Zapata tends to do that a lot, he was also doing it on a consistent basis against Valencia, and with his horrible passing it's asking for trouble

Yes, Honda was pretty good..his passes from deep were awesome!

I know it was only Sassuolo but we looked pretty good in the second half. A lot of positive movement and passing with the ball. Ran hard and pressured well in defense. There are definitely things to be worked on but it was a performance to build from. El Shaaraway and Menez looked fantastic. Honda had a good showing. The midfield worked pretty well although I think it will be too lightweight against better sides. defense was solid but needs to do better with long balls. I was most disappointed with Pazzini. He just seems off. Pretty bad first touches and looks like he lacks confidence. We really need to get him on track now that Balo is gone.

This post has been edited by milanbuf88: Aug 23 2014, 10:58 PM

Yep, totally agreed. Such a midfield would be wrecked in Serie A..good thing we still have De Jong. Attacking wise..it's starting to bright up a bit.

It might be useful in limited circumstances against bottom 5 type sides but yea I'm definitely glad we have De Jong for some much needed steel. Poli's work rate is excellent. I wonder if Cristante can play a bit farther up the field with De Jong as the deep mid. Cristante has been playing deep every time I've seen him and he has had some great passes from there. We really need a creative type to play with De Jong and Poli and it would be nice if Cristante could at least provide good sub minutes in that position.

Savor this people... This is the only kind of silverware we will win this season..

Thought we were excellent tonight. Attack, attack and attack - SES looks like a player with a new lease of life and the whole team looked hungry.

The Balo drag factor is gone and maybe, just maybe we have a chance this season of an EL spot.

Delighted with that.

All of the Trofeo Tim Games.

yeah as much as i like Balo he was a drag.

Yeah, we actually played some good football for a change, especially considering the previous friendlies. Honda was easily the MVP, hope he can keep it up.

I just hope that it won't affect our transfers, with Galliani you never know. Seeing Pazzini still out of form after all this preseason just another reason why we must add quality to attack (and midfield, of course but I'm starting to lose hope that it will happen there), and not another dead weight like Torres or Eto'o.

If a team plays it back to the keeper a lot, it is generally due to a lack of movement from the midfield/forwards.

Lack of movement wasn't a problem tonight.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)


I'm still p!ssed off that we sold him for so little cash and now we have to find a replacement with said meagre amount of cash that won't really get you anyone decent in the market these days.

But I do think that SES will benefit a lot without Balo, they just didn't seem to click together on the pitch, I think it's mostly because Balo was constantly going deep so SES couldn't really play off of him and he tended to hog the ball when he did have it instead of moving it on quickly

I really liked our no striker system in that second half, even on the wing Honda looked pretty awesome out there.


If that's the case then they should just hoof it up, some of the pass backs and passing between each other in defence that Zapata was involved in today and against Valancia was just asking for it, and we were punished for it once against Valencia.


Agreed, we were very fluid, especially in the second half

The video for the games got pulled, did anyone know another medium for watching the games.

I think the 'drag' factor is why his value has plummeted. He's a panic-buy by Liverpool because they can't get anyone else, and the fact is he causes disruption at every team he goes to.

He's a nice boy, genuinely, but he's stupid and easily led by the wrong people, and ends up being trouble for everyone.

He also, as we know, shows up for one game in 10. His attitude is deplorable and I'd rather have 10 Boneras and Muntaris than one Balotelli.

I'm absolutely delighted to be shot of him.