striker

See now Borussia's midfield sucks and is giving the ball away, and look what happens. Their D looks shaky and our attack looks better.

Borussia's subs look bad

Massive subs now, everyone off

Its like watching youth football. 2 uncontested passes right down the gut of the midfield, then a through ball to streaking winger. At no time did any Saint be close enough to the ball to do anything.

Lemina and Hoj are having a shocker today. When you play a formation with 3 players in the middle, and these are two of them, its not going to be good. I usually like Lemina too.

Mo Ely for Armstrong, Stephens for BEdnarek

More brilliant midfield work. Just let them dribble around until they get a shot. Its way to easy to blame the CB's or strikers, but when the midfield is non-existent nothing works.

If the midfield doesn't start functioning, then it reall doesn't matter who the strikers or CB's are. Everyone will look terrible.

Out midfield needs to change, its terrible. We've had the ball in what I would call one attacking position all half, and got a shot out of it. The rest of the time Borussia is controling the ball on their side of the pitch. Gabbi and Austin are getting 95% of their touches at midfield, not going to score many from there. The CB's are under constant pressure because the mids can't get the ball. It feels like we're in the 93rd minute and parking the bus. Of course eventually someone breaks through. Either the midfield players or formation needs to change. I have to believe Hughes sees this and is still experimenting.

I honestly think we have an issue at midfield. Little pushing forward to get the strikers involved, and little cover for the 3 CB's who are left along a lot. Its like all our opponents just control the midfield. Gabbi and Austin are getting their touches near midfield, can't score from there. The CB's always seem to be under pressure.

Our midfield really looks weak. I'm not sure we can play with this 3 in the back thing with 2 strikers. We may need to have 1 striker and 4 mids, or go with a more standard 4-4-2

Looking better now. Nice Austin to Armstrong to Gabbi try there.

ESPN Watch is showing it

Just realized that Stoke and Swansea are opening their Championship seasons today, boy that must be depressing. We just dodged that bullet.

I'd have Yoshi and Cedric in there when healthy, but I think I agree too, thats hopefully the opening day lineup.

Exactly

Is this going to be streamed live anywhere?

I think Huddersfield, Leicester City, and Cardiff are the ones who will go down personally.

Wow, people really like the Wolves to do well.

My team: -------------McCarthy--------- ------Hoedt--Vest--Yoshida-- Cedric----JEH-Lemina---Bertrand- ------------Armstrong------------- ----------Austin--Gabb--------- First subs: Mo Ely, Targett, Romeu

I noticed that too. When Long gave the ball away, instead of trying to get it back he just stopped and looked to the sky. This left Bednarek 1-on-1 with the striker. Not really Bednarek's fault, he actually did ok.

I've come around to thinking that I'd keep Gallagher and actively look to sell Long (unless Spary has some other position for him). I think Gallagher has shown he has the upside, and is a better fit for our system. Plus Mo Ely can be the 4th striker if needed. I am pretty comfortable with Austin and Gabbi upfront, they seem to complement each other and link up fairly well.

I've come around to the point where I would actively be shopping Long around (unless Sparky has other uses for him). I'd rather go into the season with Gallagher as the 3rd striker. I think he has shown that he has potential, and looks to be a better fit in our system. We also have Mo Ely as a 4th striker if needed.

I like Targett, but I think the issue is we have a number of guys who can play that position roughly equally. Sure Targett had a good preseason match, but if you have an abundance of players at one place why not sell one for $15-$20M? I also think Targett, from what I read, would like a move. At Fulham he will feature regularly, here he'll likely not start much.