Pre-season: decimated and rendered almost completely useless by...

[Ronaldo]

I'm pretty sure Man Utd drew at home to Reading first game of last season, so there's always a chance of getting a lucky result.

 

I remember watching that game in Leeds and celebrating after the final whistle because they showed the league table and we were top. Hence lots of singing from myself and lots of confused and disgusted looks

[pedro111]

Aye, this has been the shittest pre-season in living memory.

[bovineblue]

ofcourse manu wont have ronaldo in their side.....clutching at straws tbh!

 

Or Tevez

 

Or Smith 

[Guest neesy111]

ffs, pre-season is all about getting fit

 

remember the pre-season we had last year, and we all got completely fooled by it, beating celtic and juve at home with good football

 

it doesn't mean fuck all, tbf good players don't need to gel with their sides, and thats why you have training for, + theres 2 home games left to get players in

[Guest optimistic nit]

i think you mean absolutely decimated by keegan not signing any strikers and only 1 central midfielder. we can complain all we like about injuries, but if we started like that in all 38 PL games our goals tally would be in single figures, and we could have beye and feye back and it would still be the same story.

we cant be a team that can have a couple on injuries and turn into a team that is incabable of winning a match.

 

i saw from 25 mins onwards, we were shit. midfield couldnt create anything (mainly smiths fault imo) and the ir passing was substandard. smith was just awful, a disgrace, but what is keegan thinking playing him up front on his own?

 

i thought our defense looked ok. they were put under hardly any pressure, but bassong looked good i thought, taylor was ok and edgar looked as solid as ive ever seen him play, which is still pretty unsolid, but it was an improvement. he also was pretty good on the ball when he wasnt booting it the length of the field. was it edgar who did that cross that any decent striker (owen) would have put away 12 times out of 10.

 

didnt see anything of guthrie, enrique went unoticed too, which is good i guess for a defender. who was that black guy wearing number 6 in midfield? i assumed it was feye, but if he is injured then who was it? geremi wears number 20 doesnt he.

 

 

 

im not overeacting, i still think we will hopefully have a good season, but pre season, while about fitness, is also about seeing where your team needs to improve, and that is plain as day, hopefully keegan recognises this, and heś a good manager so i think he does.

[Baggio]

i think you mean absolutely decimated by keegan not signing any strikers and only 1 central midfielder. we can complain all we like about injuries, but if we started like that in all 38 PL games our goals tally would be in single figures, and we could have beye and feye back and it would still be the same story.

we cant be a team that can have a couple on injuries and turn into a team that is incabable of winning a match.

 

i saw from 25 mins onwards, we were shit. midfield couldnt create anything (mainly smiths fault imo) and the ir passing was substandard. smith was just awful, a disgrace, but what is keegan thinking playing him up front on his own?

 

i thought our defense looked ok. they were put under hardly any pressure, but bassong looked good i thought, taylor was ok and edgar looked as solid as ive ever seen him play, which is still pretty unsolid, but it was an improvement. he also was pretty good on the ball when he wasnt booting it the length of the field. was it edgar who did that cross that any decent striker (owen) would have put away 12 times out of 10.

 

didnt see anything of guthrie, enrique went unoticed too, which is good i guess for a defender. who was that black guy wearing number 6 in midfield? i assumed it was feye, but if he is injured then who was it? geremi wears number 20 doesnt he.

 

 

 

im not overeacting, i still think we will hopefully have a good season, but pre season, while about fitness, is also about seeing where your team needs to improve, and that is plain as day, hopefully keegan recognises this, and heś a good manager so i think he does.

 

Cacapa.

[Guest optimistic nit]

Exactly right Dave tbh, and as i said here it's my only worry. I'm confident we'll get the right players in, but team chemistry is a serious concern.

 

Not too worried by the pre-season because as said before we've got the majority out. I am concerned at how many players have missed pre-season though and that will probably reflect in our opening games, players who aren't match fit and the team that haven't played together before.

 

Agree - this is my only major worry atm. I'm not greatly concerned on the whole but i'm a bit uneasy about this. Yeah, pre-season is about building fitness and team chemistry - but the players who haven't gained from this so far are the ones we need to do so the most.

 

You've just hit the nail on exactly head i was talking about. The players we desperately needed to gel with each other, have missed out. In some ways it's fortuante we've got Man Utd and Arsenal in the first three games (i think?), games which aren't winnable anyway.

 

they are winnable tbh, going in with that attitude is why we havent won any in the last few years.

 

 

 

adding on to my rant above, in many ways its a good thing that weve had a bad pre season. we all knew what the problems with our team were, but its a bit shit when we are shown we are right in such a depressing fashion. if we had had a good pre season, the problems we have may have been glossed over, only to rear their ugly head when we started playing league games, leading to a panic buying session in the end of august.

 

hopefully keegan has anough time to do something about it.

[Guest optimistic nit]

cacapa wasnt too bad either. we didnt really do much wrong, but we didnt do anything right.

[Guest neesy111]

Exactly right Dave tbh, and as i said here it's my only worry. I'm confident we'll get the right players in, but team chemistry is a serious concern.

 

Not too worried by the pre-season because as said before we've got the majority out. I am concerned at how many players have missed pre-season though and that will probably reflect in our opening games, players who aren't match fit and the team that haven't played together before.

 

Agree - this is my only major worry atm. I'm not greatly concerned on the whole but i'm a bit uneasy about this. Yeah, pre-season is about building fitness and team chemistry - but the players who haven't gained from this so far are the ones we need to do so the most.

 

You've just hit the nail on exactly head i was talking about. The players we desperately needed to gel with each other, have missed out. In some ways it's fortuante we've got Man Utd and Arsenal in the first three games (i think?), games which aren't winnable anyway.

 

they are winnable tbh, going in with that attitude is why we havent won any in the last few years.

 

 

 

adding on to my rant above, in many ways its a good thing that weve had a bad pre season. we all knew what the problems with our team were, but its a bit shit when we are shown we are right in such a depressing fashion. if we had had a good pre season, the problems we have may have been glossed over, only to rear their ugly head when we started playing league games, leading to a panic buying session in the end of august.

 

hopefully keegan has anough time to do something about it.

 

we we're all fooled by the pre-season last season, hopefully we will be (in a different way) this season

[Guest 22bnw]

It is quite disturbing that we've enlisted the fitness expertise of Robbie Elliot to prevent injuries...he wasn't exactly bionic

[Dave]

i think you mean absolutely decimated by keegan not signing any strikers and only 1 central midfielder. we can complain all we like about injuries, but if we started like that in all 38 PL games our goals tally would be in single figures, and we could have beye and feye back and it would still be the same story.

we cant be a team that can have a couple on injuries and turn into a team that is incabable of winning a match.

 

i saw from 25 mins onwards, we were shit. midfield couldnt create anything (mainly smiths fault imo) and the ir passing was substandard. smith was just awful, a disgrace, but what is keegan thinking playing him up front on his own?

 

i thought our defense looked ok. they were put under hardly any pressure, but bassong looked good i thought, taylor was ok and edgar looked as solid as ive ever seen him play, which is still pretty unsolid, but it was an improvement. he also was pretty good on the ball when he wasnt booting it the length of the field. was it edgar who did that cross that any decent striker (owen) would have put away 12 times out of 10.

 

didnt see anything of guthrie, enrique went unoticed too, which is good i guess for a defender. who was that black guy wearing number 6 in midfield? i assumed it was feye, but if he is injured then who was it? geremi wears number 20 doesnt he.

 

 

 

im not overeacting, i still think we will hopefully have a good season, but pre season, while about fitness, is also about seeing where your team needs to improve, and that is plain as day, hopefully keegan recognises this, and heś a good manager so i think he does.

 

We have six strikers at the club and yet you expect Keegan to sign some more?

 

Injuries have well and truly fucked us up for the games so far, how anyone can claim otherwise is beyond me.

[Guest optimistic nit]

we could include donaldson and danqua and call it 8 strikers, to re inforce your point even more. we only have 3 strikers who will not hold back the team, and 1 of those is unfit, injured, old, and may not even be up to it this year, after a legnthy lay off. we only have 1 left back and 1 right back, i would quite happily trade off those positions for a 7th striker if we could find someone who could at least give us something in regards to talent up front.

[Dave]

Well not really, seeing as neither of those has ever played a proper game for us.

 

I'm not saying all six are good enough - clearly they aren't - but we can't just keep buying them.

[Slugsy]

i think you mean absolutely decimated by keegan not signing any strikers and only 1 central midfielder. we can complain all we like about injuries, but if we started like that in all 38 PL games our goals tally would be in single figures, and we could have beye and feye back and it would still be the same story.

we cant be a team that can have a couple on injuries and turn into a team that is incabable of winning a match.

 

i saw from 25 mins onwards, we were s***. midfield couldnt create anything (mainly smiths fault imo) and the ir passing was substandard. smith was just awful, a disgrace, but what is keegan thinking playing him up front on his own?

 

i thought our defense looked ok. they were put under hardly any pressure, but bassong looked good i thought, taylor was ok and edgar looked as solid as ive ever seen him play, which is still pretty unsolid, but it was an improvement. he also was pretty good on the ball when he wasnt booting it the length of the field. was it edgar who did that cross that any decent striker (owen) would have put away 12 times out of 10.

 

didnt see anything of guthrie, enrique went unoticed too, which is good i guess for a defender. who was that black guy wearing number 6 in midfield? i assumed it was feye, but if he is injured then who was it? geremi wears number 20 doesnt he.

 

 

 

im not overeacting, i still think we will hopefully have a good season, but pre season, while about fitness, is also about seeing where your team needs to improve, and that is plain as day, hopefully keegan recognises this, and heś a good manager so i think he does.

 

We have six strikers at the club and yet you expect Keegan to sign some more?

 

Injuries have well and truly f***ed us up for the games so far, how anyone can claim otherwise is beyond me.

 

Six strikers but only 3 that should be anywhere near the first team and two of those three have terrible injury records.  Ameobi and Smith should have been let go or at least put on the bench and someone else brought in. 

 

Given the performances of Smith and Ameobi both last year and in pre-season, I would have thought this was painfully obvious?

 

Yes, it could be argued that nobody will take them, but for the good of the team and the upcoming season, a hit on their transfer fees should have been taken to get rid - long term this would have been cheaper.

[Guest 22bnw]

It really is annoying that Alan Smith SHOULD be banging in the goals. My argument for him was always that he was being played out of postion in midfield, but he's been given his chance upfront and he hasn't just failed to score, he's been absolutely sh**

 

He really ought to have been a good signing

[mrmojorisin75]

i'm in agreement slugsy, fuckin give them away as far as i'm concerned but a business just can't justify that to itself man

 

you have to hope there have been some nibbles of interest in both and the club are playing the waiting game...pretty fuckin shit hand to play though when neither "striker" appears to even know what a goal is

[Dave]

Btw 'a couple of injuries' isn't five players who would all be automatic starters. Half the outfield team...

[Baggio]

Well not really, seeing as neither of those has ever played a proper game for us.

 

I'm not saying all six are good enough - clearly they aren't - but we can't just keep buying them.

 

Agreed. You can't just keep adding more, Keegan will have to shift some of the shit to free up some space in the squad.

 

You also can't have someone on around £50k per week as your 5th choice striker.

[Guest optimistic nit]

its not ideal but in my opinion a new striker could well be the difference between european football and no european football, which would be worth that 50K a week. we need to shift shola and smith and we need to get another striker, but if one doesnt happen in doesnt mean the other shouldnt. if we dont sign another striker, but get the oppertunity to shift shola and smith, we should do it anyway.

 

someone gave smith 50K a week and a 5 year contract, thats done now, call it bad debt, we shouldnt use that as a reason not to get someone with talent to replace him, whether we sell him or not.

[Colos Short and Curlies]

Its a big BIG if but.....

 

If Smith could get one goal he might just start shooting occasionally

[Colos Short and Curlies]

its not ideal but in my opinion a new striker could well be the difference between european football and no european football, which would be worth that 50K a week. we need to shift shola and smith and we need to get another striker, but if one doesnt happen in doesnt mean the other shouldnt. if we dont sign another striker, but get the oppertunity to shift shola and smith, we should do it anyway.

 

someone gave smith 50K a week and a 5 year contract, thats done now, call it bad debt, we shouldnt use that as a reason not to get someone with talent to replace him, whether we sell him or not.

 

Just to put that into context, we still owe Alan Smth over £10million if  he stays until the end of his contract

[mrmojorisin75]

its not ideal but in my opinion a new striker could well be the difference between european football and no european football, which would be worth that 50K a week. we need to shift shola and smith and we need to get another striker, but if one doesnt happen in doesnt mean the other shouldnt. if we dont sign another striker, but get the oppertunity to shift shola and smith, we should do it anyway.

 

someone gave smith 50K a week and a 5 year contract, thats done now, call it bad debt, we shouldnt use that as a reason not to get someone with talent to replace him, whether we sell him or not.

 

Just to put that into context, we still owe Alan Smth over £10million if  he stays until the end of his contract

 

woah!

[Parky]

its not ideal but in my opinion a new striker could well be the difference between european football and no european football, which would be worth that 50K a week. we need to shift shola and smith and we need to get another striker, but if one doesnt happen in doesnt mean the other shouldnt. if we dont sign another striker, but get the oppertunity to shift shola and smith, we should do it anyway.

 

someone gave smith 50K a week and a 5 year contract, thats done now, call it bad debt, we shouldnt use that as a reason not to get someone with talent to replace him, whether we sell him or not.

 

Just to put that into context, we still owe Alan Smth over £10million if  he stays until the end of his contract

 

woah!

 

Christ! 

[Shak]

Looking for positives as best I can here...

 

Any chance that Smith or Ameobi might do better if they had Martins alongside them and Owen playing just off in the system we finished last season with? If Smith has a strength as a striker it's playing with his back to goal, trying to bring his teammatescoming from deep into the game. He'll never get the goals but with Martins and Owen in the team we hardly need him to be prolific, just to contribute a bit in build up play and give us some physical presence up top.

 

[Skeletor]

Looking for positives as best I can here...

 

Any chance that Smith or Ameobi might do better if they had Martins alongside them and Owen playing just off in the system we finished last season with? If Smith has a strength as a striker it's playing with his back to goal, trying to bring his teammatescoming from deep into the game. He'll never get the goals but with Martins and Owen in the team we hardly need him to be prolific, just to contribute a bit in build up play and give us some physical presence up top.

 

 

No