DO PRE - SEASON DEFEATS REALLY HELP?

I have often wondered how beneficial pre-season friendlies really are. Whilst I'm sure a decent manager can glean a helpful insight into the strengths and weaknesses of certain players, new signings, trialists etc, and maybe tinker with team formations, I cant help thinking that as a player, my confidence would not be particularly high if we had just been given a hiding by the first half decent team that we had played. Its all well and good playing non - league teams to earn them some revenue and get some match fitness but surely, a sound thrashing at home, a month before the real business starts, must be damaging to the general level of confidence throughout the team? Just a thought.

 

I'm guessing your referring to the Swansea game....I think the class they have was always going to be a hiding to nothing. But it does give you an Insite as to how good the best really are. And you can learn some technics that from how they pick a team apart.
It's also a very good work out with games like that, as its played at a high tempo and there fitness is in top condition. So on the whole although we got beat, it is a good exercise I think for all concerned.?

 

One or two players put in good performances yesterday and if they can do that against a quality side like Swansea then it bodes well for the coming season. I do however wonder just how good is the premier league because Swansea did not have any of their Euro int'ls playing yesterday.
I thought that Kilgour played a solid game against very good players, Lee Brown must have thought it was Christmas with the amount of defending that Byron Moore put in and Luke James showed a desire to work hard for the team and showed some skill in scoring his goal
Talking to a Swansea supporter on the way out he thought that Byron Moore was our man of the match.
I hope if DC is looking for loan signings he took note of the subs that Swansea brought on a some of them showed a desire coupled with quality in their performances

 

I don't know why we cant start the JPT (or whatever its called now) in pre-season instead of these pointless friendlies especially if its going to be group stages from now on it could see a fixtures build up especially if a team makes it out of the group.

 

I personally dont think it matters. Im sure before each game DC drills it into their heads that result dont matter. Of course the players will want to go out to win the game but I think they wont be bothered if they didnt get the result. There are no points up for grabs in these games. Its all about building up match fitness, building new partnerships (regarding the new players and youngster breaking through) and re-establishing the tactical knowledge they had with formations etc.

Playing higher division clubs like Villa and Swansea can only help the match fitness as we have to work a lot harder to win the ball.

As we know, DC doesnt have a set starting 11 as he tinkers all the time using each game as a seperate project. So he just wants to use these games to get players use to tactics and use to each other while getting their fitness up.

I like seamge's idea about starting the JPT group games in pre season, maybe not the start of pre season but the last 3 games of pre season before the 1st league game starts.

 

Forgot to add that in games such as Exeter, Villa and Swansea, DC can see if certain players are now good enough. Im sure these 3 games have shown DC that we need another keeper, not just to challenge Puddy and Mildenhall but to be our number 1.

 

Why didn't Puddy start against either Villa or Swansea then he would have had a chance to stake a claim for the no.1 shirt or is it a foregone conclusion that Mildy is no.1

 

I would have thought that as Puddy was out for the season just gone would mean he has a lot of catching up to do. If you noticed both with Villa and Swansea he was bought on in the second half when we were defending the South goal. Perhaps this was to protect him from negativity and bolster his confidence.

 

I think DC is looking to get a new keeper in.

Pre season seems to matter most in terms of getting the players really fit. I'm worried that after a couple of years without too many injuries we might get a few more this season which could be a problem. But at least we've got plenty of attacking options.

 

Didn't we start last season with injuries McCrystal, Puddy and one or two others