Good or poor pre season?

[spoons]

With the team for the Accrington game looming Saturday, still far from decided, surely this has been a poor pre season.
Seemingly dozens of trial players coming and going, games against mostly inferior sides and a lack of goals leads me to think this has been poor preparation.
Warm weather training in Spain during one of the hottest summers here, appeared a waste of time and money.
Closed doors games not open to fans scrutiny.
Good preparation would for me mean a team selected of about 14 certainties, playing together for at least 2 or 3 weeks.
Where is the evidence that Corr or Barnard will do better than last season?
Brown has not even nailed down his back four yet.
Straker may have been replaced but the thought that Clifford is going to play regularly makes me fear for our midfield.
This is not meant to sound negative but reflects my views after following the reports from the club and on this site.
Anyone out there willing to prove that we will have improved from last year.

 

[Ex-Member1]

Perhaps we should give up now as surely we are doomed to failure this season, not worth turning up at Accrington. Alternatively, we could display some optimism that we will have a successful season. I know what I shall hoping. For Gawd sake have some faith. COYBB

 

[usa_shrimper]

With the team for the Accrington game looming Saturday, still far from decided, surely this has been a poor pre season.
Seemingly dozens of trial players coming and going, games against mostly inferior sides and a lack of goals leads me to think this has been poor preparation.
Warm weather training in Spain during one of the hottest summers here, appeared a waste of time and money.
Closed doors games not open to fans scrutiny.
Good preparation would for me mean a team selected of about 14 certainties, playing together for at least 2 or 3 weeks.
Where is the evidence that Corr or Barnard will do better than last season?
Brown has not even nailed down his back four yet.
Straker may have been replaced but the thought that Clifford is going to play regularly makes me fear for our midfield.
This is not meant to sound negative but reflects my views after following the reports from the club and on this site.
Anyone out there willing to prove that we will have improved from last year.

Sounds pretty negative to me... the only thing that will prove we have improved is where we finish in the league

 

[Pubey]

The team lineup might not be clear to us but I'm sure Brown has a reasonable idea of the starting lineup. We've had several behind-closed-door games to gauge things, as well as two positive performances against a PL and CCC team.

Sure there's still a few things to resolve, but let's not write it off just yet. Accrington currently have a squad of 17 players, which includes 2 youngsters who haven't played.

 

[MK Shrimper]

Never known one so busy, and with the additions to the squad I reckon it's been decent and we'll come out the blocks roaring on Saturday.

 

[Danshrimper]

I don't see the problem with having trialists come and go? It happens every summer and most clubs at this level do it. Pre season results mean nothing so that shouldn't be a concern. And why does it matter if the club has friendlies behind closed doors? Are people really that bothered about watching a friendly?

 

[Gt Yarmouth Shrimper]

With the team for the Accrington game looming Saturday, still far from decided, surely this has been a poor pre season.
Seemingly dozens of trial players coming and going, games against mostly inferior sides and a lack of goals leads me to think this has been poor preparation.
Warm weather training in Spain during one of the hottest summers here, appeared a waste of time and money.
Closed doors games not open to fans scrutiny.
Good preparation would for me mean a team selected of about 14 certainties, playing together for at least 2 or 3 weeks.
Where is the evidence that Corr or Barnard will do better than last season?
Brown has not even nailed down his back four yet.
Straker may have been replaced but the thought that Clifford is going to play regularly makes me fear for our midfield.
This is not meant to sound negative but reflects my views after following the reports from the club and on this site.
Anyone out there willing to prove that we will have improved from last year.

You're quite correct. I think the best thing for the masses of SZ can do is go and support a high flying premiershite team. At least their fans never moan. Oh, wait..........:winking:

 

[Silencer]

Amazing how different people see different things. In my opinion that has been quite a good pre season in fact I would go as far as saying it's our best pre season for maybe a decade. Brown has had the chance to add to his solid foundations after a tricky pre season last season, Sturrock's summers were met with many changes and Tilly's last few pre seasons were a nightmare.

Forget the results, they literally do not matter at this time of year, I can guarantee you Chelsea losing 3-0 to Werder Bremen will not have a negative effect on there season. We have had some decent friendlies and even better is that Phil Brown has arranged numerous behind closed doors matches which gets extra game time and minutes into the players legs.

The biggest negative of pre season was the injury to Michael Timlin but he will bounce back as his enthusiasm could lift us come October/November.

On to the positives and the biggest factor for me which seems to be forgotten is that (Touch wood) as we speak the management did not lose any of the players who we wanted to keep. Yes we lost a couple of decent loanees but they are replaceable, what would be harder to replace is that fantastic togetherness and team spirit that this group of players showed last season. Bentley, Coker, Prosser, Leonard and Corr form a solid spine for this side and complimented with others like Atkinson, Hurst, Timlin and the Skipper and we have a solid squad who know each other well and seem to get on well as a unit. They will also collectively be hungry to go one better this season.

You then add the likes of Weston and Worrall who the manager clearly tracked and wanted, these are quality signings and not the type of panic and impulsive signings we saw last season with Read and Cowan.

Our trials also seemed a success with Mad Max and maybe Fagan (Surely wit will happen) penning deals with the club, the added bonus is that they have both been in and around the squad a few weeks now.

We have also added the one thing our strike force desperately needed, pace. This lad is highly rated and had a handful of other clubs interested in him.

For me and as I said it's all opinions but we are Bolger, Fagan and another midfielder away from a squad that could and should be achieving automatic promotion.

Lets get behind the boys and have a great season

UTB

 

[southend_aussies]

A poor pre-season was the first under Sturrock... Having a paper thin squad was ridiculous.

When you compare this one to that, it has been pretty good.

Brown needed to focus on a few areas and I think he has done it relatively well.

We all have to remember that the transfer market finishes at the end of August.

He still has time to add to the squad and usually at that time plenty of players move.

It has been good.

 

[danburyshrimper]

Mixed. It started poorly with the bad injury to Timlin ( do not underestimate the importance of Timlin in our team ! ) + the plentiful games with too many trialists ( 7 right backs + 9 midfielders ? ) meaning we havent really had matches where our best 11 play together, which to me should be exactly what pre season friendlies are about -- getting players used to playing with each other.

But now we have finally signed a big centre back ( maybe two ) , another wide player who scampers about a bit , a winger / striker with pace and a pacey striker who could be fantastic albeit raw , i feel our squad is almost there. I would still liked to have seen an experienced holding midfielder to sit and free up the rest of the midfield & the full backs but i guess Lenny will just have to sit deep and we forfeit his attacking ability .

Will be interesting how we set up ... as we have tried out 4-3-3 , 4-4-2 + 3-5-2 in the last few matches , none really proving conclusively successful. I would imagine away at Stanley it will be a 4-5-1 sold as a 4-3-3

All in all i really would prefer that we sorted the bulk of the squad early July and have 5 or 6 matches against Gills, Col U + Orient rather than chase shadows against Spurs/Charlton/QPR or thump sunday morning teams like Gt Wakering ( no offence intended ) but hey ho at the end of the day several of our most successful seasons have followed diabolical pre seasons so maybe it matters diddly squat until the 1st minute of the 1st proper game when the real stuff starts.

Last season i was very very optimistic we were going up. ( close, but failed ) This season i predict a slow start so am holding off from walloping bet 365 just yet til our team gets some momentum.... then Play offs should be very doable.

Up the Blues ( Whites / Yellows+ Blacks )