Pre-season 2022/23

[officer_dibble]

Yeah - I read that as dressing room fines between players (and management) as opposed to Sharon and Neil Hart driving a hard line.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Yeah - I read that as dressing room fines between players (and management) as opposed to Sharon and Neil Hart driving a hard line.

Oh sure - the senior-player leadership group keeping control. But Evatt will know about it and agree, tacitly or explicitly.

[TANGODANCER]

Well, two soft-sounding goals down at half time. Not too impressive.

[DJBlu]

Well, two soft-sounding goals down at half time. Not too impressive.

We score a penalty and concede another straight after.

[TANGODANCER]

Erm, these are mainly our first team stars are they not? Not shining so bright yet.

[truewhite15]

Erm, these are mainly our first team stars are they not? Not shining so bright yet.

No, but they did beat a mainly first-string Watford a few days back. It's pre-season - no need to experience strong emotions one way or the other just yet

[BWFC_Insane]

Erm, these are mainly our first team stars are they not? Not shining so bright yet.

No, but they did beat a mainly first-string Watford a few days back. It's pre-season - no need to experience strong emotions one way or the other just yet

But our sloppiness at the back still hasn’t been rectified. If as Evatt says we need to be better at digging out scrappy results then I’d suggest there is still personnel needing adding to this group as there are too many who make mistakes too often.

[The_Gun]

Preseason results are meaningless. Liverpool lost 4-0 to United the other day. I also seem to recall us having an amazing preseason before our League Two campaign, and then we had an abysmal start to the season proper.

[The_Gun]

Erm, these are mainly our first team stars are they not? Not shining so bright yet.

No, but they did beat a mainly first-string Watford a few days back. It's pre-season - no need to experience strong emotions one way or the other just yet

But our sloppiness at the back still hasn’t been rectified. If as Evatt says we need to be better at digging out scrappy results then I’d suggest there is still personnel needing adding to this group as there are too many who make mistakes too often.

Do you reckon Liverpool losing 4-0 to Man U is any kind of indication of how defensively solid they’ll be this season?

[BWFC_Insane]

Erm, these are mainly our first team stars are they not? Not shining so bright yet.

No, but they did beat a mainly first-string Watford a few days back. It's pre-season - no need to experience strong emotions one way or the other just yet

But our sloppiness at the back still hasn’t been rectified. If as Evatt says we need to be better at digging out scrappy results then I’d suggest there is still personnel needing adding to this group as there are too many who make mistakes too often.

Do you reckon Liverpool losing 4-0 to Man U is any kind of indication of how defensively solid they’ll be this season?

No but we have enough data from the players we’ve got to know that they are not consistently solid and expecting that to magically change in a summer without sufficient changes in personnel seems a fools errand and the result today is exactly the sort of thing we’ve seen happen last season.

I literally don’t care about pre season results. But anyone who thinks the deficiencies we had are fixed now are deluding themselves. And today only is there as a reminder that if we want to be considered genuine contenders as we should there is more to be done in terms of recruitment,

[truewhite15]

Erm, these are mainly our first team stars are they not? Not shining so bright yet.

No, but they did beat a mainly first-string Watford a few days back. It's pre-season - no need to experience strong emotions one way or the other just yet

But our sloppiness at the back still hasn’t been rectified. If as Evatt says we need to be better at digging out scrappy results then I’d suggest there is still personnel needing adding to this group as there are too many who make mistakes too often.

Do you reckon Liverpool losing 4-0 to Man U is any kind of indication of how defensively solid they’ll be this season?

No but we have enough data from the players we’ve got to know that they are not consistently solid and expecting that to magically change in a summer without sufficient changes in personnel seems a fools errand and the result today is exactly the sort of thing we’ve seen happen last season.

I literally don’t care about pre season results. But anyone who thinks the deficiencies we had are fixed now are deluding themselves. And today only is there as a reminder that if we want to be considered genuine contenders as we should there is more to be done in terms of recruitment,

So pre-season is meaningless except when we lose, or when it suits your viewpoint. Gotcha.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

So pre-season is meaningless except when we lose, or when it suits your viewpoint. Gotcha.

Be nice - it's BWFCi's pre-season too, he's got to get back in shape

[BWFC_Insane]

Erm, these are mainly our first team stars are they not? Not shining so bright yet.

No, but they did beat a mainly first-string Watford a few days back. It's pre-season - no need to experience strong emotions one way or the other just yet

But our sloppiness at the back still hasn’t been rectified. If as Evatt says we need to be better at digging out scrappy results then I’d suggest there is still personnel needing adding to this group as there are too many who make mistakes too often.

Do you reckon Liverpool losing 4-0 to Man U is any kind of indication of how defensively solid they’ll be this season?

No but we have enough data from the players we’ve got to know that they are not consistently solid and expecting that to magically change in a summer without sufficient changes in personnel seems a fools errand and the result today is exactly the sort of thing we’ve seen happen last season.

I literally don’t care about pre season results. But anyone who thinks the deficiencies we had are fixed now are deluding themselves. And today only is there as a reminder that if we want to be considered genuine contenders as we should there is more to be done in terms of recruitment,

So pre-season is meaningless except when we lose, or when it suits your viewpoint. Gotcha.

It’s meaningless if you pick over results. But the reasons we weren’t in contention last season and even with our better January form still had Burton like blips still exist. And we haven’t improved on those key deficiencies.

I don’t need a pre season defeat to tell me that. It’s obvious based on the signings or lack of.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Evatt:

I’m happy it’s out the way today to be honest. You normally get one of these thrown in during pre-season. We win or we learn and we’ve learnt a lot today.

I’ve learnt a lot today. I think I’ve learnt things aren’t always going to be nice for us and I think if you look at the game, we’ve had a set play and two mistakes that have cost us the game. Other than that, it was pretty much all us, all the ball, but it’s what you do with the ball is what’s important.

Too many times we were happy to be negative, happy to be slow with the tempo, happy to just move the ball side to side and conserve energy rather than being our intense selves. Maybe it’s because of the Watford game and they’ve worked so hard that they were tired, but I’m not making excuses. We have to be better than that, but I’m delighted that it’s happened now and not on July 30.

It was self-inflicted. We’re trying to get ourselves to what I call the Holy Grail and for me, it’s what Man City and Liverpool are and that is a team that can keep the ball and are possession-based but also have that edge, that ruthless intensity and edge out of possession and don’t make mistakes.

We talk a lot about teams that completely sacrifice the ball and try and play on the counter attack and they did that today and that’s where you have to work on and if it’s 60 or 70 minutes where they fatigue and like we scored last season late on, then we score late on in the game then that’s what you do. The early goal was obviously great because it changes everything, but if you don’t get that the score has to be 0-0 and today it’s self-inflicted, the score wasn’t 0-0 and we’ve given ourselves a mountain to climb.

It just summed it up that just as we get a head of steam up and a goal, we then again just shoot ourselves in the foot but no damage done.

It’s a wake-up call, it gives them the chance to see the other side of me. Whether it’s a friendly or not I want to win, we’re in a business of winning and from January really, a large majority of those players haven’t seen me lose my rag, so maybe it’s the best thing that could have happened to us today.

[TANGODANCER]

It’s meaningless if you pick over results. But the reasons we weren’t in contention last season and even with our better January form still had Burton like blips still exist. And we haven’t improved on those key deficiencies.I don’t need a pre season defeat to tell me that. It’s obvious based on the signings or lack of.

Better to lose the friendlies if we learn some lessons or get some benefit from them. I'm pretty sure the boss is awake to all this though. Keep the faith.

[The_Gun]

Erm, these are mainly our first team stars are they not? Not shining so bright yet.

No, but they did beat a mainly first-string Watford a few days back. It's pre-season - no need to experience strong emotions one way or the other just yet

But our sloppiness at the back still hasn’t been rectified. If as Evatt says we need to be better at digging out scrappy results then I’d suggest there is still personnel needing adding to this group as there are too many who make mistakes too often.

Do you reckon Liverpool losing 4-0 to Man U is any kind of indication of how defensively solid they’ll be this season?

No but we have enough data from the players we’ve got to know that they are not consistently solid and expecting that to magically change in a summer without sufficient changes in personnel seems a fools errand and the result today is exactly the sort of thing we’ve seen happen last season.

I literally don’t care about pre season results. But anyone who thinks the deficiencies we had are fixed now are deluding themselves. And today only is there as a reminder that if we want to be considered genuine contenders as we should there is more to be done in terms of recruitment,

So pre-season is meaningless except when we lose, or when it suits your viewpoint. Gotcha.

It’s meaningless if you pick over results. But the reasons we weren’t in contention last season and even with our better January form still had Burton like blips still exist. And we haven’t improved on those key deficiencies.

I don’t need a pre season defeat to tell me that. It’s obvious based on the signings or lack of.

We’re in for another centre back, and this was a meaningless preseason friendly where the players likely weren’t trying very hard.

Come back to me if this is happening when the proper football starts.

[LeverEnd]

I think last season we were a fair weather team, flat track bullies. I can't see us changing in character with the personnel changes, but we're starting much stronger than 12 months ago. So let's hope there are more teams to be bullied I suppose. I think there will be, but whether it's enough to go up will depend on playoff rivals.

[Harry Genshaw]

Even with our strongest line up at the tail end of the season, we were still no match for MK Dons and Plymouth and laboured to draws with Wednesday and Wigan. We're up against 3 of those again this year plus the 3 relegated sides. It's gonna be tough...

[The_Gun]

Even with our strongest line up at the tail end of the season, we were still no match for MK Dons and Plymouth and laboured to draws with Wednesday and Wigan. We're up against 3 of those again this year plus the 3 relegated sides. It's gonna be tough...

MK Dons and Wednesday will be significantly changed from last season. We’ve lost no one of note, and look to have added some good players, likely with more to come.

[BWFC_Insane]

Even with our strongest line up at the tail end of the season, we were still no match for MK Dons and Plymouth and laboured to draws with Wednesday and Wigan. We're up against 3 of those again this year plus the 3 relegated sides. It's gonna be tough...

We are probably three quality players short. I think this is my frustration.

We need another centre back which sounds like Toal, but he’s not played this level before. We need another midfield player who has a physical presence and can win the ball back higher up the pitch. And we need another wing back option.

I’m fairly happy with where we are but those three players are key and need to add quality and experience to really let us compete imo.