I don't know, man. Their defending was lax even by pre-season standards. They were giving everyone time on the ball in midfield and just having the defenders half-ass cover the strikers. So anyone could get the ball, see if anything was on, and if not just pass sideways and backwards with impunity. As long as you weren't moving toward their goal in the final 1/3, they didn't care. And even then, sometimes they didn't care. He made it look easy, yes. But he didn't need to be a top quality player to do it. Half of our U23 team made it look easy as well. Not that I'm knocking Hojbjerg. I just don't think you can read much from that game. They didn't care if we passed it back, and we weren't that interested in pushing forward as we were already up, no one wants to get hurt, and for the most part people aren't fully fit yet. It was just a good run-out so people could get their match legs and that's it.
These games are all about fitness and, with a new manager, letting him see how the players work together and understand his instruction. For that you need opposition of a certain standard, but you don't want a match that is too testing....you need to see a plan work,,,,doesn't help if you can't get the ball or run yourself into the ground. This kind of preseason has worked for us before....should arrive at the start of the season fit and hungry, not injured and tired.
Also Fran we will start this season with big Fraz,Ryan who were injured for opening games and also VVD is here from the start
I know a large part is the language thing, but I'm going to take a wee while to warm to our Claude as a personality.... Mind you, who cares about personality if we're winning games...
You could pass the ball to me in an empty field and i'll show you what a footballer doesn't look like There are plenty of things you can look for when watching a game like this in a player and be positive about from a technical stand point. First touch, spacial awareness, passing (not just finding a player, but the pass has the correct weight and is accurate enough for the receiver to not have to check their run). In what is essentially a kick about, all these things should be near enough spot on. If you see anymore of the friendlies this week, then just compare the more technically gifted players in the saints team like VVD, Tadic & Davis with some of the lesser skilled, such as Jay Rod, Maya, Reed and Long.
.A video on twitter page of players doing 5-a-side...can't move over here for some reason. They certainly enjoy it....beats boring, repetitive training I suppose.
http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/arti...southampton-holland-tour-day-two-3204333.aspx Presume that last shot is the winning 5-a-side team.
