Pre-season training camps and fixtures (West Ham)

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  • edited August 2017
    Thorn - think you're reading far too much into it. ;ok

    So many factors affect pre-season. Fitness, knocks, fears of picking up an injury, no motivation, several changes, kids playing, style of the pitch, the amount of training work done on the day of the game (it's not like they're having days off then playing, they're playing straight after a session or two of training), slight tactical experiments etc etc etc

    Wouldn't worry about it. Our defending yesterday was Sunday league, but we won't defend that sloppily when the season kicks off.

    We'll play our best XI v City and hope not to get thrashed and pick up no new injuries.

    Just a quick scan round of yesterdays pre-season games highlights the point.

    St Pauli 4-2 Stoke
    Burton 2-1 Leicester
    Port Vale 1-1 WBA
    Stuttgart 3-3 Huddersfield
    Bayern 0-2 Liverpool

    Completely random.

    You could easily say "we drew 3-3 with a 4th division German side" yet put in good performances and results against Werder Bremen, a respectable Bundesliga team?
  • Look at last nights results. Leicester lost at Burton, West Brom drew at Port Vale, Stoke lost at St Pauli. So that's 4 teams in the relegation battle then.
  • Agree with most of what you're saying Luke but it's you're last two paragraphs which give me concern. Defending sloppily against their equivalent of Hartlepool because of trying to avoid injury or a bit of fatigue is one thing but having virtually no cohesion or apparent idea of where everyone is or what they should be doing is another. Hope it does all miraculously click against Man U.
    Going up against City who are miles above anything we've played thus far hoping not to get thrashed doesn't fill me with confidence.
  • edited August 2017
    thorn,

    It's you that is "hoping not to get thrashed". I don't believe for one moment the team will go into the game thinking that.

    And what if we should happen to win the game, does that make us favourites for the Prem?
  • Iron herb I was referring to baracks point re hoping not to get thrashed. I'm not suggesting the team would but with one week to go should we be hoping not to get thrashed by another PL team?
    If we win I'll be delighted and hope that our performance was good and a big improvement on what we've seen so far. My concern this pre season is that we don't seem to have been able to iron out the problems we had last season and to some extent the season before with our defence and midfield.
    Last season the top 5 or 6 were all playing at their expected level and most of them ran us ragged and scored hatfuls. Most of them have improved their attacking options.
  • edited August 2017
    Last season the top 5 or 6 were all playing at their expected level and most of them ran us ragged and scored hatfuls
    Not really accurate.

    Chelsea managed 2 in both games. Spurs managed 3 and 0, Man U 1 and 2

    Fair enough, Citeh did us 3 and 5, Liverpool 2 and 4 and Arsenal 5 and 3.

    So, rather more of a mixed bag than you seem to recall.
  • Pre-season is all about fitness; cohesion, unity and tactics are all largely irrelevant. Yesterday was a good work out and an entertaining game. If we had 11 on the pitch we would've won comfortably but being down to 10 actually made it a better work out than expected. Man city is an interesting game and it will be interesting to see how Slaven lines up but the only thing that matters is the first game of the season. Pre-season results mean nothing. V Man city I would actually like us to experiment to potentially see how a different tactical approach could work in preparation for when we play then in the league as MCFC will play how they always play under pep, so why not try something different?
  • Most important thing for me is 1st not picking up any injuries , regaining match fitness and results follow..
    The West Ham way ;wink ;ok
  • If we had 11 on the pitch we would've won comfortably

    We were 2-1 down when it was 11 v 11, so I'm not so confident thaty we would have
  • Reid did really well then considering he was sent off 10 minutes previous to our second goal. ;hmm
  • Bayern Munich are currently losing 2-0 to Naples. Oh dear, their pre-season form is bad, they are going to get relegated. ;wahoo
  • It will be a completely different story for us when we line up at old Trafford
  • Respective squads for today's game:

    West Ham United: Hart, Adrian, Zabaleta, Byram, Masuaku, Fonte, Collins, Ogbonna, Rice, Obiang, Makasi, Noble, Fernandes, Snodgrass, Arnautovic, Holland, Ayew, Chicharito, Martinez

    Manchester City: Ederson, Grimshaw, Muric, Walker, Danilo, Kompany, Stones, Sterling, Aguero, Mangala, De Bruyne, Sane, Silva, Bernardo, Fernandinho, Roberts, Otamendi, Jesus, Zinchenko, Toure, Adarabioyo, Diaz, Foden

    http://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2017/august/03-august/manchester-city-v-west-ham-united-all-you-need-know

    We have nothing to fear but fear itself.

    Oh, and Aguero.

    And De Bruyne.

    And Silva.

    And Sane.

    And Jesus...
  • Is Cresswell injured as well now? No Lanzini, Kouyate, Antonio, Sakho, Carroll. Still think our squad looks light considering the injuries.
  • Cresswell has a 'minor' injury according to something I read and is back at Rush Green with the other walking wounded.

    Our midfield does look particularly weak, IMO.

    That said, I'm looking forward to watching this later ;wahoo
  • Cresswell has a 'minor' injury according to something I read and is back at Rush Green with the other walking wounded.

    Our midfield does look particularly weak, IMO.

    That said, I'm looking forward to watching this later ;wahoo
  • You can say that again Swift
  • Reid suspended?

    They actually enforce bans for pre season red cards?

    Jeez
  • Lukerz

    I guess it makes a kind of sense, otherwise there's no real deterrent.

    Just makes the ref's prima donna behaviour more absurd.
  • Think Reid has a knock and is set to face a team behind closed doors for the U23s tomorrow along with sakho

    I think
  • Half the team out before the season even begins the West Ham curse ;weep
  • edited August 2017

    Think Reid has a knock and is set to face a team behind closed doors for the U23s tomorrow along with sakho

    I think

    Champo, no - definitely suspended (as per club's match preview) ... hence getting game time (as you say) with the U23s as he needs matches to build up his fitness ;ok
  • edited August 2017
    So what do we reckon we'll see today?

    Hart
    Zabaleta - Fonte - Ogbonna
    Byram - Noble - Obiang - Masuaku
    Ayew - Arnautovic
    Chicharito

    Got to get at least 60-70 mins out of that XI. Then the likes of Collins, Fernandes, Snodgrass, Martinez etc from the bench.
  • Be interesting to see how long Chicarito gets - 45 mins?

    (Making my confident prediction that he would start in our early Prem games look ridiculous now ;doh.)
  • Mrs G,

    I think Hernandez will start against Man United. He hasn't had much of a pre-season, but that's because he was still playing competitive football over the summer.

    I don't think his fitness will have dropped enough to delay his start of the season overly, and we need him if Sakho isn't going to be ready, so I think Bilic will risk it.
  • I reckon today will be something like:

    Hart; Zabaleta Fonte Ogbonna Masuaku; Noble Obiang; Snodgrass Ayew Arnautovic; Hernandez

    I think it's unlikely he'll switch away from a back 4
  • I agree with that alderz, Slav's gone with a back four all pre-season as far as I'm aware so it looks like that is his intentions for the season. He's going to want to play his (as close as possible due to injuries) best 11 in prep for the season's start. Give them game time, and especially with the 'newbies' get them used to playing with our stalwarts. To the point I would expect your 11 to be bang on.

    I personally (if I was looking at getting a 'result' from this game as opposed to 'fitness') would start Fernandes over Ayew as the ACM as he is more defensively minded than Ayew so our 4231 could flow to a 433 when defensive against such opposition, but we will see.

    Looking forward to watching it, hopefully seeing a top end performance. coyi ;scarf

    (Also considering we have AC, Sakho, Reid, Kouyate, Antonio, Feghouli, Lanzini, and Cresswell all out injured, it's a decent 11, could not have said that a couple of years ago in such circumstances). ;ok
  • Mrs G,

    I think Hernandez will start against Man United.

    Me too ;hmm

    (Jorderz, I was puzzled by your comment until I realised that despite meaning to type 'wouldn't start' in my previous comment, it came out as 'would' ;lol ;doh ;wahoo )
  • Lukerz said:

    Reid suspended?

    They actually enforce bans for pre season red cards?

    Jeez

    I thought this at the time - is he also banned for Man Utd? I.e. three games?
  • baracks

    Well , it was 2 yellows, so would only be a 1 game ban, but I don't think friendlies count towards PL games anyway.
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