Pre season

[MadAmster]

Our thoughts, even those of fans who have played and/or coached at a reasonable level are irrelevant. PW had a plan last season. It worked. He and his staff have a plan this season, they say themselves that they have followed it so far to get players to a certain level of fitness.

The game at Barnsley will see something akin to our current first XI in the shape the staff think we'll be using. I say "something akin to" as we will, IMO, see some players exiting, some on loan others never to return and some incoming. Zetterström, hopefully. A striker and a left back being the other 2 priorities IMO.

August is likely to be irrelevant to the rest of the season (whether it's a good or a poor start) as we'll still be integrating players we don't yet have, some of whom might not arrive until the end of August. Once the window is shut, we will have more of an idea where we are in comparison to the rest. We will need to be a dozen or so games into the season before we can order the champers or start getting our knives sharpened.

What's happened thus far was intentional. Hopefully, what's to come is equally so and positive.

[SSD]

Paul Warne gives his teams really hard pre seasons. He wants us to be the fittest team in the league. Unfortunately as a consequence of having lots of physical sessions, the players start the pre matches at 50% conditioning. People look into pre season far too much and I'm baffled at how negative some supporters have been. I am not a massive PW fan and I've given him plenty of stick in the past, if people are angry at the pre season matches not going their way then you need a head wobble. Unless you have a behind closed doors friendly during the season, which is very rare now, this is the only time to tinker and experiment without any fear about the result. 

Because we have more access to pre season nowadays with thanks to social media and Rams TV, supporters get more annoyed and want to screen shout louder. Did anyone 10-15 years ago genuinely become angry over a pre season friendly defeat? All I remember is going to some towns and getting drunk in the sun, whilst watching some football. The level of emotional investment for non competitive fixtures really is absurd. 

Roll on two weeks where we can all at least have a moan at a league fixture.

[Anag Ram]

I think one of our priorities, if we plan to get it wide then cross it, is how we get players in the box to take advantage.

This seems a bit tricky when our midfield could well be Kenzo, Ozoh and Adams.

 I don’t think NML or Jackson are instinctive finishers (they like to run with the ball) and Yates hasn’t settled yet.

Few pieces of the jigsaw missing.

[Elwood P Dowd]

If we have more new signing yet to come then I am finding it hard to remember a time when we have have had so many new players at the start of a season. Normally the new seasons team is basically the same as last season with a few new additions, PW has a lot of change to manage, fingers crossed he can sort it out.  

I still have a horrible feeling that Cashin will leave us.😒

[MadAmster]

We have players who are wingers. NML, CBT and Barks. What's the point of keeping them if we're going to play them as wing backs or #10s or as strikers? 

[JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta]

13 minutes ago, Elwood P Dowd said:

If we have more new signing yet to come then I am finding it hard to remember a time when we have have had so many new players at the start of a season. Normally the new seasons team is basically the same as last season with a few new additions, PW has a lot of change to manage, fingers crossed he can sort it out.  

I still have a horrible feeling that Cashin will leave us.😒

We've had massive turnover in the last couple of seasons to be fair. First season in L1 we had about 5 players on the hooks going in to pre-season.

[popside72]

14 minutes ago, MadAmster said:

 

August is likely to be irrelevant to the rest of the season (whether it's a good or a poor start) as we'll still be integrating players we don't yet have, some of whom might not arrive until the end of August. Once the window is shut, we will have more of an idea where we are in comparison to the rest. We will need to be a dozen or so games into the season before we can order the champers or start getting our knives sharpened.

 

A very good post

Th good news is that we secured promotion  last season. The bad news is I did not think we were very good.

It reminds me of when Villa were promoted from the Champ a few seasons back ( albeit through the play offs) as the fifth best side in the division. They knew that wholesale changes were required, and delivered them, but over time.

Like MadAmster I anticipate a difficult start, but am confident that we will settle down after a few months.

There is an enormous amount of brinksmanship required  in the summer window.  Fortunately we have a solid manager, great support which can support decent player wages, and  a "destination club" which players want to sign for.

[JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta]

Just now, JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta said:

We've had massive turnover in the last couple of seasons to be fair. First season in L1 we had about 5 players on the hooks going in to pre-season.

Books not hooks obviously. I'm sure we don't just stick the lads on a coat hanger and store them in a cupboard when they aren't playing.

[Ghost of Clough]

9 minutes ago, Elwood P Dowd said:

If we have more new signing yet to come then I am finding it hard to remember a time when we have have had so many new players at the start of a season. Normally the new seasons team is basically the same as last season with a few new additions, PW has a lot of change to manage, fingers crossed he can sort it out.  

I still have a horrible feeling that Cashin will leave us.😒

We had quite a few new signings for the 22/23 season (14) 😉 We'll probably have 12 signings this summer. 

We also made 12 signings in 23/24. Prior to that, we signed 12 in 11/12 and 13 in 09/10 (although that included some mid season loans), 18 in 08/09, 12 in 06/07, and 14 in 05/06

[Elwood P Dowd]

4 minutes ago, JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta said:

We've had massive turnover in the last couple of seasons to be fair. First season in L1 we had about 5 players on the hooks going in to pre-season.

I sort of discounted our first season in Div 1 as the circumstances were  far from normal however, you are right there was a lot of change and it took time to settle down. We can only hope that PW has signed players to fit into the style of play he wants the team to achieve, I hope this has happened as we know signing random "big name" players doesn't work very well, the function of the team, as a whole, is the important thing    

[IlsonDerby]

48 minutes ago, SSD said:

Paul Warne gives his teams really hard pre seasons. He wants us to be the fittest team in the league. Unfortunately as a consequence of having lots of physical sessions, the players start the pre matches at 50% conditioning. People look into pre season far too much and I'm baffled at how negative some supporters have been. I am not a massive PW fan and I've given him plenty of stick in the past, if people are angry at the pre season matches not going their way then you need a head wobble. Unless you have a behind closed doors friendly during the season, which is very rare now, this is the only time to tinker and experiment without any fear about the result. 

Because we have more access to pre season nowadays with thanks to social media and Rams TV, supporters get more annoyed and want to screen shout louder. Did anyone 10-15 years ago genuinely become angry over a pre season friendly defeat? All I remember is going to some towns and getting drunk in the sun, whilst watching some football. The level of emotional investment for non competitive fixtures really is absurd. 

Roll on two weeks where we can all at least have a moan at a league fixture.

I think what it comes down to is that we know they’re going to be worked hard and with good reason but you’d hope they could still control and pass the ball competently during the first 10 minutes before heavy legs become an issue but I don’t think we’ve seen much quality at all yet which is a worry considering the quality of opposition we’ve played and considering that we could have had different elevens playing in each half. 

[jono]

13 hours ago, DavesaRam said:

People on here are playing the "They've got to gel, they've got to get used to each other" card already. But I am baffled why, season after season after season after season we are being outplayed be allegedly lesser teams who have just s big a rebuild a us, maybe even bigger, while it is us who look like nobody has bothered to tell us what that white round thing is or what we are supposed to do with it.

I know fitness is a key issue with our style of play, or at last our style of doing things, but surely working on actual football would have its benefits long term in the same way that running as much and as fast as you can does. I sure to God hope that it isn't October again before we get to see some football.

Last season Ipswich lost all their pre season games. Work that one out. 
I also believe Warne is methodical so expect a slow start. New players in new positions will be getting tuned in to Warne as well as getting to know each other. I am certain we will be playing better football as the season progresses.

I dunno Dave but I don’t really see this contention that Warne is a bit one dimensional and doesn’t encourage good football. Sure we aren’t Brazil 1970 or Dutch total football but we’re not bad and I reckon our new more mobile midfield might just change our options. I suppose we’ll find out in time, but I’m going to let it unfold a little more and as long as the first 2 months see reasonable points on the board then I am ok waiting until October. 

[Sparkle]

16 hours ago, DavesaRam said:

People on here are playing the "They've got to gel, they've got to get used to each other" card already. But I am baffled why, season after season after season after season we are being outplayed be allegedly lesser teams who have just s big a rebuild a us, maybe even bigger, while it is us who look like nobody has bothered to tell us what that white round thing is or what we are supposed to do with it.

I know fitness is a key issue with our style of play, or at last our style of doing things, but surely working on actual football would have its benefits long term in the same way that running as much and as fast as you can does. I sure to God hope that it isn't October again before we get to see some football.

Remind me was that when we were forced to play 442 and have defenders defending rather than thinking someone else would try to do it? 

[Magicman]

We really don't have a striker who will be good enough yet.  Collins needs to stay in the box while Yates needs time and thats it. No guile, no power no pace.

[Rich3478]

12 minutes ago, Magicman said:

We really don't have a striker who will be good enough yet.  Collins needs to stay in the box while Yates needs time and thats it. No guile, no power no pace.

Yeah up front is where I worry as well.

NML doesn’t seem to work played through the middle, if playing five at the back doesn’t help him play many other positions.

Yates looks the type of forward who plays off someone, not sure any of the ones we have currently fit the bill.

Collins was much improved last season, but struggled in championship previously and is well into his 30s now. Hoping is an option from the bench rather than main man.

Jackson looked very quick and mobile, a bit raw ability wise.

Washington was miles off the pace in league one, would be very surprised if plays much this season.

Just unsure which of these will score 15 goals.

[tomsdubs]

Don't worry guys, it isn't just us:

[scout's dad]

46 minutes ago, tomsdubs said:

Don't worry guys, it isn't just us:

 

Us and Pompey it’s all part of a cunning master plan 🤣

[Elwood P Dowd]

Let’s get all the losing done before season starts 👍🐏🐏🐏🐏

[Carl Sagan]

A lot of sense in this thread, and I realize we will have to wait it out and hope the strategy comes together. The one thing I find amusing is the talk that "Warne's teams are the fittest in the league" and to achieve that he is going things differently from other sides who are maybe doing ball work. 

It is possible we were fittest in League One. We won't be in the Championship. We've lost that advantage. Every team wants to be fittest in their division. Man Citeh are the fittest in the Prem. Every team has sports scientists working away with each player. We are no different. We'll probably be in the middle of the pack when it comes to fitness in the coming campaign, battling with teams on parachute payments able to invest more in this than us. 

It doesn't mean we don't want to optimize our fitness, but it will simply allow us to compete rather than give us an advantage. To get points on the board we will need to play better football. Let's hope we can do that. 

[Rich3478]

3 minutes ago, Carl Sagan said:

A lot of sense in this thread, and I realize we will have to wait it out and hope the strategy comes together. The one thing I find amusing is the talk that "Warne's teams are the fittest in the league" and to achieve that he is going things differently from other sides who are maybe doing ball work. 

It is possible we were fittest in League One. We won't be in the Championship. We've lost that advantage. Every team wants to be fittest in their division. Man Citeh are the fittest in the Prem. Every team has sports scientists working away with each player. We are no different. We'll probably be in the middle of the pack when it comes to fitness in the coming campaign, battling with teams on parachute payments able to invest more in this than us. 

It doesn't mean we don't want to optimize our fitness, but it will simply allow us to compete rather than give us an advantage. To get points on the board we will need to play better football. Let's hope we can do that. 

I don’t profess to being an expert but Warne seems to have quite an old fashioned view of fitness.  Just absolutely beast players in pre season.

Have never got the sense we were the fittest team under him, we seemed to tire towards the end quite often.

And in games we have a chaotic approach to it, we don’t really press as a team.