Friendlies - what have we found out?

[Rammyblues]

10th August neutral venue.

 

[samharris]

It's a ridiculous amount of travel, but I suppose no way around it now since it's so lucrative. Top 5 clubs in England have all gone to the far East this summer, haven't they?

Either way, South Africa to Hong Kong to Manchester to Munich to Manchester to Helsinki and back is one hell of a month of travel

It is a ridiculous amount of travel its true..could be worse, a hundred years ago by the time they got to south Africa and then Hong Kong the season over here would have started.. ;)

 

[LoveCity]

If the Premier League wasn't so money driven now we could have set up a camp somewhere in Europe and played 9-10 games like Bayern have to really implement Pellegrini's ethos, which looks like it could take a while to fully install. But I think progress is being made, just slowly and it's hard on a pitch like the HK one. The Audi Cup games will be important and will require two different starting 11s or 45 minutes for each player per game. Maybe we could squeeze in another friendly between Audi Cup and Newcastle, though without our England internationals who will be away for the Scotland game.

i think you're missing the Arsenal friendly

Sorry, yeah. But I meant to say between the end of the Audi Cup (1st) and the 10th which I mistook for the start of the season when it's the Arsenal game. A game against a League One side on the 5th or 6th could give us that one extra 90 minutes that would help.

 

[Rammyblues]

Given we are supposed to have two players for each position no reason why we can't run a full 90 mins friendly between all the players behind closed doors to bolster fitness but without the problem of someone kicking ten bells out of your players just before the start of the season. Didn't KK used to do this?

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

Given we are supposed to have two players for each position no reason why we can't run a full 90 mins friendly between all the players behind closed doors to bolster fitness but without the problem of someone kicking ten bells out of your players just before the start of the season. Didn't KK used to do this?

You sure a guaranteed bench player won't think "if I crock my rival for the position then I'll be guaranteed to start"?

I'd be worried people would start leaving their foot in.

 

[Rammyblues]

Thats where the brown envelopes come in :-)

 

[Didsbury Dave]

For me, I'm hugely optimistic for the season. Our signings look good. You can't play proper football on those pitches so i think there's a lot more to come from us.

As has been the case for the last couple of seasons, though, if silva gets an injury we won't pick up anything like as many points. He's integral to everything we do.

 

[Rammyblues]

I am just hoping that is where Jovetic comes in Nasri seems to have improved as well.

 

[Hart of the Matter]

So far....
Defence - nothing new
Midfield - Garcia and Nasri upped their game , Fernandihno looks to have some silky skills, still need to see him as a tackler and destroyer, Suarez has good skill but easily knocked off the ball
Attack- Jesus is fast and direct, Negredo looks like a beast and Dzeko is putting in a shift at last.

So it looks set fare for the next set of friendlies, squad looks strong with Jojo and Kun still to play any part.

Any signings need to bolster CB

We then only need to replace like for like any other players that leave ( we could perhaps afford to let go a DMF without a replacement)

Would like to see more of the youngsters in the next few games but appreciate whilst MP has yet to settle his strategy and choices for the main team selections, this is unlikely to happen.

 

[Hart of the Matter]

Great game for our new kids on the block. All showed class at some point. Defo need a CB for cover. Not a Garcia hater but he was pants today.

Looking good for new season. Still not seen Kun, but should find more space with new attacking options.