Anyone feel we seem behind the rest (pre-season)

[Christiffa25]

Not talking about our squad ability or quality here....

But looking at our main 6 rivals, they all seem to be ahead of us in regards to pre-season. All seemingly playing against better opposistion and getting up to speed with some good performances, results and morale building under their belts.

We'v played 2 games against well mediocre opposistion with half our team full of youngsters, who are arguably going to feature very little.

We look no where near ready currently and it all seems somewhat of a low key pre-season. Even today against good opposistion it's a testamomial which usually lowers the quality of the game.

Coleman and Kone injured. Howard Jags Baines Barkley mirallas Lukaku not even been on the pitch yet!

Utd and Liverpool for eg. Look like they will be more than ready in two weeks time for kick off.....Us on the other hand?

What do people think?
Will we be ready?

 

[marchy]

Pre season is about getting the squad ready for the first game, results and performances are largely irrelevant. I'd expect the performances to improve over the next three games anyway now more of the senior players are back. So long as the fitness levels are right that's the important thing and given that our first 11 isn't going to be much different we don't need to worry about bedding players in.

 

[Thuck ma Baws]

I don't think it's too important to be honest. We had a tougher pre season last year in terms of opposition and we started pretty slow in the league. If I had a complaint about pre season this year it would be not taking advantage of the worldwide interest in "soccer" after the WC, but maybe Martinez has decided that he doesn't want any big tours so he can keep the players fresh.

Having said all that, it would be nice to see us web a couple of teams before the Leicester game!

 

[Eggs]

.....they'll all be getting work under their belts, regardless of playing time. The World Cup lads will be on a different schedule. Looking at other clubs, many are in financially driven competitions in faraway countries. Its not ideal to have long haul flights just ahead of the season.

 

[malcson]

I know exactly what you mean, if we were to judge our forthcoming season by pre-season performances I would be worried. However Moyes often head excellent pre-seasons to be followed by incredibly poor starts so I'm not getting too worried. Bobby clearly has a different approach and hopefully will result in a good start.

 

[Pavement Blue]

Van gaal has said he doesn't like the money spinning round about united are on at the moment. I'm under the impression that, if he had a choice, their preseason would be close to ours.

I do get where you're coming from though and it's a really good discussion to be had in how a well thought it preseason can affect your season proper.

I for one see our mainly as an exercise in fitness and secondly as a chance for experimentation with systems and players.

I've never put any value in the results.

I heard once Roy Keane used to take a player off and have his team play with 10 men at the end of friendlies. His rational was at some point he'd likely have a player sent off and wanted his team to be prepared for that eventuality. Personally I think that is brilliant planning.

 

[EvertonRhys]

Wouldn't worry too much. Remember the pre-season before Moyes' final season? Games were cancelled and we only played a couple of matches I seem to remember. We started the season on fire. It seems the quieter pre-season the better, especially after a world cup!

 

[teppic]

Is Kone injured?

 

[MACCA75]

Have to agree it's been a strange one, all seems a bit cobbled together.

 

[Quim]

Think it's a fair point but at the Same time I think it's very hard to plan a pre season during a World Cup summer. It looks like Martinez has planned for the games to be heavy towards the end once everyone is back. We play 3 games this week.

 

[teppic]

What is the problem with it?

 

[Christiffa25]

Pre season is about getting the squad ready for the first game, results and performances are largely irrelevant. I'd expect the performances to improve over the next three games anyway now more of the senior players are back. So long as the fitness levels are right that's the important thing and given that our first 11 isn't going to be much different we don't need to worry about bedding players in.

Hmmm not sure I agree results and performances (more so) are irrelevant tbh. Utd for eg. Will be on a high going into the first game of the season given there performances. Same to Liverpool, as apposed to laboring thru pre season playing poorly and picking up no good results.

I think we're definately behind all these teams. However with 3 pre-season games left and the snr players back, hopefully we'll kick on this next couple of weeks and be ready to fire from the off.

 

[CultHero]

I've been thinking this all summer, most teams seem to have played 2-3 games more than us. Against Leicester we looked far from match fit & we haven't played since then, over a week ago. Leicester have played twice since then & play again tomorrow.

Our international lads seem to have come back later than most teams, Liverpool had Gerrard, Johnson, Henderson etc. playing in America before we even had Baines, Barkley & Jags back in training. I don't get the thinking behind Lukaku not playing until Paderborn aswell?

 

[bluebud]

The lads that played in the WC played their last game 4/5 week's ago, players often have longer injury lay off's during the season than that and don't need to do a pre-season program to get playing again, they maintain high base levels of fitness these days. More game time would be preferential but asking them to report back 2 weeks after the WC would asking for trouble come the last third of the season. The rest of the squad have had 2 games and now play 3 games in a week.

 

[Christiffa25]

The lads that played in the WC played their last game 4/5 week's ago, players often have longer injury lay off's during the season than that and don't need to do a pre-season program to get playing again, they maintain high base levels of fitness these days. More game time would be preferential but asking them to report back 2 weeks after the WC would asking for trouble come the last third of the season. The rest of the squad have had 2 games and now play 3 games in a week.

Some good points made there. But I think there's a difference between lukaku and mirallas given they were at the World Cup longer and the England lads who went home before even in-packing!

The rest of England's lads are all playing already.

However as has been said. Us having 3 games now is probably more than others who have been busy this last 10 days.