Matthew Le God

Here is one example, there are countless others I could use from any club and in any year... Aston Villa: Brad Friedel, Eric Lichaj, Ciaran Clark, Richard Dunne, Stewart Downing, Ashley Young, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Marc Albrighton, Stliyan Petrov, Nigel Reo-Coker, Nickey Shorey Subs: John Carew, Elliott Parish, Barry Bannan, John Hogg, Habib Beye, Carlos, Cuellar, Isaiah Osbourne That is a very strong Aston Villa side, far better than the Saints team today. Yet Villa still lost to Bohemians. 1) How many friendlies are where both teams are actively playing and competing for 3 points? NONE 2) How many friendlies are players looking to avoid injury and not going fully into challenges? EVERY SINGLE ONE 3) How many League games next season will Saints make 5 subs? NONE 4) How many League games next season will Saints deliberately not be fielding the strongest possible side to achieve best results in the League? NONE But would they do this in a friendly? YES

Your view doesn't seem to be the approach taken by a lot of professional managers... How many recent English pre-season games have you been to to judge the underlying approach of the clubs?

You asked for examples. Were you expecting no-one to find anything? The post where on Oct 1st 2009 you predicted Saints to come between 16th - 18th shows that you aren't good at forecasting how a season will go. From basically the begining of October when you posted onwards, Saints were on promotion form. Now 10 months later you keep creating more threads predicting doom and gloom like Nostradamus.

To build squad fitness.

Alpine

No-one did. I was trying to be hysterical and impulsive over a friendly result. If you were an Aston Villa fan tonight what would you be saying about the result? You are still ignoring post 309

Should Martin O'Neil resign tonight? Bohemians 2-1 Aston Villa

Do you still stand by...? 04-07-2010 01:09 PM or 01-10-2009 08:55 PM Where will Saints finish this season thread (2009/10)

So many options. 13,000 of them in fact to choose from

Or this? On 01-10-2009 08:55 PM Where will Saints finish this season thread (2009/10) Interesting that was the day that Saints form took a massive upturn for the rest of the season.

This? About Pardew...04-07-2010 01:09 PM

Barnet beat Charlton today. Saints play Barnet on Tuesday. It will be interesting to see what the pessimists think of the outcome of that game.

What about the huge numbers of shirts they have sold? Unless you survey every single person then every poll is skewed in some way or other. Even then you could pick holes in it as to how the respondants by taking a poll have been influenced.

What about the poll on the Echo website?

They have had loads of flights across the US and Canada and delays galore and missing out on training. Took them 42 hours to get there in the first place. Far better to stay at one training base rather than continuously traveling on inter continental flights. Fatigued already in late July. http://www.portsmouthfc.co.uk/LatestNews/news/More-Travel-Disruption-For-Blues-1164.aspx Bet they wish they went to Switzerland now...

1) It is still a much better squad than this time last year. Do you not agree? 2) Are you telling me Mills, Dickson, Puncheon and Oxlade-Chamberlain are slow? 3) Are you telling me Connolly doesn't offer a good option off the bench? 4) Are you telling me no media sources have reported Saints have made a bid for speed merchant Nathan Tyson? 5) Are you telling me Pardew hasn't said he wants to sign alternatives to Lallana and Puncheon?

I really can't follow the logic in that. Winning a competitive League game is a lot more important compared with winning a friendly in terms of the squads mentality.

Squad on the opening day last season vs Millwall 8th August 2009... Davis Murty Thomas Perry Harding James Wotton Schneiderlin Lallana Paterson Saganowski Subs: Bialkowski Gillett Holmes Lancashire Pulis Thomson Gobern The squad above only won one of its first 10 games and it did evolve in personal over the course of the season and ended up earning only 3 fewer points than 2nd place Leeds. Compare that to a potential squad for the opening day this season vs Plymouth 7th August 2010... Davis Richardson Jaidi Fonte Harding Puncheon Schneiderlin Hammond Lallana Lambert Barnard Subs: Bialkowski Dickson Seaborne Butterfield Wotton Oxlade-Chamberlain Connolly And have these still in reserve... Mills Martin McNish Gobern Holmes

Do Saints have any of the playing staff or backroom staff that England do?

You are jumping to a negative already that Saints will have a bad start to the season. Why have you done that? At the moment you have no idea how they will perform against Plymouth and in other upcoming competitive games. No-one does until they start playing them!

That is irrelevant. How many League games will Saints be trying to get 3 points in by playing the best possible XI to achieve a result? How many friendlies will Saints be trying to get 3 points in by playing the best possible XI to achieve a result?

How is it checkmate? Who said pre season last year was everything? Pardew in summer 2009 had from 17th July until 7th August to prepare for the first game. By the time the first game came only a handful of the current first XI had been signed. Pardew in summer 2010 has had the whole summer to work with the squad, before they broke up he also with Nick Harvey would have done they fitness program whilst they were away. Results during pre season matter not, it is the results over the course of the season that matter.

How many League games next season will Saints make 5 subs in? How many League games next season will both Saints and their opposition be playing for 0 points? It was a non competitive friendly ffs! Players don't go in for tackles etc like they would in a League/Cup game. They are played at a much slower pace and are used to build up fitness. Pretty much every team in the country has already drawn or lost a few games this pre season that if it were a League game you would expect to win.

http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/forest/Forest-players-Wilson-Tyson-transfer-targets-rivals/article-2451127-detail/article.html

Every year people confuse pre season friendly results with something that matters.