So we've had friendlies against the likes of Arsenal, Anderlecht, Evian with Ajax, Udinese and Wolves planned. Just had a look at Reading and West Ham's preseasons: Reading: AFC Wimbledon, a couple of pretty unknown Portugese sides, Crystal Palace West Ham: Austria Vienna, Boreham Wood, Southend United, Oxford United (which they lost!), Colchester United and three pretty ambiguous German sides I cant help but think that having played very good European sides and an ex premier league side we will be far better prepared when we line up in 3 weeks time. West Ham may feel good about themselves with good results against league 2 sides, but will receive a shock when they line up against the big boys..
Just pre-season?? You realise how invaluable our fantastic pre-season was to our Championship campaign?? If you were a West Ham fan would you like to be facing up against Premier League opposition having only played teams like Oxford United and Boreham Wood?
It really doesn't make much difference. Pre-season is about fitness and conditioning, not practicing against good teams.
It is about conditioning, but its also about sharpening up. You sharpen up when you play better teams.
I have been surprised when other teams are still announcing their preseason games...ours were arranged and announced quite soon after the end of the season. I do think preseason games are important in preparation for the season to come...as well as fitness, I suspect that Nigel will want to see signs of progress being made. As for the quality of the opposition (though not all will be their first teams), I think that reflects Cortese's ambition and continental origins.
Adkins said, its important to play top opposition to see which players can cope with the change, it is also a motivation for the players to prove they can play against the best. It helps develop fitness, technical sharpness and tactical play quicker than playing against weaker teams. By playing a weaker team everything gets slowed down due to the better team playing down to the weaker teams level, its much harder to raise your game. I believe the way were going about it is much better than a lot of other teams. Hopefully it pays off.
Pre season isn´t just about fitness and conditioning, it´s also about working on formations, tactics and the style of football you want to play. ...How does it not make a difference playing against better teams!?. The players who got interviewed after the Liebherr tournament all said that playing against Anderlecht made them realise the level they need to reach. When you play against those kind of teams you have to play better and work harder than playing against poor opposition. If it didn´t make any difference then Cortese and Nigel wouldn´t have bothered offering to play friendlies against teams like Anderlect, Arsenal, Ajak and Udinese, they would have just played Eastleigh, the U21´s and some random league 2 sides.
Then why do other teams do that? It just seems like this is really scraping the barrel for things to look down on Reading and West Ham for - strength of pre-season schedule, really?
To be honest I wonder if Nigel gave any thought to not playing any teams in France and just having the training camp. It's really just an exercise in playing some 11 a side against someone other than yourselves so it doesn't really matter whether you play Evian, Real Madrid or Hedge End Rangers. What makes Nigel's pre-seasons so awesome is the training camp bit, last year we were the fittest team in the League and that's arguably the number 1 reason we went up. PS. Frankimus - why did the Germans have more than one possible meaning?
Tbh, I don´t give a crap about Reading and West Ham. I was just replying to the comment you made about playing against better opposition doesn´t make a difference. It´s obvious that playing against top European clubs is going to be more beneficial for us than playing against teams like Eastleigh. The reason many teams don´t have the kind of pre season schedule we have is because there aren´t many sides that would have friendly proposals accepted by all those top teams, but we have a man cortese. Believe me, I´m sure many teams would love to have the pre-season schedule we´ve got.
Wrong word, you know what i meant And I wasnt trying to belittle Reading or West Ham. Was just mentioning that Id much rather be in our position than theres
Two schools of though on this matter. One is to test yourself against thhe best and the other is to play easy games to build up confidence. We've firmly positioned ourselves in the former category, but we've also thrown in some tricky but winnable fixtures in too. Reading and West Ham could play top opposition if they wanted to and it's their loss really.
If you play a 'big' team, it's not like they put out their first team and go for it, is it? Whereas arguably against the smaller teams their players are trying to get noticed etc. So you could argue that these games may be just as much of a challenge. The preseason is all about fitness, not so much about tactics. Do you really think managers are going to allow all the scouts from other teams to come and see what's going on? No, they keep that behind closed doors. Certainly formations and other larger experiments would go on, but all the intricate play would be practiced on the training ground alone. This is only a guess, but I'd be bloody surprised if its not how it is. The reason we started so well last season was not because of the games we played in preseason, but because of the fitness work and training schedules and the fact that we have an awesome squad of talent.
Yeah I don't think it really matters who you play. Arsenal hardly played their first team against us, will probably be the same for Ajax. Plus does anybody really put in 100% in a friendly? And United are currently touring South Africa. I think the 'quality' of opposition is more about Cortese being a shrewed business man. How many people came to the kickabout with Anderlecht and Arsenal? How many would come (and stump up 25 odd quid) if we were playing Southend and Macclesfield?Likewise for Ajax and Udinese. Call me cynical, but it's just the club trying to make more money.
The year we got relegated from The Championship we played Stoke and West Ham, if I remember correctly, both Premier League. We played superbly in both games and then had the worst season ever. I'm not sure which side of the debate this supports but I thought I'd put it out there.
No it doesn't, it supports the fact that we had a no-hoper as manager and tried to crowbar in young players that weren't up to it.
