Not the best of pre seasons this one, the tour to the States and the matches since have been in the main full of young players who if we're being honest won't get a sniff of a game in the premiership. The idea of pre season is to get your first team squad match fit and ready for the start of the season whilst taking a look at one or two of the younger players. We have seen Tancock Sheehan Lucas Kingsley king and Samual and that's only tonight's game, there have been others that have featured too.
. updates from tonight's friendly at the Goldsands Stadium The Swans have named a youthful starting line-up for tonight's pre-season friendly against Bournemouth at the Goldsands Stadium. Scott Tancock, Lee Lucas and Alex Samuel come in from the Under-21 squad, while Nathan Dyer and Jefferson Montero start on the flanks. Meanwhile, the home side named former Swans midfielder Shaun MacDonald in their starting line-up. BOURNEMOUTH: Benji Buchel, Simon Francis, Tommy Elphick (capt), Marc Pugh, Tokelo Rantie (Jayden Stockley, 75), Brett Pitman, Ian Harte, Shaun MacDonald, Matt Ritchie, Eunan O'Kane, Baily Cargill. SUBS: Sam Matthews, Jordan Holmes, Patrick O'Flaherty, Aly Coulibaly, Ben Whitfield, Harry Cornick, Jayden Stockley. SWANS: Gerhard Tremmel, Angel Rangel (Liam Shephard, 68), Scott Tancock, Jazz Richards, Stephen Kingsley, Adam King, Lee Lucas, Nathan Dyer (Raheem Hanley, 68), Jefferson Montero (Alex Bray, 68), Josh Sheehan (Henry Jones, 68), Alex Samuel. Read more at http://www.swanseacity.net/news/article/bournemouth-report-1797567.aspx#WWyoZiCQseDSZ0C0.99 good test for the youngsters...
Hmmm ... everybody go home and start drinking the cool-aid, big gulps, don't spill any. It will all be fine when you wake up tomorrow. On a serious note, not too sure what to take away from this. If Bournemouth played the bulk of their first team then its an evaluation event. If not and its mostly their young players versus ours, we have some serious work to do on the farm.
You have to wonder about the logic of 2 games in 2 days . The only reason i could see for it was for Monk to put up some of the kids against some solid street wise footballers to see if they have anything to offer, other than that its just a pointless idea. Pre season is all about getting fitness and combinations working , as mentioned above, 80% of what was on the field wont be getting a sniff of first team action IMO so was it really worth it i wonder .
Thats right, but some players who were included needed a run out as they wont figure much if at all tomorrow and will be needed in case of more injuries. Like i always say that these type of games have no benefit for the first teamers and the run out is more important for fringe players than the score... Tomorrow is the game we need to shine but again the score dont matter as long as we see certain players gelling and reading the game correctly. Im expecting 16-18 players to take part tomorrow as monk swaps and changes players around....should be a good work out and a little closer to monk knowing his line up for man utd game.....
Find it a little strange that these players where played against a Championship team. Shouldn't is have been a League One or a League Two team on the opposite side with such a young team. Well, at least they got a few minutes on the pitch, good workout but probably not good for the self confidence...
