Good stuff

I didn't really think Shelvey played well today. He put in a few good tackles but he was out of position for their goal, he was clearly the DM in second half as he was dropping deep to take the ball from the centre halves like Jay did in the first half.

Also thought he tried to force the play too much, he played several long balls to no one when he could have played it short.

He wasn't dreadful or anything but thought out of all the lads to play in the middle he had the poorest game.

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Shelvey is a future star. Anyone who has watched over the last year would recognize this. Joe Cole was $h!te. Aquilani looked as languid and disinterested as ever, Morgan done what he does; score a goal, Adam was gawdawful, sterling tried too hard....

Enjoyable all the same. We did draw with what is, despite being Canadian, the worst team in America. But it's preseason so the results and performances for the most part, don't mean $h!t. Bring on the Fenway Roma party. Maybe we can send Aquilani home with them.

I thought Adam, Spearing and Aqua were very good in the first half. They weren't attacking enough though..

I'd be mighty worried if we started Adam Aquilani and Spearing in any game this season.

1st half - Structure excellent and the players kept to it, but the tempo was too slow so we didnt create anything.

2nd half - More youngsters on show, especially in te key area of midfield and it showed as we lost our shape a bit. We did play at a much higher tempo though so we looked more dangerous.

Best players overall were Spearing, Pacheco, Sterling and Carra.

Worst were Ecclestone, Aquilani, Adorjan and Cole. Adorjan just a kid but Aqua didnt look like a player desperate to play for us and Cole always tries very hard, maybe too hard.

Looks like Pacheco suffered from our previous systems. He seemed comfortable in BR system, will definately improve and probably change our perception of him too. Jay surprised me too! Carra minus hoofing was great. Cole???? Not much can be said about his performance yesterday.

Sporty - it would be crass to pass any adverse comment on Joe after one game. But I agree; he didn't look comfortable.
Kneerash - fully agree friend, I thought Spearing played the better DM midfield position than Jonjo. I thought Jonjo was trying too hard.
Stars of the game? Pacheco, Sterling and Adam Morgan. JimmyThered

Cole may be a great guy off the pitch but when he's on it he's a selfish .

Spearing is still a poor player in general, while Shelvey was played out of position. Shelvey will get much much better in time, while Spearing is already hit his limits imo