vietto, Phellype, Jese I would go with a 4-4-2 personally, but instead of the midfielders side by side, one deeper and the other forward. But it's a lot of unknowns (all depends on what these loans bring to the table). But if you wanted to go all out - I'd try a 3-4-2-1:
Plata with his first international goal for Ecuador in only his 2nd appearance. Yet he has more appearances for country than club... Give the kid a chance, let him play in the next game. Hopefully we can still try to get more of his rights as we only hold 50%, but I read that Barcelona wanted him but wanted 100% of his rights which is why we got him.
Phellype looks set to miss Sunday's match at Boavista. Very curious to see what Leonel Bridges - oops I mean Leonel Pontes - will throw onto the pitch.
Phellype and Vietto both out through injury. Time to see what Jese can do. Rosier will start as he was the only RB called. Battaglia also called up for the first time in over almost a year.
Starting XI: Renan; Rosier, Luís Neto, Mathieu, Borja; Doumbia, Wendel, Bruno Fernandes; Plata, Marcos Acuña, Bolasie Rosier and Bolasie with debuts, Jese on the bench. Acuna and Plata wingers.
Insane. Porto score in the 98th minute to win their game. Anyway, let's see what we can do. Braga lost again and we can put some distance away.
Ugly game. No shots from us although defensively we're already miles better. Nothing we could do on the goal, but offensively we're nonexistent. Edit: Finally a chance from Bolasie.
What a shocking first half. Other than the goal (set piece) there was nothing from either team of note. It's noticeable how our lines are closer together, we haven't been the poor defensive team we've been. Rosier has been pretty good for me and curious to see more. But our offense... Acuna is not a winger, Plata looks nervous and has done everything wrong and Bolasie is not a centre forward. Would be good to have a striker but Phellype and Vietto are injured. Maybe Jese (aka Jay M) can change things?