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PRE SEASON= FITNESS AND..

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Integrating new players that''s all!

If we we win the next 3 it won''t mean a rats posterior until Augest the 17th 3pm.

It was interesting what the spurs manager said about that comp ( ok after they were knocked out).... All I wanted from this was to improve our levels and introduce new players,what I didn''t want was unnecessary risks taken and incur injuries..

Then after being asked a follow up question..

No the player wasn''t at fault,it was the pitch!

Really looking forward to seeing the best squad we have ever had,when everything is up and running.....

,

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Already a few won here are reading way too much into the pre season games, my guess is that only the final two pre season matches give you any idea of things to come, and even then there will be some meddling and experimentation going on. 

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Pre season is all about new players being integrated and spending time together and getting fitness levels up. The results whilst interesting do not matter that much albeit you don''t want to be losing them all. we have some very interesting games coming up plus the trip to Portugal and I am very optimistic. I do not think Everton will be looking forward to coming here first game of the season

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I think the programme is very good this preseason. I do want us to be playing at full speed in the last game as we need to be at the races from day one. What we also need is that international friendly to go through quickly. We need our players solely prepared for Everton and Martinez. It will be a fascinating game and we need to be ready.

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Enough said (integration);

RickyvanWolfswinkel ‏@RvWolfswinkel9 7h

Heading home! LAX-London-Norwich

Long travel ahead but it''s worth it.

Was a great tour. Great training and great lads #greatchoice #ncfc

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Agree with the OP. Results at this stage are not important. I do query the logic of going to the states and playing games on AstroTurf though.

I hope in the next few matches we will see more of Hughtons idea of a first team. I would love to see RvW and Hooper in the same starting 11.

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It is difficult to compete against a side in mid-season, and second in their championship in the case of Portland, when our team had only a couple of weeks of fitness training, the Scots even less, and when four new players had only recently arrived.  We were defeated by errors, in the absence of our expected central defenders.

 

Bearing all this in mind, and the fact that we included players who might be only peripheral in the coming season, and impressed at times, suggests that we put out our first strength team, fully fit and knowing each other better, we shall play a lot better. The pre-season games are fairly meaningless, but there was enough to see great promise.

 

My only concern is what happens if Fer or RvW is injured, and especially the former. Fer showed that he can contribute so much, we must wrap him in cotton wool. There is no one else who comes anywhere near him.

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[quote user="Brightside"]Agree with the OP. Results at this stage are not important. I do query the logic of going to the states and playing games on AstroTurf though.

I hope in the next few matches we will see more of Hughtons idea of a first team. I would love to see RvW and Hooper in the same starting 11.[/quote]
Also agree with the OP.
The trip to the States I feel had quite a bit to do with the global marketing of the Canary brand further to our link up with the US based marketing company Front Row.
The game at Portland was played on an artificial surface, think it might be a significant upgrade on AstroTurf though, but nevertheless the punch the air outcome of that match was getting through it without injury, Both Hoots and Whitaker in their pre match interviews on Canaries Player expressed some concern about the pitch - so I would not have thought that this match was one that ideally would have been chosen.
The players seem to have enjoyed the tour though so that is a big positive.
I am off to Brighton on Tuesday but again not expecting too much.  Brighton will only be 4 days from their opening league fixture and I would expect them to be at full speed with us still quite a bit behind.
I do agree though that we need to use the remainder of pre season to build ourselves up to hitting the ground running at the start of our league campaign. We have a history of slow starts for a number of years now, and I do not think we can afford another one this year as our early games are ones that you would look to to yield a fair number of points.

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In the 90''s no one really bothered about pre season matches unless a class act like Man U etc was coming here... And it was very difficult to find out the results anyway as most of the time local news never bothered...

At work we used to have an old guy called condor,who went to every match including reserves,pre season and even watched training...We used to get our info from him if we were bothered..

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"Pre Season = fitness and integrating new players that''s all!"

Except that''s not entirely true is it? Whilst the importance of getting the fitness levels high enough to compete is definitely the most important, we have a lot to work on as a team.

Regardless of whether we''re integrating new players or not, the way we played last season is not the way Hughton wants to play this season. Therefore a major part of pre-season is to see which players best suit how he wants to play this season.

Once the season has started it''s too late to still be trying to work out who the best players are for the best system to win games. You can try as many systems out in training that you want but until you try them in competitive matches, you''re not going to see them to true effect.

People saying that pre-season means nothing and that people read far too much into it are sometimes being a touch short sighted in my opinion.

Pre-season is of the utmost importance, but to the players, managers, and coaches. They just shouldn''t be so important to the fans. As the OP says, he''s looking forward to seeing the best squad we have ever had when everything is up and running... But that will only happen if we get pre-season right.

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It''s fitness and player integration, but it''s also about experimentation. We can''t decide which is our best side and best method, because in any particular game the best will depend on venue - home or away, and opponents strengths and weaknesses, even on weather conditions, and of course, much will depend on possible injuries and absences.

 

Pre-season is an opportunity to discover how well various players can play in various positions, styles and circumstances. We need to do whatever discomforts and disadvantages opponents. Last season CH did not have a squad which could adapt, or perhaps he was not sure enough about some players. There was some variation, but it was essentially  "defend and hope to score", which disappointed some posters on here. This season there should be more subtlety and variation, especially perhaps among the wingers where we now have four, of whom two are very quick.

 

Of course, players need to learn how others can best play, especially in servicing the strikers, but the manager needs to have a good idea of how flexible each player is and which combinations of players can achieve what he wants. This can be done while playing in the league, but it is surely best done pre-season with no points at stake!

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@Brightside: I believe that the tour to the US was chosen for a few reasons.

Training in high temperatures can be like training at higher altitude, it can push you that bit harder.

The Colney training pitches are being renovated as the club stated they would be at the end of the season and so the space to train at ''home'' was not available - whether it is now or not I don''t know, but I''m guessing it is closer to being ready.

As has been mentioned a few times, the teams out there have already started playing their season etc, so it was a real test for our players. The oppositions already being in league competitive mode rather than a proper pre-season where teams can some times almost saunter around.

Then there is the bit about putting Norwich''s global brand out there. In many ways you are not going to get many additional fans where local support for teams is so fanatical - this tends to be the bigger leagues like Spain, Germany and Italy. You are better off in terms of marketing in places where you are more likely to garner support. There is a sort of trend in the states to support teams from abroad - I met a few people out there that supported a home team and an English team because we are the Old Country.

Finally, a few coaches have identified that getting the team away from their home comforts means they rely upon each other a bit more and so have more opportunity to bond and develop as a ''team''.

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