Slaven Bilic has told the Irons squad to cut out the mistakes and start matching the big boys.
The manager declared that he was neither overwhelmed or disappointed after the 3-0 defeat by Manchester City in Iceland.
He explained: “We were without a few players, to be fair, and if we want to match the big clubs like Man City, then we need a full squad and we have to be on top of our game to have a chance. The difference is that the pace and quality that they have is scary, and you could see that today.
“In the second half, we had some moments in the game which were good and some opportunities but not goal scoring ones, apart from a couple.
“When we took the ball from them or when they lost possession, which was not very often, we could have opened them up because they play very high, and one proper and not very difficult ball, we could have caused them problems, but we didn’t and there was the difference.
“When we made a mistake, as we did before the first goal, they punished us straight away, either with a goal or with a big chance.
“So, I’m not overwhelmed and I’m not disappointed because it is part of pre-season and we will not only play against clubs like this in the Premier League.
“That said, you can’t make mistakes like this, and to be fair we were making them last year, like when we played Man City at home when their first goal was similar. After they score, it is then a big problem for you to turn the game around.
“When you don’t do those kind of mistakes, like for example against Spurs [in May], then you have a chance. We did the mistake very early in the game today and then it’s very difficult.”
That is our problem… too many mistakes.
The performance did have a look of last season about it.
But I’m not worried.
I still think we have the quality and the class to do well this season.
Especially when we get our valuable players back… I.e Antonio, Reid, Lanzini and Kouyate.
And Carroll and Sakho .
Yes Wolfy, its the depth that’s the problem but even that doesn’t hide the fact that there’s dead wood in this side which needs to be moved on sooner than later 😎
Bilic again says the right thing and makes the correct analysis but you iron those mistakes out on the training field. I still think we look better than this time last season and I think injuries permitting we will get around 65 points. There are some real winners in that dressing room and hopefully they will lift the defence from being mediocre to being good. We were playing without some of our bed players in Lanzini, Antonio, Sakho and Carroll so we have some real strength to come back into the team and make us more competitive.
I don’t think many people predicted how good 2015/16 would be, or how rubbish last season would be. So this season is a total mystery too, especially as surely there will be a couple leaving & therefore more loans/ frees & a few cheapish players coming in. Bilic spent most of last year saying ‘To be fair we have a few players missing…’ So for me the quality of those squad players we haven’t got yet will be a big factor. There is the basis of a decent team but it is not the finished article. OK City will win a lot of games 3-0 so yesterday doesn’t tell us much. But it does tell us the defence is still poor & without Lanzin (& even with him on his off days) we are a bit slow & predictable. So job not yet done DS- get back on the phone!!