City v United Beijing friendly pre match - CANCELLED

[SiMCFC]

I wonder which of the clubs has already managed to agree a match back in the UK.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

When we stopped playing Bury and Rochdale in preseason would be my guess.

I actually think we should play a domestic friendly as a matter of course, for various reasons, some of them benevolent, but it doesn't shame me that we don't.

The only thing that's shamed me as a City fan was the whole piss sinking episode at Wembley in 2014. I've never felt quite the same about the club since.

 

[Deleted member 58678]

It seems like an absolute farce out there, second rate training facilities in over 90 degree heat, amateur press conference setup , no grass on the pitch that we were due to play on, only sold half of the tickets....

How much are we being paid for this massive inconvenience to our preparation? Would it compensate us for not qualifying for the CL?

I would imagine that Pep isn't amused in the slightest

The club need to put a stop to these jaunts around the world, especially in the years following the Euro's or World Cup

It's been an absolute joke for a few years now. Playing on stupid septic baseball pitches and picking up injuries, playing on appalling Far East pitches that dig up and picking up injuries, flying all over the world and picking up injuries when we should be preparing for the season.

Leicester went to Austria for some training and played teams like York and Lincoln at home last Summer.

 

[sh249]

Perhaps not ideal to go into the season with so few games under our belt, but I'm not too worried. The intensity of the training will be such that we'll be ready to go.
Let's face it, we looked sharper in the match against Bayern than we did at pretty much any stage last season.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

The only reason for going there was to promote the City group.

There is no valid football reason for such a long arduous trip pre-season.

I hope the Club re-thinks it's priorities next season as success on the field leads to success off the field - not the other way round.

Agreed. It amazes me how much money that clubs put into nutrition and sports science trying to get any advantage, and then they ruin it all by going on some ridiculous marketing campaign pre-season. I guess at least it's a level playing field, because everyone has equally shit preparation.

 

[Phil1]

It's been an absolute joke for a few years now. Playing on stupid septic baseball pitches and picking up injuries, playing on appalling Far East pitches that dig up and picking up injuries, flying all over the world when we should be preparing for the season and picking up injuries.

Leicester went to Austria for some training and played teams like York and Lincoln at home last Summer.

Bet it changed this year after winning the league!

Happy to be proved wrong of course, I've no idea where they went apart from Glasgow the other day.

 

[Deleted member 58678]

4 games in preseason probably isn't enough, when you consider that most players need a few games to get back into the swing of things after a layoff. 3 games is not ideal, and all against world class teams too. For comparison Liverpool have three times as many games as us now and most are against low league teams (Although they need that to give Mané and Wijnaldum the best possible chance to score to cover up the fact that they overpaid massively for them).

Thing is that three games isn't really enough for everyone in the touring squad to get decent game time. Would prefer us to plug the gap between Dortmund and Arsenal with something in midweek vs Rotherham or Bolton or someone. We will likely not get a big win against Dortmund, who have already played five games and looked very good. Just one game where we're almost guaranteed a win and Pep can really push his style into the players could do wonders for their confidence.

Pep had Bayern playing seven pre-season games last Summer, four were in Germany

 

[yeseye]

Glad it's off. Potential for some ankle ligament injuries right there.

Is that a speed hump?

 

[SiMCFC]

People underestimate how valuable actual game time is for clubs, especially with a new manager. You can coach defensive tactics over and over in a training session and look fantastic but it means squat if it takes 5/6 matches to see the benefits of it. We need a fast start in the league this season and I fear we will be caught out if we don't find another match or two to play personally.

 

[Deleted member 58678]

Perhaps not ideal to go into the season with so few games under our belt, but I'm not too worried. The intensity of the training will be such that we'll be ready to go.
Let's face it, we looked sharper in the match against Bayern than we did at pretty much any stage last season.

It's not like we're just going into a normal season though. We haven't qualified for the Champions League yet and have to play the qualifiers soon.