A look at the preseason

By: Javier | July 31st, 2009

So here we all are watching mediocre football and 58 subs per game. hmmmm Must be the preseason. While im sure we can all agree that preseason football is far from watching a solid league match i have to say that i am getting quite a kick out of these matches. Why? Well several reasons.

Now is a great opportunity to see some players play that you wont see play again, or will. Who knows crazy things happen. What have we seen so far. Well for one. Ever Banega does indeed have some impressive talent. While im sure you have seen in my comments about Banega in the past i have never put alot of faith in this youngster. I just never liked his attitude much. His ability on the pitch so far this season has been eye opening and i think this lad does need to be on the team next season.

My other impression is that Vicente is back. It looks like he has finally recovered from his dreaded fine crystal status and moved back into fabulous footballer. It has always been my belief that Vicente is one of the best left wingers in the world. This preseason he has been fast and threatening on that wing. Truly a wonder to behold. If we can get the old Joaquin back or wings will be lethal.

Our Centre field has had good news and bad news. Baraja and Albelda have been showing their ages but on the possitive Banega and Michel have been impressive. Miku im not as impressed with. He seems very so so at the moment. A loan spell for another season should be on the books.

Defensively i think is where we still are least impressive. Which of course should be expected. Defence is the most challenging possitions to fill.. especially central defence. After the Bremen match two points come up. First that our defence is far from solid still and needs work. Second that we still have loads of talent. Mathieu is going to be better than Moretti, that should be obviouse. He is fast and has brilliant runs up the wing. He needs games to gain confidence with the new team and form a keen partership with our wing. Bruno is also brilliant. Very hard working and also quick on his feet. Dealbert i beleive will outperform Albiol who he will surely be replacing. The overall concern is their ability to play as a cohesive defence. Individually they are all solid. But as a team they are still very soft. Lets hope that they have the defence sorted by Aug 29. This team is going to be better than last season.

Last but not least Zigic. What can we say about Zigic. The man is brilliant. He scored two goals against Werder to tie the game. He was all over the defence. The tower is vicious when it comes to searching for goals. He should not be sold. Combined with Villa we could have the most versatile attack in the liga. Target man and Finese goal scorer. We have a great team this season.

Of course all this good news is going to be bad news to some players. Emery has already said he wants 25 players on team and that it. He believes 2 players for each position is sufficient to play in 3 competitions. So who sits out.

FW Villa, Zigic, Silva
LW Mata, Vicente, Jordi
CM Fernandes, Michel, Banega, Baraja, Albelda, Miku, Maduro, Nacho, Viana
RW Joaquin, Pablo
RB Miguel, Bruno
LB Mathieu, Thiago
CB Marchena, Alex, Dealbeart, Navaro
GK Cesar, Moya

Who are your picks and what is you lineup? And do we need to sign anybody else?