Garnacho and Laird undressing some people. Ball makes its way to Chong…and he gives it away again. Ugh.
Chong is trying but even after a few preseasons it's still not clear what he's actually good at. seems like a spikeless player
i'd add Martínez. after 45 mins i already trust him more on the ball than Maguire. seems significantly more progressive too
I don’t get why we insist on giving time to Chong at RW when it’s clear we need to audition guys like Amad and Pellestri to see who might possibly stay with the team this season. It’s clear it’s not Chong. Everything Amad is good at is wasted at the 9.
Amad scores but Lopez has been a disaster for them since coming on. Giveaway to start the attack and then makes a mess from Telles shot and spills it right to Amad. Kudos to him for following up the shot.
On the goal, poor from Telles / Martinez / Garner and Laird to different degrees and for different reasons.
Only saw the second half, thought Iqbal did well when he came on and Amad was good considering he was playing at 9. Iqbal is definitely an interesting prospect
Chong needs to go. Telles needs to go. Laird needs to stay. Garnacho needs game time over Rashford. Let them fight it out. Diallo needs to stay back up for Sancho. Garner needs another loan. He looked like he was lost. He did not even make one long pass.
I hoped Garner would show more in preseason as well. He didn’t look comfortable or up to the speed of the games.
Wasn't he injured most of pre-season? I thought he looked pretty decent against Villa all things considered.
I thought this was a good match for our purposes. Laird showed real potential. He's physically secure (ie you can't bump him off the ball or out of position easily) and technically secure too. Chong/Laird as a flank was insanely fast and I enjoyed them trying to work out each other's games on the fly. Chong is ultimately not going to make it at a club like United, but I'd be happy for him to stay this season. We'll need plenty of bodies and while his brain isn't quick enough for his feet or the ball, he's a left footed attacker who takes up great positions, is a tremendous presser and makes good pass vs shoot decisions. He'll be a good player on a team like Southampton or the likes when he gets his technique sorted. He did about as many sprints as you'd see from 25yo Lingard but at speeds only Chong could reach. He put in an insane shift. I thought Martinez and Eriksen looked good. Technical security top notch and it made everyone just a little more calm. Garner looked like it was his first preseason start. He didn't hit the ball long but that's not his job as the 6. His job was to get the ball wide to someone in space to get their head up. He did an OK job on the ball, maybe 5/10. Off the ball he was really good. He made a few good runs forward. He tackled well and he covered a ton of ground. But the star of the show was Garnacho. He needed to release the ball earlier but he was such a threat. He did it without an overlapping LB as well. He is not going anywhere and he's probably done enough to be considered back up LW for right now.
You’ve got to drop this with Chong, man. Chong was diabolical in nearly every single sense. He’s technically horrific and actively held back the entire team with his horrendous decision making and execution. He has no attributes suited to a possession side. He’s unable to beat a man on the dribble, he cannot pass effectively because he lacks the precision, doesn’t look up nearly enough and/or delays until his pass is blocked, and every attack that came to him invariably led to his teammates dropping their heads at yet another wasted opportunity. The best things he did were the couple of times he used Laird’s overlap, but that’s not a reason to ever see him on a pitch again - we could play Tom Heaton at RW and he would provide the same. The annoying thing is that he was given this many minutes to try and get him a loan/transfer, but with performances like that maybe we’d be better off leaving it to the imagination. If he had some joy in the Championship then I’m happy for him but he isn’t anywhere near PL quality, even for relegation certs. If Chong didn’t have an adult physical frame and good top speed from a young age, nobody would know his name.