Season Readiness

[Toussaint]

Are we properly prepared given the difficulties presented by the points deduction and the uncertainty around Tonda?

The pre season friendlies, both in the quality of the opposition and the small number of games are being called into question, as is the match fitness of the squad. 
 I feel we were given the impression everything was far more under control that it seems to be.
 

I understand our position in the food chain, but the way there is so much speculation around our better players it feels more like the aftermath of relegation than the second championship season.

I guess a couple of wins on the bounce then the above becomes irrelevant, but we have to get those couple of wins. 

 

[Saint86]

1 hour ago, Toussaint said:

Are we properly prepared given the difficulties presented by the points deduction and the uncertainty around Tonda?

The pre season friendlies, both in the quality of the opposition and the small number of games are being called into question, as is the match fitness of the squad. 
 I feel we were given the impression everything was far more under control that it seems to be.
 

I understand our position in the food chain, but the way there is so much speculation around our better players it feels more like the aftermath of relegation than the second championship season.

I guess a couple of wins on the bounce then the above becomes irrelevant, but we have to get those couple of wins. 

 

With the colcehster game we essentially played 5 pre season friendlies (ranging from national league to Bundesliga) - how many did other teams place?

Middlesbrough played Celtic (championship level), Huddersfield (below Bundesliga 2 level), and Espanyol (similar to Budesliga). So less games but comparable.

Wrexham probably the best example of a side that went the other way, and look off the pace and unable to buy a win currently:
 

Fitness wise, we were far superior to Watford, who were knackered after about 50min vs Saints on the weekend and couldn't live with us after their first half exploits.

We lost to watford, people are over reacting... we gave away two poor goals to a Watford side due to individual errors. Fine, mistakes happen early on in the season. Its annoying, perhaps people can argue that one more tough game would have made a difference in terms of technical sharpness, but equally it was internationals this year and we've had arguably the most unsettled summer of any club in the league.

Physical fitness wise though, we look pretty good imho - other than the outstanding niggles for Azaz, Larin, Jander - which can't really be helped that much and where we've balanced getting them through the summer with some match fitness against having them available.

If we beat stoke on the weekend this place will be a lot rosier.

Edited 27 minutes ago by Saint86

[hypochondriac]

I think it's an easy thing to say given we lost. I wouldn't say we lacked fitness. Arguably match sharpness given how slow we were in the first half but a lot of that was to do with the personnel we selected and where they played. 

[BARCELONASAINT]

This is something i raised before Sundays game and for the first 45 minutes i believe i was vindicated.

I have felt for a while that the last few seasons we have not be prepared for the first game of the season. Last year against Wrexham at home we should of lost and got lucky. Sunday the first 45 minutes we were awful and Watford were in our faces from the start. We were not prepared for that because our preseason opponents were awful and none played the sort of football we will come up against in the Championship every week.

Second half we were fitter and had we been sharper we would have won the game but our final ball was shocking.

I really hope Tonda gets them working this week in training with crisp passing and bloody practising crossing a ball.

[Scummer]

Watford played Boreham Wood, Barnet, Hansa from the German third tier, and Fiorentina. That would appear weaker than our pre season. 

I think people are reading too much into a couple of individual errors. We had enough chances to win on Sunday.

[Matthew Le God]

14 minutes ago, BARCELONASAINT said:

We were not prepared for that because our preseason opponents were awful and none played the sort of football we will come up against in the Championship every week.

 

We played a Bundesliga team in pre season

[Lighthouse]

I certainly don’t think we lacked fitness, given how we’ve looked better in the second half of both games. I think it’s pretty much a continuation of how we ended last season TBH. We were pretty poor for large parts of the playoff games, not to mention the league games against Ipswich and Bristol.

Being without Charles and Jander is clearly an issue and Dobbin does seem like a bit of an odd signing. He can’t play the Larin role or the Azaz role, he just looks like another Archer. A decent striker in a two… which we don’t play.

[IFHP]

The reason we lost to Watford was because we gave them 2 goals.
 

Nothing to with fitness , nothing to do with who we played in friendlies, nothing to do which players have been linked with which club and nothing to do if Tonda gets a ban or not. 

it was just down to fucking shit defending. 

[Saint86]

15 minutes ago, IFHP said:

it was just down to fucking shit defending. 

I don't want to dig Stephens out over the 2 goals (manning also at fault, and the first one is frankly a superb finish given he had a lot to do) - but we all know he has mistakes in him, particularly when he hasn't had a settled run of games in the team.

Personally i wouldn't have played both him and THB vs Watford as they were always going to be a physical pacey side that hit us with direct balls - was crying out for Quarhsie or Woods.

Edited 24 minutes ago by Saint86