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23/24 Premier League Pre-Season Thread

Strummer

Strummer

Socialismo O Muerte!
LTLF Minion
Redemption

Redemption

One less gobshite...
Bought a new Sky Glass TV yesterday to watch the EPL

to find out it had no Leeds
 
Morpeth

Morpeth

John Robertson
YellowBelly Red said:
Madri is just a marketing man's concept beer. Its never been anywhere near Spain, and is largely brewed in Tadcaster, near York.

Take some piss, give it some poncy European sounding name, and let the hipsters lap it up. Any self-respecting Spaniard would never go within 5 miles of it!
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It’s not the hipsters who drink it. It’s for those who think Carling is a naff brand. They normally wear white socks pulled up to the middle of their shins.
 
G

gamble

Stuart Pearce
I wish they'd announce things well in advance, I really want to go on a pre season tour like I did in Greece but they never give you enough notice to get time off work and book stuff.

I got lucky with Greece as the days miraculously lined up with my days off
 
M

MaxiRobriguez

Bob McKinlay
Notcher said:
I'm sure we played them at home pre season early 2000's unless it was Feyenoord I'm thinking of?
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We did play PSV although think it was early 2010s. Probably just after Billy left for the first time. Pretty sure it was the season of that neon blue ish John Pye away shirt.

We lost 3-1. Gigi Wijnaldum scored a brace for them.
 
Notcher

Notcher

Stuart Pearce
MaxiRobriguez said:
We did play PSV although think it was early 2010s. Probably just after Billy left for the first time. Pretty sure it was the season of that neon blue ish John Pye away shirt.

We lost 3-1. Gigi Wijnaldum scored a brace for them.
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Cheers. I thought we did and I should have been more certain as I was at the game
 
Redemption

Redemption

One less gobshite...
Inspired by the usual closed- season malarkey, I was thinking about what the coming season might be like.

It occurred to me that the one thing we dont know is what Cooper learned in the season just gone.

He might have a different view about the EPL puzzle and the players at his disposal to solve it.

We're all anticipating/ speculating about your types of players we might need going forwards to fit into a system we used in the past.
 
D

DocForest

First Team Squad
Redemption said:
Inspired by the usual closed- season malarkey, I was thinking about what the coming season might be like.

It occurred to me that the one thing we dont know is what Cooper learned in the season just gone.

He might have a different view about the EPL puzzle and the players at his disposal to solve it.

We're all anticipating/ speculating about your types of players we might need going forwards to fit into a system we used in the past.
Click to expand...
Yes, intriguing. If we weren't playing the type of football Cooper wanted us to play, what was the reason ?
Lack of quality of the players available, so who ? Or lack of the right type of players to play the system. Which positions ?

Just a guess but I suspect he wants two pacey wing backs and a defensive midfielder. If I'm right, Serge, even though he was my POTS won't make the 11 in a preferred system, and Danilo, Yates, Mangala and Freuler could be fighting for one place.
 
T

Timothy Pope

I know that Nuno that I know that Nuno that I know
Morpeth

Morpeth

John Robertson
DocForest said:
Yes, intriguing. If we weren't playing the type of football Cooper wanted us to play, what was the reason ?
Lack of quality of the players available, so who ? Or lack of the right type of players to play the system. Which positions ?

Just a guess but I suspect he wants two pacey wing backs and a defensive midfielder. If I'm right, Serge, even though he was my POTS won't make the 11 in a preferred system, and Danilo, Yates, Mangala and Freuler could be fighting for one place.
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Danilo Yates and Mangala are nailed on, unless we bring in an absolute beast in defensive midfield. So as it stands it’s those three plus a new boy fighting it out for three (or two), but probably three spaces in the middle. Even if we change system then those players can all be accommodated.

Freuler is a very nice player but is already marginalised so I’d expect him to either be sold or stay as the backup.

Nice problem to have.
 
M

MaxiRobriguez

Bob McKinlay
Redemption said:
Inspired by the usual closed- season malarkey, I was thinking about what the coming season might be like.

It occurred to me that the one thing we dont know is what Cooper learned in the season just gone.

He might have a different view about the EPL puzzle and the players at his disposal to solve it.

We're all anticipating/ speculating about your types of players we might need going forwards to fit into a system we used in the past.
Click to expand...

I'm hoping he's learned that flexibility is important, and should be taken pro-actively not retrospectively. Hard-headedness meanwhile becomes a negative trait if left unchecked.

We've just about survived this season because we had the ability to shift a couple of formations, but we were incredibly limited in to what those formations could be without shoe-horning players into roles they weren't comfortable with because of the personnel available to cooper.

For me, the most important thing in the summer is ensuring we get players who are natural in wide attacking areas so that if we're needing a goal in the final ten minutes we can still pose a threat to an opposition who've dropped off deep and narrow. We were too easy to shut-out this season because of our lack of flexibility, which I think is the reason Cooper ended up becoming even more defensively minded than he wanted (hence the "this isn't how we want to play" quote) - because the route to 3 points were in 1-0 victories. Keep it tight at the back, nick a goal on a counter or set piece. Play the percentages.

After that, you want to look at how else you can bring attacking threat to a team that might not create loads. For me, that's improving on set pieces. We've got a number of players with height and/or ability to attack the ball (Yates, Felipe, Boly, Niakhate, McKenna, Kouyate) but our set piece delivery is, frankly, dreadful. Having a player like James Ward Prowse on free-kicks and corners would probably yield an additional 5-10 goals over the season which might be enough for the same again in additional points gained. Turns us into a mid-table side.

TLDR: We've only got one way of playing currently, and I hope next season we have many: Fast counters sometimes, possession others. Narrow sometimes, width other times. Technical player overload sometimes, strength and height another. We need to be able to exploit oppositions weakness on a game by game basis because we're not good enough as a squad to play one way against whoever we face. We're not Man City or Liverpool.
 
eyupmeduck

eyupmeduck

Geoff Thomas
MaxiRobriguez said:
I'm hoping he's learned that flexibility is important, and should be taken pro-actively not retrospectively. Hard-headedness meanwhile becomes a negative trait if left unchecked.

We've just about survived this season because we had the ability to shift a couple of formations, but we were incredibly limited in to what those formations could be without shoe-horning players into roles they weren't comfortable with because of the personnel available to cooper.

For me, the most important thing in the summer is ensuring we get players who are natural in wide attacking areas so that if we're needing a goal in the final ten minutes we can still pose a threat to an opposition who've dropped off deep and narrow. We were too easy to shut-out this season because of our lack of flexibility, which I think is the reason Cooper ended up becoming even more defensively minded than he wanted (hence the "this isn't how we want to play" quote) - because the route to 3 points were in 1-0 victories. Keep it tight at the back, nick a goal on a counter or set piece. Play the percentages.

After that, you want to look at how else you can bring attacking threat to a team that might not create loads. For me, that's improving on set pieces. We've got a number of players with height and/or ability to attack the ball (Yates, Felipe, Boly, Niakhate, McKenna, Kouyate) but our set piece delivery is, frankly, dreadful. Having a player like James Ward Prowse on free-kicks and corners would probably yield an additional 5-10 goals over the season which might be enough for the same again in additional points gained. Turns us into a mid-table side.

TLDR: We've only got one way of playing currently, and I hope next season we have many: Fast counters sometimes, possession others. Narrow sometimes, width other times. Technical player overload sometimes, strength and height another. We need to be able to exploit oppositions weakness on a game by game basis because we're not good enough as a squad to play one way against whoever we face. We're not Man City or Liverpool.
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I think what has been a culture shock for me as I've passively watched Premier football without thinking beyond the simplicities of the game is that teams rarely have one system.

In matches we've played teams have gone from a back four to a back three and changed formation, even a few times in a match to counter threats or capitalise on a weakness that has been spotted. Specifically adding players from the bench to play that way as well which is helped by the 5 subs rule.

Against City at home I think we employed it ourself well but the amount of teams that changed formation and system shows me things have moved on from "Stick another fella up front and chase the game".



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