First time I've seen Blues this pre-season, and it patches I was really impressed.
De Ridder - Wow. It was only a cameo appearance in a friendly, but he was sensational. He took five minutes to get into the game, but once he did some of his touches were magnificent and he played some fantastic balls including a fair few reverse balls that he seemed to be the only person on the pitch capable of seeing. There were times that he played a pass that never looked on, that suddenly put a team-mate through on goal. Unfortunately those team-mates tended to be Neil Danns and Rowan Vine, so nothing really came of it. He played wide right, but drifted all over the place and was impossible to pick up - at one point he was just in front of the back four and played a neat one-two with Nafti, then as play developed he'd gone from nowhere to being through on goal. Very, very exciting.
Kapo - obviously the first time I'd seen him for us too, and I think much of what has already been said about him is true. He looks like he's not doing a great deal, but he's always taking up clever positions, and his touch is amazing. Every ball he plays seems to be absolutely perfectly weighted - almost caressed into someone's path. The one run he went on was superb too - he went past three defenders in one movement on the edge of the area, but unfortunately his right foot shot was weak and went across goal.
Ridgewell & Queudrue - Both looked like solid Premiership defenders, which I think we desperately needed. We added flair further forward, but just needed people who'd been there and done it further back. Queudrue made one or two errors (the penalty was a foul, despite an over-the-top dive to convince the officials), but generally looked fine and showed some excellent cross-field balls, whilst I must confess to being very pleasantly surprised by Ridgewell. Obviously there was the goal, but otherwise he took control of the back four, bossing Martin Taylor (his captain) about, and loved competing for the ball. You can see why Bruce rates him, because he's almost got a touch of the young Steve Bruce about him - he's no giant, but he's in the back of people, tugging on shirts and being a real competitor. If someone gets the better of him on the half way line, rather than being like Taylor and panicking, he'll just tug on their shirt, give away a foul and get on with it, and all centre halves need that. His distirbution was lacking once or twice as he knocked the ball long, but on other occasions he took the ball out of defence comfortably, and again, like Bruce and even Kenny Cunningham, seemed to be a bit of a right-place, right-time merchant in that he was often there to intercept the ball at dangerous times.
O'Connor - he came on for Forssell who went off injured (only with a head injury though) and started slowly, but once he got going, again I was impressed. Like Ridgewell, he loved competing and won plenty in the air. His touch was good too - late on he was linking well with Kapo and De Ridder. His hold up play was good and intelligent, and he brought others into the game well, and he took his goal very well. The comparisons with Geoff Horsfield are easy to make, but with all due respect to Geoff, O'Connor's a much better footballer.
Nafti - Superb in midfield. To be fair to him, I don't think he has the friendly mentality - he just views every game as another match. Won tackle after tackle, never gave the ball away, played neat one twos in and around the midfield and got his attacking players going. I'm a huge fan of Nafti's, and whilst Muamba was solid enough, Nafti outshone him in this game, and I do think he may well suit the Premiership. With the way things are, I suspect he could not only start against Chelsea, but also captain us too (unless we get another midfielder in by then).
Others - Doyle looked solid, took catches well and saved an admittedly weak penalty. Kelly looks a good, reliable, solid, versatile defender. Martin Taylor looked shaky, but didn't do anything wrong, but still scares me to death and will get shown up if he plays this season. Larsson looked lively, whereas McSheffrey looked greedy and I feel has a lot to prove - he'll start at Chelsea, but I don't think he should, given Kapo and De Ridder being here now. Vine, Danns and Kilkenny all came on when we were playing exhibition stuff at the end through Kapo and De Ridder, and they joined in, looked lively, but didn't have the end product. That's about it really.
Towards the end, when Kapo and De Ridder were on, it was like men against boys. Either side of half time, Wednesday were the better team, but otherwise we bossed it and looked comfortable. At the end though, some of our football was a joy to watch, and what you have to say about our new signings is that they're all proper footballers, which bodes well. Anyone expecting us to play beautiful, free-flowing football all season is mad, because we HAVE to be ugly and attritional at times, but with those we've brought in, we do have the people to add the class further forward, and we will play some good football at times, and we will open teams up - it was all very positive.
Right, I'm off to get DE RIDDER 20 on the back of my shirt. I hope he starts at Chelsea, but fear that may be too much to ask, especially as this was his first pre-season outing, and how we're likely to set up at Chelsea (understandably, I guess), but expect people to be thrilled by him at home to Sunderland a week on Wednesday.
(smallheathalliance.com) |
