The Preseason Thread - 2025/26

Can hear Blackmore being really careful (and trying not to laugh) when he says the name 'Juanki'

 

FT: Castellon 1-1 Saints

 

Another pre season game ticked off... another crap performance.

I'm still in the "pre season is 90% just about fitness camp" but at what point do we expect to see some sort of team cohesion rather than players that look like they just met each other and don't know what they've actually been asked to do.

 

I thought we looked great. Very energetic, lots of attacking endeavour and our new sky blue third kit looks great too

Wait... Castellon were playing in blue? We're that other team? Oh ****

 

Team cohesion isn't going to happen when you change the entire team at HT. A lot of the team in the second half either won't be here or won't feature much. One big positive to come out of today's game was Bazunu.

 

Yeah, that was pretty bad. Not sure how much better the game against Espanyol will be, given THB, Downes, Dibling are all still away and we won't have any new signings in place for then. Might only be the Brighton game where we have a proper sense of the team...

Only thing I will say about that game was the pitch was awful and probably didn't help us much

 

Probably not until the last game. Some players have only just joined up with the squad and some important ones are out with knocks. These games where we are constantly changing the players are always going to be the worst for joined up play too. Under a new manager it probably takes even longer, and maybe will take several games into the new season unfortunately. Thinking about it, if we were particularly unfit and Still needs a very fit team for his style, then it's likely to take even longer I guess. Rome wasn't built in a day and all that!

 

Did Downs come on?

 

It all depends on what Still thinks.

If he comes out says it was great and we are looking ready for the coming season......

 

A lot of work to do, especially in the creativity and attacking aspects. I would also add that we never controlled the tempo of the game either and reverted to Russball at the back too often for my liking.
Not going to use the excuse of players gaining fitness and being switched at HT because Castellón did that and still looked like a proper team.
I saw the good side of Smallbone with the 3 or 4 decent, forward balls that looked to give us a chance to open them up.

 

It's hard to get team cohesion when you're still not playing your strongest team (even with the missing players) for 90 minutes.

 

I don't understand the excuse of "well it wasn't the strongest team so there will be no cohesion" but these are the players Still has been working with and the still all look like strangers. Regardless of who wasn't available the ones that were still look like they haven't improved at all. That's a concern.

 

And people think we're going to piss the league. Early days, but not overally optimistic so far. Major improvements need to be made. 2 weeks until Wrexham, could be Plymouth all over again.

 

Oh, did we play today? I really can't be arsed with this pre-season rubbish.

 

Pre-season form really means very little, we can only make accurate judgements once the season gets underway.

 

Yep HMS piss the league is very much still on.....until the Wrexham game anyway.

Seriously though, pre season doesn't mean much. Yes they look like strangers, but they are trying new things that we won't be in a 'real' game. This is about fitness IMO and tactics follow.

 

I normally am very much in the pre season means nothing camp but I'm taking it very seriously this Summer after last season...












Undefeated in 4 baby

 

We're only 4 weeks into preseason with a new manager. You're going to need to add on another 5-7 games in the Championship to get settled in fully. The most important thing is making sure we have added some more quality before the window shuts.

 

I think we win a trophy for going unbeaten in the pre season