The Great Preseason Thread

Thekwango said:
Which is all but over. If our players are gassing in the second half of pre season games this close to the league start we’re going to have problems.
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It's not as simple as that. The preparation in the days before a competitive game will be completely different to a friendly. I know Klopp mentioned before our Salzburg game that our players had a double training session the day before the match. Having just been ran into the ground the day before, they're not going to be at peak fitness the next day.
 
fez said:
If you ask players to run harder than they are used to they will be gassed no matter how fit they are. The required pace and their fitness just dictate when that happens. There is only so much you can do in less than a month of fitness training and thats ignoring the larger job of coaching them in the way he wants them to actually play.

It took Klopp quite a while to get the Liverpool players fitness levels to a place he was happy with. It will be the same with EtH.

He either has to accept a slower pace and less pressing all season or he will run the players hard and they will adapt but flag in the second half somewhat. Hopefully the 5 subs will help that a bit.
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Yea fair points. Still a touch worrying, imo. Though I’m probably being over critical (don’t let me turn into running man lol) The team has certainly looked a lot more cohesive which is a positive.
 
BaZ87 said:
It's not as simple as that. The preparation in the days before a competitive game will be completely different to a friendly. I know Klopp mentioned before our Salzburg game that our players had a double training session the day before the match. Having just been ran into the ground the day before, they're not going to be at peak fitness the next day.
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Yea, I’m being over critical.
 
fez said:
Yes... because if you are asking anyone to do more work than they are capable of doing in order to increase their fitness drastically you will find they are knackered from working at that intensity before the 90 minutes is up.



Mediocre players who managed 2nd in the league despite being managed by a bang average manager for years. We haven't got a league winning squad but we have a good set of players that should be competing for top 4 this season.




Having another Eeyore supporting your negativity doesn't validate your view.



See above. If you want a team to get fitter you have to make them tired. There is a difference between overtraining and the resultant performance issues and working your players hard so that their fitness improves.
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Which trophy did we get for finishing 2nd in the league?

That position was more a case of Bruno being ridiculous and other teams not being up to standard.

Going from finishing second to the worst points tally since what year was it? And lots of teams seem to have bought well. We've bought the world smallest centre back, a 5th LB and a 30 year old. Most fans I meet in person are disappointed with United, it's only on here where people seem to be happy with the state of things. Opposition fans both on here and in person, they're laughing at United, which is fair enough, I'd be chuckling too.
 
sigma said:
Most fans I meet in person are disappointed with United, it's only on here where people seem to be happy with the state of things.
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This is clearly not true. Nobody is ‘happy’, but there have been a lot of changes and it’s only right to see how things go before being massively negative? Signing lots of players at once doesn’t guarantee success either.

Let’s give ETH a chance.
 
Robbo said:
This is clearly not true. Nobody is ‘happy’, but there have been a lot of changes and it’s only right to see how things go before being massively negative? Signing lots of players at once doesn’t guarantee success either.

Let’s give ETH a chance.
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I’m honestly reasonably happy because I have been waiting for years to see United get a top class modern manager in and I think ETH is that guy. I’m baffled how so many people were happy with Ole for so long and yet seem to have little excitement about ETH simply because the squad needs a few windows worth of work. The manager is the most important thing to get right as your foundation.
 
Frustrating watching our players being so greedy. Years of rewarding individualism does that though. Who cares how the team is performing, the only person you need to think about is yourself.
 
I haven’t seen anything from VDB this preseason that suggests he’s worth playing? Maybe he’ll perk up when the PL starts, but not really staking his claim so far, is he?
 
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Droolinggimp said:
Can't be doing any worse than Chong, damn, he has no skill, confidence or football awareness. Terrible from him. Whenever the ball goes to him, you know the break/attack is over.
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Yeah, agreed. He’s been absolutely awful and Laird hasn’t been great either…

Garnacho looks like a player though, that’s for sure!
 
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Converge said:
I haven’t seen anything from VDB this preseason that suggests he’s worth playing? Maybe he’ll perk up when the PL starts, but not really staking his claim so far, is he?
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I agree. I just don't think he has the mentality to be a top player. Neat and tidy isn't enough at this level. Eriksen and Garnacho are the only ones who look decent so far. Martinez looks like he likes a tackle :)
 
Slightly surprised with our line-up/bench today. Given that Nunez only played 30 odd minutes yesterday I'd have thought he'd have been involved in some capacity today but he's not in the squad and neither is Jones, who only played 2 minutes yesterday. The only senior players involved are Gomez, Konate, Milner, Carvalho and Elliott.

Edit: harsh lesson for the kids so far. Generally played fairly well but find themselves 3-0 down after some suicidal moments at the back.
 
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