Just a quick debating point with regard to our pre-season friendlies. This is not a thread to have go at the board or the management just your thoughts as to whether we get it right with how we do it or would you prefer tougher tests. Have a look at the following clubs games. In no particular order Spurs - Seattle, Toronto, Chicago, Celtic, Schalke liverpool - Brondby, PNE, Roma,Dortmund,Olympiacos, Man City, Milan Newcastle, Oldham, Sydney, Wellington, S. Wed, Schalke, Real Sociedad Stoke - Borussia Monch, 1860 Munich, Schalke, Blackburn, Betis, Freiburg West Ham - Ipswich, Donnetsk, Espanyol, Wellington, Sydney, Schalke, Malaga Swansea - Chivas, Minnesota, Plymouth, Exater, Bournmouth, Reading, Vilareal. Whilst leicester and WBA seem to do it our way. Would we be better suited having more challenging games in pre season or do we get it right. Will the above clubs and others not mentioned be ahead of us with playing more difficult freindlies or are they more likely to have injuries and to much hard work to soon. Your thoughts. I think the start is right would have preferd a few more tests towards the end. But thats just my opinion.
Many of the friendlies for the other clubs are part of tournaments that they compete in - e.g. Liverpool v Olympiacos, City and Milan. Newcastle and West Ham appear to be playing in a tournament down under. They get paid well to appear in those tournaments so it's part preparation, part revenue and part brand building in overseas markets. We don't participate in tournaments. I don't see the value in USA tours unless you are in a tournament. There is too much travel involved unless all of our games are played at the same stadium and the other teams come to us. We don't get paid for being there and the opposition are all low profile so there's not much media attraction. Chivas being the big exception to that rule. I think Brendan's approach with the setup in Austria (?) and local friendlies made more sense. It was all about work and preparation and the matches we played were relatively local or at our facility. Our warm ups against Plymouth, Exeter and Bournemouth are great for those clubs, but I'm not sure it does much for our sharpness. Let's face it we expect our first team starters to look good against that lot. If we're doing our job right, we would also expect our emerging U-21s to do well also. What would be good for us and the U-21s is to see them up against Prem level competition - that's when you can really learn something. I think it call comes down to preparation, revenue and brand building and where we put our priorities.
Yankee, do you think though a couple of sterner test would have us a bit sharper for the start of the season or is what we do in terms of the league2 clubs and Championsip clubs good enough. I would have prefered to have Played plymouth as we did then Have Bournemouth instead of Exeter on the tuesday. Followed by Reading and then 2 tuff tests at the end. yes we have Villareal, but another game of that ilk would see us sharper for our first game. Just my opinion of course.
Whilst the pre season fixtures are primarily about physical fitness, match practice, and getting to know new players there is a broader picture of visits to places like the USA and that is selling the Swansea City brand.
NSM, i am not questioning the tours to USA, as much as i dont like them I see the need to spread the brand. What I am asking now that we are down to the nitty gritty are our friendlies a tough enough test to get us ready for the start of the season or would we be better having friendlies that are a little bit tougher.
Good topic for discussion. I don't mind our pre-season as it appears to have a wise pattern of slowly building up the opposition level (Chivas aside) to allow the squad to build up to the new season. Chivas are a decent opening to test the fitness of the squad. Minnesota was a bit of a write-off after such a gruelling tour but was more about brand-building. Then a few knock-off games against Plymouth and Exeter for practicing new directives from the coaching team, two top-10 Championship sides to ramp up the opposition level, and finishing against a top-6 La Liga side. We could go and play in one of these pre-season tournaments, make a bit of money and rub shoulders with one or two other Premier League clubs - it wouldn't bother me - but I can see why we like to keep control of our fixtures and stay well away from other Premier League clubs. I think we will eventually switch to a pre-season tournament though - granted that we stay in the league.
There's nothing wrong in having one or two friendlies against lower league clubs - good public relations - good to get the cobwebs out of the way and to try some new systems early in their development. However, I think a variety of more formidable opponents would provide us with better preparation. So Villareal is a good test. A match against a Serie A or Bundesliga club would be a good test and provide a variety of systems to test ourselves against. Anything with short travel but with a standard of opposition that is closer to what we could expect to face in the Prem. Where are Reading these days.
I think our mix domestically this season is just about right. If the pre season friendlies are too easy we can become over confident and it can bite our bum when we start the season proper. On the other hand if it is too difficult and we lose the games it could knock our confidence.
Man U have a hectic pre-season and Van Gaal has already stated that it is poor preparation for the season - finance has been put before performance. It will be changed for next season. It is all about balance. We have two matches against very good teams, Chivas and Villareal, while the remaining teams provide useful opposition in pre-season preparation as well as keeping our links with Clubs who we have fairly strong ties with. The fact that we are playing Villareal before the Man U match makes me fairly happy with the pre-season preparations. We have a mixed standard of opposition and we are not travelling too far, particularly close to the first League match
Matters little in my opinion, looking at the line up for most pre season games . While were at the top division , Id rather give smaller , lower league clubs a chance at "a big club " like us .. lol .. to gain a bit of confidence . Lets not forget where we came from . What happens in training sessions is a least 10 times more important than friendly pre season games ... pre season is to make a good name for ourselves in neutrals eyes , training sessions are to make us good .. cheers lefty .
Roof what about match fitness and sharpness, surely you cant get that from training only from playing. So are the lower league clubs quick and sharp enough to give us the edge we need for our first game.
Match fitness and sharpness should be realized more in training than anywhere , on and off the pitch .... just my take .
Pre seasons are nothing but team bonding, the team you play the outcome of the game does not matter. You can use as many players as you want so playing real madrid or exeter city serves the same objection....team bonding and trying out different players. It's nice to win but that is not the object as the manager can learn more about players if we lose. Most top teams play all their pre season games away from home and there is a reason for that...again team bonding, they cant go home at night to their families and must live and sleep as a unit...you will usually find that the test will come in the last friendly game and that is usually at home in front of the home fans which signals the end of pre season and the real work starts the following week....at the end of the day it does not matter who we play in pre season...
if that's the case why go to the expense of jetting off to the USA. Why don't we just book rooms on Mumbles road, jog down to Ashleigh Road and have a run around against a Senior League side.
Yankee exactly what ithough. surely it is all about buildibg up the intensity as you reach the start of the season finishing with your toughest game. So by dai's reckoning, if we start with Rockspur then Birchgrove maybe build up to Penlan and our last game could be Garden Village. That should see us just right for a trip to Old Trafford.
Trunds .... I was thinking we could also tack on Morriston then Ponty and have a chicken in the basket to celebrate the start of the season. After all, a little Welsh League action would spice it up a bit.
You dont think that in all my time as a supporter and my time as a steward that i never asked these sort of questions..Of course i did and i got my answer....so you carry on in dreamland in the good US of A and believe what you want as your never right on anything......do i care...Nah not one bit..
Maybe Huw could save a few pounds on luxury coaches and everyone can buy some sort of month pass or rover ticket on the bendy-bus, and Rossi's can do fish and chips in news paper .... what we save will go to offset the ML buy out.
