Is this the most undercooked preseason you can remember?

[MackworthRamIsGod]

2 minutes ago, TexasRam said:

Or brought forward ?

Or prolonged?

[therealhantsram]

41 minutes ago, GenBr said:

We are playing Huddersfield, Swansea, Stoke, Bristol, West Brom, Brentford, Cardiff and Leeds in our first 8 games. 5 of those are on parachute payments still and none of them will be easy to beat. I would like to think the fans wont judge Cocu and co too harshly if we dont win every single one of them regardless of how pre season went.

It's an incredibly tough start. For me, if we can come away from those 8 games with 9 points that will be a good return. 

I'd be happy with that. 

[alexxxxx]

i think people completely downplay how difficult it can be lose a manager in preseason - potentially even more difficult than losing your manager in the middle of the season.

 

[DCFC27]

1 hour ago, MackworthRamIsGod said:

Firstly no one can point any fingers at Cocu, I believe he has approached this job as though it's the first day of pre-season with a new squad, regardless of time frames and lack of signings, he is taking a good look at what he has got in preparation for the next 3 years. Bravo for that.

However, the whole pre-season has been a shambles;

1. Going to America and Sibley not being able to go

2. Accidently leaking on the website that Girona would be a friendly

3. Accidently leaking that Frank had joined Chelsea

4. The bizzare game against Bristol City, firstly, why play someone from the same division in a friendly anyway? Makes no sense what so ever to me.

5. The lack of games, we used to sometimes have 2 friendlies on 1 day, with 2 different elevens playing in each.

6. The final game of pre season being away to Rangers, it is usually a big home game.

7. The BIG home game being against a second division Spanish side, whose style wouldn't represent anything we would experience in he Championship.

8. The absolutely ridiculous pricing of the Girona game, 20 pound pay on the door ticket, it almost seemed as though Derby were trying to promote Rams TV and were hoping more people would watch it online then actually go to the game.

9. The Ill timed and poorly executed release of the refreshments policy that almost broke Twitter ?

The whole thing strikes me as though Frank was leaving, he honestly didn't care, the planning took place anyway without the input of a manager. The togetherness and professionalism that we said we seemed to have as a club last year evaporated with each passing day of the Lampard saga.

That's my totally negative slant on it anyway.

 

Playing someone from your own league is pretty common for premier league clubs, most of them head to the states or Asia for a cup competition with other premier league teams and a few European teams too.

I think it’s a good idea, personally I would arrange two or three games against championship sides, it makes sense playing against similar opposition. 

[1of4]

The preseason training camp in Florida was probably arranged well before the end of last season and wouldn't have been changed even if we had been promoted. The amount of games and the level of the teams played may have changed. But every club will have arranged their preseason schedule and it maybe making it difficult arranging extra games.

As already stated Cocu needed to assess all the players available to him so cutting short the game time played by the core members of the squad, a situation that his predecessor wouldn't have had to contend with.

[tinman]

It feels to me like we’re one game short of a decent pre season. 

Having the transfer window shortened by two weeks isn’t useful especially when we have a new manager. This in turn makes it even more important to get recruitment right as if we realise that we’re still weak in a position due to an incoming player not being as good as we thought then we can’t correct it. 

I’m glad Cocu has taken his time over recruitment. The answers for how he wants the team to play could be within the squad. Only he will know that for certain. 

[Rampage]

2 hours ago, therealhantsram said:

It's an incredibly tough start. For me, if we can come away from those 8 games with 9 points that will be a good return. 

I'd be happy with that. 

Sorry to agree with you but draws against competitors are ok at this stage and vastly better than losses against them 

[OoooMarkWright]

Agreed with Duracell, a very odd and poorly planned pre season. 10 days in the US seems too long, especially with the humid weather, which can have a negative effect on fitness levels. I don’t think we should do pre season in America again, the last time we went there it all kicked off with Esteban Fuertes’ passport! 

[ram59]

3 hours ago, secretsquirrel said:

This could mean the February slump is delayed

Until June? ?

[MuespachRam]

7 hours ago, nottingram said:

On a purely simplistic level I don’t really understand why you’d go to Florida. You lose a day in travel and the time difference whilst not massive would not be ideal for jet lag. If you want to put the players through their paces in hot weather why not just go to Spain or Portugal like everyone else does?

it was a brilliant idea, just a shame all you half fans didn't bother to go and support the team like any true genuine fan would.

[Boycie]

Plus, the American games were free entrance weren’t they? I doubt they’d of been bothered if we hadn’t of turned up, hardly massive attendances from what I could see.

last pre season we beat some good teams, mind you they say not to take too much from pre season form, but confident with winning breeds confidence.

[Rev]

How unfit can players get in the 2-4 weeks they've had off? 

I'm sure the sports science guys have a good handle on how fit or otherwise the players are.

I don't think any side goes into the first game fully firing anyway, that fitness builds up over the opening 1/5th of the season.

Some of our rivals had little to play for weeks before the season ended, we kept on playing and training at full throttle until the end of May, so that's fitness in the bank over most of our competition.

I don't think we'll be undercooked fitness wise at all, but we're behind in every other aspect, but what can we do?

 

[MuespachRam]

8 hours ago, nottingram said:

On a purely simplistic level I don’t really understand why you’d go to Florida. You lose a day in travel and the time difference whilst not massive would not be ideal for jet lag. If you want to put the players through their paces in hot weather why not just go to Spain or Portugal like everyone else does?

And Norwich came to Florida before last season....they didn’t do too badly on It did they....?

[dcfcfan1]

Pre season has been a huge disaster in terms of signings and players leaving. Still cant wait for the first game though! Maybe being outsiders with no pressure will suit us

[Tamworthram]

9 hours ago, cheron85 said:

I've ranted about this several times over the years - I just think the top 3 should go up - The losing playoff final team is at a massive disadvantage as they can't start their preparations for the following season having not know which league they're in until 2 weeks after everyone else

Of course we'll never know how much better the losing finalists might have done had they not reached and lost the play off final. However, you could argue that maybe there isn't such a disadvantage after all. Of the ten teams that have lost the last ten finals three were promoted the following season (Villa, Middlesbrough and Reading), another two reached the play offs again (Sheffield Wednesday and Cardiff) and two managed to finish just outside the play offs in 8th (Derby and Sheffield United. Although I haven't checked how many points they missed out by). Only Reading (second time around), Watford and Blackpool had particularly bad seasons after missing out.

I'm in favour of the play off system. Without them, our season (as well as that of Middlesbrough and Bristol would have been over in early April.

[superzak]

Only 6 days to go to kick off of the Derby season and i cant remember the last time i felt so underwhelmed about it. 

[RadioactiveWaste]

8 hours ago, superzak said:

Only 6 days to go to kick off of the Derby season and i cant remember the last time i felt so underwhelmed about it. 

2011 and 2012 were quite meh, kind of we're slowly getting better but let's just hope we win more than lose this year, eh.

[irobinson]

It’s a cunning plan....for the start of domination.....

up the Rams 

[SSD]

The transfer market has been very quiet for the top 2 divisions (unless you're a promoted team).

The last week of the market, it will definitely pick up. All of a sudden we're going to be signing at least 2 players before Monday.

[The Key Club King]

I don't really know what entails a good pre-season and when we have had a "good" one, we haven't necessarily had a good season. PC turning down a behind closed doors friendly gives an indication that he is not really panicking about it.

This pre-season has not conformed to fans' expectations, but just because it is different does not make it worse. Nor will it necessarily be the fault of a "poor" pre-season if we don't have a good season. It may be that we aren't very good. It's always important to remember this. It took England fans decades of blaming Polish goalkeepers, Diego Maradona, penalties, Beckham, Rooney etc. before we all collectively realised in 2010 that we were not as good as we thought. We then lowered our expectations, invested in youth, and got better. Maybe we are doing the same.