What can we actually take from pre-season?

[Hank shoots Skyler 2,094]

Every year seems to be a similar conversation, with some getting too caught up with the bad, or too excited with the good, but once the competitive season starts there is nearly always little bearing from pre season results on points collected (or lack there of).

So what can we realistically deduce from it?

Playstyle - Are observations valid in regards to the playstyle? Although the overall focus must be with fitness / sharpness, it does seem silly for Smith - with less than 12 months at the club and coming into a new league - to not want some time to also implement his vision for the team in the championship. Obviously everything observed must be with a pinch of salt whilst players get up to speed, but does this mean criticisms can be valid if the playstyle is a million miles away from what you like to see at this stage, or is it all still irrelevant?

Team selections - And what about the selection of players; lots of youth players given some time - so is Cantwell's prominence amongst the team totally meaningless - a fitness exercise in preparation for a sale - or has a genuine corner been turned (I seriously hope so)? During last summer we sold some frozen out players (i.e. Leitner, Trybull, Heise), and for our first friendly none of these players featured (I've tried to find the team selections for the rest of pre season but really struggling - my guess would be that they stayed away from the first team). Which surely bodes well for Todd's prospects of playing? 

Any other takeaways? I must admit I haven't been able to follow the games too much so far, so it would be interesting to know if any of the first team regulars are being fielded in new or varied roles, or anything else which you've spotted?

[Pyro Pete 1,916]

You've pretty much answered your own question.

For me, I just hope we don't pick up injuries.

[Bert 236]

We were below average last season, this season we will improve to bang average 

[cambridgeshire canary 6,784]

45 minutes ago, Pyro Pete said:

You've pretty much answered your own question.

For me, I just hope we don't pick up injuries.

This. Much as Idah is decent when I saw Pukki go down last night I was worried to say the least

[hertfordyellow 460]

To add to your points, my impression of the Germany camp is it was a success. Brought players together and drew a line under last season. Cantwell seemed embedded in the squad, thought even Tzolis looked happier. People like Springett seemed to put pressure on the more established players with his effort and desire.

Smith and Shakespeare have their doubters, but they seemed to have known exactly what the squad needed to heal. 

[Mr Angry 1,570]

1 hour ago, Bert said:

We were below average last season, this season we will improve to bang average 

Which should be enough to secure another Championship title 👍

[shefcanary 2,444]

21 minutes ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

This. Much as Idah is decent when I saw Pukki go down last night I was worried to say the least

In the interview with Big Andy after the match, Pukki was visibly limping across the pitch in the background. I know Deano says it was an impact knock and he would be training again Thursday afterwards, but i would not be surprised if Pukki didn't make it to Marseille. Then after ...  🤔

[baldy09 160]

What I have learnt is that we have have a good knack in buying injury prone players , 

[Mengo 825]

7 minutes ago, shefcanary said:

In the interview with Big Andy after the match, Pukki was visibly limping across the pitch in the background. I know Deano says it was an impact knock and he would be training again Thursday afterwards, but i would not be surprised if Pukki didn't make it to Marseille. Then after ...  🤔

snowballing effectus 🤨

[Robert N. LiM 4,471]

4 hours ago, hertfordyellow said:

To add to your points, my impression of the Germany camp is it was a success. Brought players together and drew a line under last season. Cantwell seemed embedded in the squad, thought even Tzolis looked happier. People like Springett seemed to put pressure on the more established players with his effort and desire.

Smith and Shakespeare have their doubters, but they seemed to have known exactly what the squad needed to heal. 

It was one of DF's most underrated achievements to help the last relegated squad to recover from the trauma of Project Restart, and he had the advantage of doing it in empty stadiums. If S&S can do it this year, it will be a great achievement.

Edited July 13, 2022 by Robert N. LiM
typo

[Pyro Pete 1,916]

14 minutes ago, Robert N. LiM said:

It was one of DF's most underrated achievements to help the last relegated squad to recover from the trauma of Project Restart, and he had the advantage of doing it empty stadiums. If S&S can do it this year, it will be a great achievement.

Indeed.

Also worth remembering they got off to a bit of a slow start that season.

Having impatient fans (guilty as charged) at the ground might not help.

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

All we can take from preseason is that our two signings may not be playing at the start of the season.

Friendlies are pretty meaningless results wise. They play them so early into training nowadays. They didn't let you near a ball for ages until you were fit to a standard. And all the friendlies have done is give virtually everyone a run out.

[hogesar 9,724]

There's nothing to take from them. The last couple of pre-season matches you might get an idea of team selection as you mentioned but beyond that, I don't think you even really get a solid idea of play-style because the changeover of players during a match, or the 3 x 30 stints, means there's never any real fluidity anyway.

[canarybubbles 1,937]

I agree with the general consensus here. Pre-season tells us almost nothing.

[Yobocop 1,105]

It’s a fitness exercise for the experienced pros and where younger players can show case their potential as to whether they can cut it when the real action starts 

[komakino 274]

I don't read much into friendlies at any level. They are a run about. 

What I would say given the lack of transfer activity in and out, Smith has to have a free hit this season as this is still not his squad, as he is still stuck largely with Farke's players and Webber's magic beans from last season. 

If it was the case where there were plenty of 'ins and outs' then you could say this is what Smith is all about. The worry is, we may never know what Smith is all about given the severe compromises he is under. 

[hogesar 9,724]

22 minutes ago, komakino said:

I don't read much into friendlies at any level. They are a run about. 

What I would say given the lack of transfer activity in and out, Smith has to have a free hit this season as this is still not his squad, as he is still stuck largely with Farke's players and Webber's magic beans from last season. 

If it was the case where there were plenty of 'ins and outs' then you could say this is what Smith is all about. The worry is, we may never know what Smith is all about given the severe compromises he is under. 

I don't mind Smith, and don't agree with some of the criticism thats come his way but in no way does he deserve a 'free hit' this season. It might not be his squad but it's a squad of 2 x Championship winners / proven championship players / couple of Prem quality players.

[Google Bot 3,298]

For me it's interesting to see the body language, who's linking well, who's communicating.  These are more constant and integral part of character vs how fit or how well someone is playing, so you can get a good read on the dynamics of the group during the pre-season footage.

[TheGunnShow 5,987]

Pre-season is about a ton of fitness work, and some of it is about getting some passages of play nailed down. To my eye, it looks like there will be a lot more focus on defending and getting attacking set pieces. So, if you're expecting plenty of classic Farke-ball, forget about it. There will probably still be some cultured passing going on, as Smith's teams usually did try to play. At the same time, set pieces should be a relatively quick set of wins when it comes to coming up with defending them better, or maybe some simpler variants of attacking ones.

However, anything else will be tangential. It took 15 months before Farke-ball as we knew it began to flourish, and Farke had a relatively unpressured base to start from as a mid-table Championship side not expected to do much. Our pressures then were more financial than anything, but were relieved when we sold Maddison. Then we sold Maddison, who was the fulcrum of that team, most of us were nervous and wondered if we could struggle afterwards... and then we got planted at home by Leeds... and then it clicked. Smith hasn't got that luxury, we had a crap season in the Premier, and he'll be expected to be right up there this time around.

We might be able to pick up some strengths and weaknesses in pre-season, but making predictions on how the future will go is a fool's errand. By definition, we don't see the 23 other teams.

 

[canarybubbles 1,937]

1 hour ago, hogesar said:

I don't mind Smith, and don't agree with some of the criticism thats come his way but in no way does he deserve a 'free hit' this season. It might not be his squad but it's a squad of 2 x Championship winners / proven championship players / couple of Prem quality players.

Plus he took this job knowing he would be working under a DoF system in which a coach often has to use the players he has been given.

[komakino 274]

2 hours ago, hogesar said:

I don't mind Smith, and don't agree with some of the criticism thats come his way but in no way does he deserve a 'free hit' this season. It might not be his squad but it's a squad of 2 x Championship winners / proven championship players / couple of Prem quality players.

Farke took a very long time to get going least we forget. We’re not the side that went up, with some of Webbers magic beans yet to prove themselves anywhere, so expectations have to be managed.