Will we be under-cooked !

[FulhamStu]

We have had 4 friendlies, one of which (Jags) we largely used our youth players looking to break into the 1st team squad.  Yesterdays game was called off, so we only have one game left this coming weekend before the season starts.   I suspect we have not played close to our starting 11 yet, certainly most fans really do not know who our starting 11 will be, not even close.

Friendlies are used to help fitness, which I think todate has been the main use, but also to build understanding, partnerships, team formation and sharpness.  I am not saying its wrong, but it seems strange that we have had so few games, especially as Felix has built a whole new team.  I think the games have shown (dispite the opposition being weak), how we will play - diamond, fast counter attacking and also shown some of the kids are ready to step up, however I am not sure we have been building towards our strongest 11.

Its a long season and maybe Felix thinks we can build these things in competitive games, its certainly a different approach to what I have seen before.  I am looking forward with some hope that the team we will see this season will be great to support and  one we will all be proud of.  I do think however it is going to be an inconsistant start results wise, and we will need 10 games to establish the teamwork and understanding required.

Not long to go to see and boy its going to be interesting.

[FPT]

We've had 5 games? East Fife, Rangers, Motherwell, Crawley, DC United, and then we played 11v11 in training in replace of our cancelled game, and then play Caykur on Saturday... That's 7 sets of matches.

I can see a lot of positives from playing 11v11 yesterday. I can't be bothered to go into details, but you can stop it and tweak issues/weaknesses which you can't do in games; along with that, everybody will want to start that first game of the season, so they'll want to outdo their "rival" for the position, if anything, that improves intensity and performance levels.

[jelmo]

I agree, the pre season has been a bit of a shambles. Poor opposition, hardly any matches to build up understanding between players and we dont have much of an idea how players will fare against half decent opposition because of this.

I was thinking about this earlier today and it made me wonder why we didnt play any matches at the cottage against some half decent players. Dont know why they went to Austria to play some un pronounceable teams who are probably part time farmers/teachers etc

[love4ffc]

As was said in another post, Felix is a madman and there hopefully is a method and a reason to his madness, that ultimately gets us promoted.  Hopefully by now with the 7 matches he has a really good idea of who is starting 11 are.  

It would have been nice though to have seen after the 5th game, some resemblance of the starting 11 getting in at least 3 good matches together.   Get them starting to click and fire on all cylinders as one might say. 

[Tonywa]

Not just under-cooked. Totally raw.  Hope I'm wrong, but I'm getting worried.  Never known a pre-season with so few games.

[mccscratch]

If there is one thing I am 100% certain of...fitness will not even remotely be an issue with this team....I wish we would have played some higher level matches and gotten more first team cohesion for sure but Magath has these fellas in the best shape of their lives.... the question now is... can they pass together and run with the ball.... they can run...

[jmh]

Mad Magath appears to stick pins in a list if names when he selects his teams, he clearly has no understanding of English Football and it's culture

Can you clarify what you mean by this, for another non-Englishman?

[love4ffc]

If there is one thing I am 100% certain of...fitness will not even remotely be an issue with this team....I wish we would have played some higher level matches and gotten more first team cohesion for sure but Magath has these fellas in the best shape of their lives.... the question now is... can they pass together and run with the ball.... they can run...

Fitness will absolutely not be an issue.  If you could have seen the German trainer at JAX during the Friday kick about you would have full confidence in conditioning.  The guy was built like a tank and could not sit still.  Even when the lads where actually working with Felix and not with him, you would see the trainer off to the side doing one arm push-ups or doing crazy sit-ups.  

No way Fitness will be an issue.  

[FulhamStu]

We've had 5 games? East Fife, Rangers, Motherwell, Crawley, DC United, and then we played 11v11 in training in replace of our cancelled game, and then play Caykur on Saturday... That's 7 sets of matches.

I can see a lot of positives from playing 11v11 yesterday. I can't be bothered to go into details, but you can stop it and tweak issues/weaknesses which you can't do in games; along with that, everybody will want to start that first game of the season, so they'll want to outdo their "rival" for the position, if anything, that improves intensity and performance levels.

Yes, but most of these were really training sessions.   How many real games, when players play 90 mins together with the 1st team 11  ?

Listen, maybe this is a master stroke - maybe we will be all the better for it ?
Its a bit like what is our best 1st 11 - we really don't know.  I guess thats my point - I am not even saying I am worried - more intruigued to be honest.

[jelmo]

If this pre season happened a couple of years ago then I would give the club the benefit of the doubt and think there might be a good reason for playing crappy teams and playing varying personnel/not settling on an 11/not playing many games.

However,at this particular point in time, my opinion is that this is just more bizarre mis - management from the powers that be. Havent seen anything in the last year or so to prove otherwise.

Lets hope that Magath knows what he is doing! The thought of Dan Burn at right back keeps nagging at me though whenever I try to give him credit.

[FulhamStu]

If this pre season happened a couple of years ago then I would give the club the benefit of the doubt and think there might be a good reason for playing crappy teams and playing varying personnel/not settling on an 11/not playing many games.

However,at this particular point in time, my opinion is that this is just more bizarre mis - management from the powers that be. Havent seen anything in the last year or so to prove otherwise.

Lets hope that Magath knows what he is doing! The thought of Dan Burn at right back keeps nagging at me though whenever I try to give him credit.

I was at Stoke and the Dan Burn thing is going to be associated with Felix for a long time.  In years to come people will talk about it.  One of the oddest things I have ever seen a manger do.. Still think it was something to do with stopping Couch, however when the little winger started to torment him, you would have thought things would have been done to correct the situation.  Instead to took off Holtby I think..   Anyway - we must give him time.   If he is a madman we will shortly find out.  Personally, I like what he seems to be doing - just hope it works.

[PeterFFC]

That last post of mine was meant for JMH in reply to his remark, nobody else.

You could've actually tried to explain yourself, instead of telling him to kill himself when all he did was ask a question.

[MasterHaynes]

If this pre season happened a couple of years ago then I would give the club the benefit of the doubt and think there might be a good reason for playing crappy teams and playing varying personnel/not settling on an 11/not playing many games.

However,at this particular point in time, my opinion is that this is just more bizarre mis - management from the powers that be. Havent seen anything in the last year or so to prove otherwise.

Lets hope that Magath knows what he is doing! The thought of Dan Burn at right back keeps nagging at me though whenever I try to give him credit.

I was at Stoke and the Dan Burn thing is going to be associated with Felix for a long time.  In years to come people will talk about it.  One of the oddest things I have ever seen a manger do.. Still think it was something to do with stopping Couch, however when the little winger started to torment him, you would have thought things would have been done to correct the situation.  Instead to took off Holtby I think..   Anyway - we must give him time.   If he is a madman we will shortly find out.  Personally, I like what he seems to be doing - just hope it works.

I agree Felix got outguessed by Hughes and didn't play Crouch. Although Dan struggeld against a player that had run rings around proper right backs last season he still performed better than Riisse who through schoolboy errors gave away the first and 2nd goals and wasn't even facing an out and out winger that Dan had to. Everybody overlooks the fact that Assaidi continued to be a constant threat even after Dan was replaced

[SKSW6]

What are people on about that we haven't played enough games? Look back through our other pre-seasons, we always play 5/6/7, and we would've had 7 this season if it wasn't for the cancelled game. In 08/09 we played some ropey teams and still achieved our highest ever finish. Last season we played Bremen, Betis and Parma and had a shocker. I'd have liked to have played one hard team, but it seems a massive overreaction to call this season's a shambles, pantomime, [insert your own adjective].

[jmh]

If this pre season happened a couple of years ago then I would give the club the benefit of the doubt and think there might be a good reason for playing crappy teams and playing varying personnel/not settling on an 11/not playing many games.

However,at this particular point in time, my opinion is that this is just more bizarre mis - management from the powers that be. Havent seen anything in the last year or so to prove otherwise.

Lets hope that Magath knows what he is doing! The thought of Dan Burn at right back keeps nagging at me though whenever I try to give him credit.

I was at Stoke and the Dan Burn thing is going to be associated with Felix for a long time.  In years to come people will talk about it.  One of the oddest things I have ever seen a manger do.. Still think it was something to do with stopping Couch, however when the little winger started to torment him, you would have thought things would have been done to correct the situation.  Instead to took off Holtby I think..   Anyway - we must give him time.   If he is a madman we will shortly find out.  Personally, I like what he seems to be doing - just hope it works.

I agree Felix got outguessed by Hughes and didn't play Crouch. Although Dan struggeld against a player that had run rings around proper right backs last season he still performed better than Riisse who through schoolboy errors gave away the first and 2nd goals and wasn't even facing an out and out winger that Dan had to. Everybody overlooks the fact that Assaidi continued to be a constant threat even after Dan was replaced

That's basically it - "outguessed by Hughes" is a good way to put it.  Not to mention that Assaidi was returning from injury and had barely played since February, so it's really only with the benefit of hindsight that we can say Magath's game planning should've been based on defending against him.

[FulhamStu]

What are people on about that we haven't played enough games? Look back through our other pre-seasons, we always play 5/6/7, and we would've had 7 this season if it wasn't for the cancelled game. In 08/09 we played some ropey teams and still achieved our highest ever finish. Last season we played Bremen, Betis and Parma and had a shocker. I'd have liked to have played one hard team, but it seems a massive overreaction to call this season's a shambles, pantomime, [insert your own adjective].

But I did not say that did I.   I asked the question, do you think we will be undercooked and am talking about 'the team'  which has never played together. Previous teams you could argue, played together too long !

[cmg]

Under-cooked? Raw? I don't think we've even got all the ingredients into the shopping basket yet.

Guess we'll know by the time Delia's mob get here in October.

[Roberty]

As I understand it the players are professionals so should know how to play football.
After the summer break they need to have their fitness level improved and become "match fit".
As professionals they should have an understanding of tactics and formations so will only need to know the system we are going to play for any given game.

So why do you think we need an endless number of meaningless friendlies before the season starts.
After last season friendlies in Costa Rica you could be forgive for thinking we were Champions League material
But that was a false dawn because basically friendlies are meaningless.

[cmg]

As I understand it the players are professionals so should know how to play football.
After the summer break they need to have their fitness level improved and become "match fit".
As professionals they should have an understanding of tactics and formations so will only need to know the system we are going to play for any given game.

So why do you think we need an endless number of meaningless friendlies before the season starts.
After last season friendlies in Costa Rica you could be forgive for thinking we were Champions League material
But that was a false dawn because basically friendlies are meaningless.

That's about the size of it.
These extensive programmes of pre-season matches are another fairly useless adjunct to modern football.
It's nice to give the players some variety in training environment and you might be able to get a view to a few trialists or up-and-comers but anything really meaningful will not be worked out in the full glare of public gaze.
Some of the big names might turn a buck on some high-profile friendlies which are usually something of a con on the public.

They do, of course, allow us fans opportunities for endless speculation.

[jmh]

Peter FFC. His sarcastic remark was Uncalled for, and was treated with the contempt it deserved. Nevertheless, I have not encouraged him to end his life, I have just sent him in that direction towards the South Coast of England with some advice, which I could have charged him for, but decided to let him have that one for free, due to my endless generosity, however, my intention was not to upset him or anyone else for that matter.

It wasn't sarcastic.  I'm genuinely not familiar with what's meant by the phrase "stick pins in a list of names" and, consequently, I'm not sure why this approach displays a lack of understanding of "English Football and its culture."