Pre Season Friendlies

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Jimbo, I take it we played 4-4-2?

the season is but 10 days away with only two preseason fixtures to go, and Beckford is only ready for 15-20mins??

He's spent half the time negotiating with Leicester though.

You'd think he'd hire an agent.

Official BWFC ‏@OfficialBWFC 30m
Freedman: "We need the personnel and we are still having a look to see who is available. I am sure we will get there in the end." #BWFC
Official BWFC ‏@OfficialBWFC 32m
Freedman: "I am currently analysing what we need ahead of our first league game. We are doing our best to give people chances to play."

Interesting quotes, those. Because I think Boris is, as is often the case, largely right here:

Last night was last chance saloon for a few players. Ream, Mears, Mills in particular. Fail to show anything and we abandon hope. None of them did by the sounds of it. The fact that Kellet had been promoted to the bench was a signal to Ream to show him there are other options, so shape up. I think we'll be looking to get rid sooner rather than later.

[thebish]

the season is but 10 days away with only two preseason fixtures to go, and Beckford is only ready for 15-20mins??

He's spent half the time negotiating with Leicester though.

hmmmm.... am I being naive to expect a professional footballer looking for a new contract somewhere to keep himself fit and ready?

[BWFC_Insane]

the season is but 10 days away with only two preseason fixtures to go, and Beckford is only ready for 15-20mins??

He's spent half the time negotiating with Leicester though.

hmmmm.... am I being naive to expect a professional footballer looking for a new contract somewhere to keep himself fit and ready?

Not saying he isn't fit, just that he's had less of a pre-season than others. Missing the trip to Spain etc.

Every player at Bolton now has the heart monitor strapped to them and are regularly monitored with individualised routines to get them up to scratch.

I suspect it's all calculated in a similar fashion to how Allardyce ran pre-seasons. Players would come in at certain points when they were ready depending on their individual progress.

Don't really see why it's a massive issue anyhow.

[thebish]

the season is but 10 days away with only two preseason fixtures to go, and Beckford is only ready for 15-20mins??

He's spent half the time negotiating with Leicester though.

hmmmm.... am I being naive to expect a professional footballer looking for a new contract somewhere to keep himself fit and ready?

Not saying he isn't fit, just that he's had less of a pre-season than others. Missing the trip to Spain etc.

Every player at Bolton now has the heart monitor strapped to them and are regularly monitored with individualised routines to get them up to scratch.

I suspect it's all calculated in a similar fashion to how Allardyce ran pre-seasons. Players would come in at certain points when they were ready depending on their individual progress.

Don't really see why it's a massive issue anyhow.

nobody said it is a massive issue. Dougie said Beckford was only ready for 15-20mins of game time, though...

[boltonboris]

That's because he wasn't training at the same intensity as the rest of the squad in Spain and he hasn't played in any friendlies prior, like the others.

[thebish]

That's because he wasn't training at the same intensity as the rest of the squad in Spain and he hasn't played in any friendlies prior, like the others.

if he's physically fit - then surely it's more game time he needs to get him match fit?

anyway - apparently Ngog will be back for the Real Betis game - so maybe we'll have a look at Bgog-Beckford...

[boltonboris]

I don't think it's as simple as that to be honest. He obviously needs to be at a certain fitness level before being able to play matches. It's a sfaety measure. If he's a yard slow, he's putting himself in danger from a tackle, or a pulled muscle.

There are people paid a damn sight more than you or I (no disrespect) to ensure that these things go as risk free as possible without hampering the players fitness levels

[thebish]

I don't think it's as simple as that to be honest. He obviously needs to be at a certain fitness level before being able to play matches. It's a sfaety measure. If he's a yard slow, he's putting himself in danger from a tackle, or a pulled muscle.

There are people paid a damn sight more than you or I (no disrespect) to ensure that these things go as risk free as possible without hampering the players fitness levels

you're probably right, and it's not my area of expertise. If he's a yard off - and not at the fitness level for it to be safe to play - then 15-20mins would be unsafe, surely?

i'm very relaxed and happy to believe dougie knows what he's doing - I'm sure he is - i was just wondering if Beckford had let himself go a bit whilst waiting for a transfer/resolution of his contract negotiations... it sounded like that to me.

i can understand a player getting game rusty - not match fit - i guess they ALL do over a summer break - but not physically unfit (so as only to be able to play 15-20mins of a game)...

truth is, though - i have no expertise here at all!

[Worthy4England]

I have a view of pre-season friendlies that runs something like this

1) They're about fitness, trying things out seeing how combos work etc.
2) The result isn't THAT important
3) Important to try not and pick-up any 6 month leg breaks

But, I do expect to see - given that the team we're playing are also in pre-season and have the same type of objectives

1) At least as fit as the opposition (after all we're both in pre-season) - there's little excuse for being 3 yards slower
2) With the combo's we have on the pitch, that they can pass, tackle, find a team-mate 10 yards away more often than not
3) Show shape that you'd expect a team playing on a Sunday park's pitch to display from set-pieces
4) Can occasionally dispatch a team two divisions lower

I generally view the Betis game (or Barca B last season) as being the one to pass some judgement on - and I'll miss that game this year, so can anyone who's been to the pre-season games tell us how we're performing against 1-4 above? Actually, I know the answer to 4) - we haven't.

[boltonboris]

2) With the combo's we have on the pitch, that they can pass, tackle, find a team-mate 10 yards away more often than not

Watch the youtube vid of the Shrewsbury match.

We kick off. Medo passes to Pratley.

Pratley does what Pratley does and sees the ball squirm under his foot..

I actually laughed and said.. "Aah.. Pratterz"

[IggyTheDawgster]

Gonna pop up to Reebok later and grab a couple tickets for that Betis game me thinks, Birthday on Sat, Be a good Fri night

[LeverEnd]

Like Boris says, it'll be a precaution. Beckford could play 90 minutes tomorrow if we really needed him to. But we don't, so much better to introduce him gradually, especially when we have other strikers who could use the game time. He means 20 minutes in he context of a carefully planned preseason programme devised by the nutty professors in our secret underground science lair!

[BWFC_Insane]

I don't think it's as simple as that to be honest. He obviously needs to be at a certain fitness level before being able to play matches. It's a sfaety measure. If he's a yard slow, he's putting himself in danger from a tackle, or a pulled muscle.

There are people paid a damn sight more than you or I (no disrespect) to ensure that these things go as risk free as possible without hampering the players fitness levels

you're probably right, and it's not my area of expertise. If he's a yard off - and not at the fitness level for it to be safe to play - then 15-20mins would be unsafe, surely?

i'm very relaxed and happy to believe dougie knows what he's doing - I'm sure he is - i was just wondering if Beckford had let himself go a bit whilst waiting for a transfer/resolution of his contract negotiations... it sounded like that to me.

i can understand a player getting game rusty - not match fit - i guess they ALL do over a summer break - but not physically unfit (so as only to be able to play 15-20mins of a game)...

truth is, though - i have no expertise here at all!

I don't think at the level of professional footballer fitness is measured quite like Bish is suggesting.

The level of detail is huge. I'm sure Beckford is fit enough to run around for 90 minutes but they probably won't let him do that until all the measures are satisfied such as heart rate in training, the stress testing and muscle composition and all that shit.

It's like say athletes who could probably compete more than they do, but don't in order to be finely tuned for when they need to. Pre-season is the only time in football you get that luxury really.

[boltonboris]

One baffling exclusion so far has been N'gog. I believe this is down to the fact that "he did too much last pre-season" and that was the cause of the niggly injuries he suffered last season.

Strange though, considering that apparently, the players did feck all training under Coyle

[thebish]

One baffling exclusion so far has been N'gog. I believe this is down to the fact that "he did too much last pre-season" and that was the cause of the niggly injuries he suffered last season.

Strange though, considering that apparently, the players did feck all training under Coyle

There are people paid a damn sight more than you or I (no disrespect) to ensure that these things go as risk free as possible without hampering the players fitness levels...



(I read somewhere he's due for a trot out in the Real Betis game...)

Personally I'd like the aim to be to have all our players fully fit and ready to play a game of football on day one of the new season... probably too much to ask!

[BWFC_Insane]

One baffling exclusion so far has been N'gog. I believe this is down to the fact that "he did too much last pre-season" and that was the cause of the niggly injuries he suffered last season.

Strange though, considering that apparently, the players did feck all training under Coyle

Injured apparently.

[thebish]

One baffling exclusion so far has been N'gog. I believe this is down to the fact that "he did too much last pre-season" and that was the cause of the niggly injuries he suffered last season.

Strange though, considering that apparently, the players did feck all training under Coyle

Injured apparently.

is that still the shoulder problem he had back in april?

have heard he's recovered now and is expected to feature against real betis...

[Worthy4England]

One baffling exclusion so far has been N'gog. I believe this is down to the fact that "he did too much last pre-season" and that was the cause of the niggly injuries he suffered last season.

Strange though, considering that apparently, the players did feck all training under Coyle

Injured apparently.

Fairly sure he had a back injury last pre-season. The bloke's a walking sick-note.

[BWFC_Insane]

One baffling exclusion so far has been N'gog. I believe this is down to the fact that "he did too much last pre-season" and that was the cause of the niggly injuries he suffered last season.

Strange though, considering that apparently, the players did feck all training under Coyle

Injured apparently.

is that still the shoulder problem he had back in april?

have heard he's recovered now and is expected to feature against real betis...

Iles was going on about some other minor injury he picked up pre-season. Not shoulder related.

[CrazyHorse]

Dougie said Beckford was only ready for 15-20mins of game time, though...

I see what he's saying. He's getting the excuses in early for us signing yet another three goals a season striker. Nice one Doug.