Pre-season 2023-24

[Mar]

Nice convincing start to pre-season I suppose. 3 goals against Bamber Bridge (2 disallowed) and 3 against Curzon Ashton and we look to be in good shape.

Nice to see Jerome and Dacres-Cogley getting on the scoresheet. Always nice for them to open their accounts, even if it is in a friendly.

[Mar]

I accept I now say this and *could* be proved wrong, but do you not think IE et al have thought of this?
They presumably have a plan, lets leave them to putting it into place.
I very much doubt they are sat there picking their arses and just letting players go willy-nilly without a care in the world....

Just because we don't know the plan doesn't mean there isn't one.....

We sold Dapo and ended up with Shoretire. Aimson went and we got Mbete.

I’m not convinced we always get this right frankly.

Likewise we got rid of Crellin and got Trafford, Fossey and got Bradley.

Maybe we'll get some wrong but we do get it right also.

Exactly this, it's all about context. We may have one or two bad windows but if generally we're coming out improving the squad year on year then its progress.

[Worthy4England]

Have Vic and Dan located their feet yet? Or don't we know? Any reports?

[irie Cee Bee]

I think with some of the comments IE has made recently I wonder if he's either challenging Sads to focus on being a wingback OR he thinks that Sads can be that elusive attacking mid we need?

It does read like a "redemption" opportunity...

Its funny how we all see things different. I read Evatts comments as a shout out to other clubs that we have a sharp, hard working, versatile good winger available for sale.

Sads just doesn't fit the system we play and he hates being a wingback which he basically said when he came here before we switched our system. Seen nothing from him that suggests a change to that opinion.

[GhostoftheBok]

Have Vic and Dan located their feet yet? Or don't we know? Any reports?

Vic held the ball up well and made decent runs. All anyone will want to talk about is that he hit the bar from about 8 yards out when offside, but he was alright generally. Did his pressing work much better and caused turnovers which gave us openings. I spoke to him after the game and he's a decent lad.

Dan wasn't about. He has an eye infection.

[Worthy4England]

Have Vic and Dan located their feet yet? Or don't we know? Any reports?

Vic held the ball up well and made decent runs. All anyone will want to talk about is that he hit the bar from about 8 yards out when offside, but he was alright generally. Did his pressing work much better and caused turnovers which gave us openings. I spoke to him after the game and he's a decent lad.

Dan wasn't about. He has an eye infection.

Cheers Ghost, so not all lost, then.

[GhostoftheBok]

Cheers Ghost, so not all lost, then.

It's very much a work in progress.

You can see new patterns in our play around the box. We're working on diagonal runs across the line of the wide player to try and disrupt marking. When the ball goes in we're offering the option for the first man to dummy it for a secondary runner to hit.

People are still rusty and do the final bit of detail didn't come off enough, but there's a plan there to open sides up.

Randy looks a step better than we saw last season, which is promising.

The biggest negative was the lack of communication between the starting back three. It'll obviously take time, but there were a lot of issues there as to who picks up players, reading triggers and just basics like talking to one another. Forrester looks a player, but he's going to need work to get him integrated as quickly as possible.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Iles reports Declan John was unavailable due to an ankle injury.

[BWFC_Insane]

Toal may be back for the start of the season now which is good news. I’d suggest reducing the urgency for another centre back.

[Mar]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Du0Q9W ... =TheNashTV

Highlights from last night if anyones interested.

[brommers95]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Du0Q9W ... =TheNashTV

Highlights from last night if anyones interested.

Cheers Mar

I'll refrain from drawing too many conclusions from an 8 minute highlight of a pre-season friendly against National League North opposition, but Dacres-Cogley is looking very sharp.

[TANGODANCER]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Du0Q9W ... =TheNashTV

Highlights from last night if anyones interested.

Thanks for that Mar. Looked pretty useful from the Whites.

[GhostoftheBok]

I'll refrain from drawing too many conclusions from an 8 minute highlight of a pre-season friendly against National League North opposition, but Dacres-Cogley is looking very sharp.

He was good the entire time. He's picked up on the tactical stuff already, he's fast and he makes good decisions.

Williams did well down the other flank too.

If we could find someone genuinely two-footed at some point for those wide roles we'd do very well. They need to be able to both go wide to cross and cut in to shoot. It'll be interesting to see how we progress at Chester and into the other games.

[Worthy4England]

Jerome also looked to be making better runs and a bit more integrated than his cameos last year...But obvs. Short sample of viewing...

[GhostoftheBok]

Jerome also looked to be making better runs and a bit more integrated than his cameos last year...But obvs. Short sample of viewing...

It was an odd one. The general play was really good for the first 30 minutes, then tailed off and got a bit messy.

Second half it was messy for the first 15 minutes and then just us battering them again.

Jerome played well. He still has running in him and he's a clever forward. Bodvarsson looks like a player recovering from injury, but also did pretty well. He's the classiest of the striking options, in terms of his fluidity and touch.

Hopefully by the time we get to Everton people will have shaken off the rust and we can get a proper picture of where we stand. At the minute lads are still a bit reluctant to fully tax their bodies and so you're not seeing the whole picture.

[TANGODANCER]

Hopefully by the time we get to Everton people will have shaken off the rust and we can get a proper picture of where we stand. At the minute lads are still a bit reluctant to fully tax their bodies and so you're not seeing the whole picture.

In fairness (and I've only seen the highlights) the commonsense rule must be to do just as much as is needed in these pre-season games. With nothing at stake and seeing how easy it is to incur injuries, ( George Johnston, cruciate ligaments, a stark example) these games are as much about exercise run-outs as football matches.

[GhostoftheBok]

In fairness (and I've only seen the highlights) the commonsense rule must be to do just as much as is needed in these pre-season games. With nothing at stake and seeing how easy it is to incur injuries, ( George Johnston, cruciate ligaments, a stark example) these games are as much about exercise run-outs as football matches.

It wasn't a complain. We're playing our way into fitness and you don't want to pull a hamstring for the sake of a goal against Curzon Ashton.

As it gets closer to the competitive games we'll more of what people are about.

[TANGODANCER]

In fairness (and I've only seen the highlights) the commonsense rule must be to do just as much as is needed in these pre-season games. With nothing at stake and seeing how easy it is to incur injuries, ( George Johnston, cruciate ligaments, a stark example) these games are as much about exercise run-outs as football matches.

It wasn't a complain. We're playing our way into fitness and you don't want to pull a hamstring for the sake of a goal against Curzon Ashton.

As it gets closer to the competitive games we'll more of what people are about.

Not disagreeing with you ghost, just the opposite. Common sense will prevail

[GhostoftheBok]

Not disagreeing with you ghost, just the opposite. Common sense will prevail

Hopefully, mate.

I'm not sure my nerves can handle another bad injury to a key player.

Baxter and Santos both need to stay fit.

Any more major injuries wouldn't so much be the shit hitting the fan as a manure wagon hitting a wind turbine.

[BWFC_Insane]

Not disagreeing with you ghost, just the opposite. Common sense will prevail

Hopefully, mate.

I'm not sure my nerves can handle another bad injury to a key player.

Baxter and Santos both need to stay fit.

Any more major injuries wouldn't so much be the shit hitting the fan as a manure wagon hitting a wind turbine.

We’ve got one major injury, it’s bad but it also pretty much happens to every club each season.

What we need to do is the sports science work to prevent the niggling muscle injuries as far as possible. We lost too many players last season with the ‘oh we worked them too hard too soon’ line being particularly annoying.