Pre-season friendlies - challenging enough?

[Gurney]

Looking at the list pre-season friendlies we have lined up... Newport, Oxford, Exeter, Cheltenham & Portsmouth.

Now I know that friendlies themselves don't mean much, if anything at all, but is anyone at least slightly concerned that we aren't testing ourselves against any opposition higher than League One?

Thrashing Swindon is all well & good, but, frankly, they were dreadful, so other than a bit of a run out, is it doing much to get the players ready for the level of intensity of the Championship?

[phantom]

Err, friendlies are solely about getting match sharpness back into the players and to build confidence 

Not a chance in playing a "bigger" team and taking a hammering will do us any good 

We've only played twice and one of those was arranged at the last moment so very to be concerned. Us along with the vast majority of other sides in our position will be doing just the same 

[steviestevieneville]

21 minutes ago, Gurney said:

Looking at the list pre-season friendlies we have lined up... Newport, Oxford, Exeter, Cheltenham & Portsmouth.

Now I know that friendlies themselves don't mean much, if anything at all, but is anyone at least slightly concerned that we aren't testing ourselves against any opposition higher than League One?

Thrashing Swindon is all well & good, but, frankly, they were dreadful, so other than a bit of a run out, is it doing much to get the players ready for the level of intensity of the Championship?

It’s about team shape & fitness , nothing else 

[Lrrr]

13 minutes ago, steviestevieneville said:

It’s about team shape & fitness , nothing else 

There's also a level of maintaining standards, often harder to do against easier opposition where you're expected to put a few past them, if we only beat Swindon 1-0 what would the reaction be? So its a good test mentally for players too to stay switched on an maintain the professionalism.

[Robbored]

Fitness, formations and team bonding are an integral part of pre season games. Nige and his coaches want to see how players react and perform in these matches despite them being friendlies - their attitude has to be spot on,

 

[And Its Smith]

Someone should raise it with Nige

[chinapig]

We're hardly likely to play pre-season games against Championship sides and the days of friendlies against big Premier League teams are gone. They're too busy flying around the world to make yet more money as ideal preparation for the new season.

[RoystonFoote'snephew]

The comments on here about the purpose of the pre-season friendlies are spot on, still I miss seeing the likes of Tony Polster and Samuel Eto tearing us apart. 

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, chinapig said:

We're hardly likely to play pre-season games against Championship sides and the days of friendlies against big Premier League teams are gone. They're too busy flying around the world to make yet more money as ideal preparation for the new season.

And if you do get a game against a PL team it’s likely to be a weakened squad, probably containing a host of players they are looking to loan out.

1 hour ago, RoystonFoote'snephew said:

The comments on here about the purpose of the pre-season friendlies are spot on, still I miss seeing the likes of Tony Polster and Samuel Eto tearing us apart. 

Suarez too.

 

I remember Mark Hughes marking Mark Hughes once!

[Lrrr]

2 hours ago, chinapig said:

We're hardly likely to play pre-season games against Championship sides and the days of friendlies against big Premier League teams are gone. They're too busy flying around the world to make yet more money as ideal preparation for the new season.

Add that any home fixture would need to be training ground and fans seemed to complain when we went somewhere like Bournemouth, only other one you might get would be Villa but then you’re travelling too far 

[Red Army 75]

Shame they don’t do the community friendlies anymore. Very enjoyable for the kids and raised a bit of money for the clubs we played.

[Lew-T]

7 hours ago, RoystonFoote'snephew said:

The comments on here about the purpose of the pre-season friendlies are spot on, still I miss seeing the likes of Tony Polster and Samuel Eto tearing us apart. 

Remember the Ajax one at home. Loved that! 
 

Just remember about 300 Ajax fans running into the away end about 10 minutes into the game. Carnage!

[David Brent]

We’ve got 46 games lined up where we test ourselves against teams at our level.

I’ve no issues at all with our friendly opponents.

[Sir Geoff]

9 hours ago, Gurney said:

Looking at the list pre-season friendlies we have lined up... Newport, Oxford, Exeter, Cheltenham & Portsmouth.

Now I know that friendlies themselves don't mean much, if anything at all, but is anyone at least slightly concerned that we aren't testing ourselves against any opposition higher than League One?

Thrashing Swindon is all well & good, but, frankly, they were dreadful, so other than a bit of a run out, is it doing much to get the players ready for the level of intensity of the Championship?

Better than a demoralising 5-0 dicking from Crystal Palace a few years back.

[Ron W]

Gotta say, I'm with OP, and hear me out. This is nearly as worrying as when we played the Botswana National Team, Weston-super-Mare and Cheltenham in 2014.

Edited July 19, 2023 by Ron W

[Malago]

1 hour ago, Red Army 75 said:

Shame they don’t do the community friendlies anymore. Very enjoyable for the kids and raised a bit of money for the clubs we played.

I don’t think the Mem is fit to receive visiting teams at the moment.

[mozo]

It's a glorious sign of the times that were complaining that Swindon are such pathetic opposition that they're not even worth playing in a pre-season friendly! 

[Roe]

It's ideal imo. I'd much rather have a happier pre-season on the pitch where we can build confidence and the players get to enjoy some good times together before it starts to get tough over a long season

Ultimately it probably doesn't matter that much really

[Davefevs]

I thought yesterday was a really useful workout.

Swindon played out from the back, and they did it quite well, and we appeared to proactively resolve how they were creating angles to bypass our first line press and get it into McEachran who was able to turn.  As we sorted ourselves out we gradually started forcing errors and winning the ball higher up.  That will stand us in good stead for several championship sides and the way they play.

We also saw how James was isolated from the build-up with Hepburn-Murphy dropping onto him, so we had to use balls into Scott and Knight, on the half-turn to build our way up the pitch.  Dickie’s passing was crisp into their feet, and apart from Knight losing the ball and them scoring, it showed how we have the technical players to beat a press in one pass.  We also saw Roberts coming into the centre of the pitch to receive or create space for Scott to drift left.  A different option to what we’ve seen with Pring so that was interesting.

Swindon played high tempo for 35 mins at least, so another useful test of our fitness levels.

I thought we hammered them in the 45-60 minute period…our class shone…Scott could’ve had a hatrick in that period alone.

The second team part of the game (61-120) was more fragmented, but I don’t suspect Conway is moaning.

[johnbytheriver]

The 2nd part of the game could not really be classed as a friendly.4 of our academy  players were playing for the opposition it was more just jumpers for goalposts.But everyone got a run out,and thats the main thing at this early stage.

[robinforlife2]

I've always felt a club should have 5/6 friendlies

Starting with 3/4 games against much inferior opposition to give players confidence and game time and to give everyone a chance to prove their worth, however I've always felt that the penultimate friendly should be against a better or at least equal team, at home to give the fans a game worth watching and to give the players a serious test, even if the opposition may not take it too seriously.

Then have your final game against a lesser team, playing the players who you plan to start as your 11, to try and get them to play as close to 90 mins as possible and hopefully give them a confidence booster.

[City oz]

13 hours ago, chinapig said:

We're hardly likely to play pre-season games against Championship sides and the days of friendlies against big Premier League teams are gone. They're too busy flying around the world to make yet more money as ideal preparation for the new season.

So true look at the Hammers and Spurs currently playing down under here in OZ.

[Redtrojan]

I don’t think it does any harm to player at least one better team to test the systems.

I just looked up a couple of our competitors at random -Cardiff are playing Porto and Braga ,stoke have notts county ,derby and Everton.So can be done.

Back in the day one of our pre-season games was the Gloucester cup game against Rovers.Now I appreciate they are probably no better than Swindon ,but it definitely was competitive and attracted ok sized crowds.Downside being the risk of injury.

Feeling surprisingly optimistic for the season.

[OneCity]

Fondly remember the Gloucester Cup.

Perhaps if they brought that back under the auspices of as a pre-season "friendly", that'd be a useful run out. Would kick up some fanfare too, and nice revenue for both clubs. Can't imagine the police would be keen on the idea though, and thinking again, the fewers would hate it too given the fact they'd - more than likely - get a hiding.

I'd be all for that.