We better be ready for it. Our players may be rusty but our squad is anyway miles better than theirs.
Plus it's all OT, come on !!
Plus it's all OT, come on !!
Will we be up to speed for the Leeds game?
- Thread starter Offsideagain
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This view from you surprises me.
All teams have the same issues, especially the top ones.
I think its going to be a weird start for everyone, doubt we will get a real handle on who is who until xmas.
You think we will be up to speed then? Leeds will have had a better pre season with their key players, just like Palace last season. There is a risk it's a similar start.
Will it be a full house?
If we start anything like last season we need slapping all the way down Salford Quays and huge questions need to be asked.
Big teams have always had to deal with Euros and WCs. A slower start is fine, a start like last season would be disgraceful with this squad.
Varane should be in tip top shape, Sancho has trained most of the Summer without playing, Henderson & DDG also, Bruno trained but also got plenty of match rest.
Maguire had almost 2 months off, then a chance to really get back in shape over the Summer. AWB has been involved all pre season.
I’d excuse Fred & Shaw having a slow start though.
Match fitness is different to 'being in shape'.
We've got 2 weeks until the first game and half the team hasn't even started training yet.
What exactly are the club supposed to do? it's not their fault some of our best players went all the way in 2 different competitions.
The players have to (legally) get a holiday + deserve a rest anyway as it was a grueling season. We will do the best we can but to say "huge questions need to be asked" is just a bit silly.
The likes of Leeds don't have anywhere near as many internationals, they can get on holiday earlier and start training earlier.
Who doesn’t have match fitness? Maguire showed how important “match fitness” really is at the Euros by the way.
They are match fit, all have been training this Summer either on international duty or with United.
As I say, Shaw and Fred are the ones who had long seasons and long tournaments, I’d excuse them having a sluggish start.
They've been on holiday for 3/4 weeks, just like last season. Fitness is lost far quicker than it is gained.
They are elite athletes, as Maguire showed in the Euros, fitness isn’t really lost that quickly because very few simply stop training.
A fair few have even been training on their hols, this isn’t Robbo and McGrath.
Well it clearly happened last season, but keep holding on to the Maguire example as proof we don't need a proper pre season.
Not going to lie, it is worrying that 9/11 players most likely to start against Leeds will have had only 1 pre-season game. However it should help that it's against Leeds at OT. I wouldn't be surprised if we're around 5th/6th at the end of August, but these things are impossible to predict, especially now when we haven't seen our first team in pre-season.
I don’t think it should be an issue for the reasons you’ve given but it will be an issue because it always is with this group of players. What you can guarantee is that it will definitely be used as the reason/excuse if we do start badly.
Knowing how fitness is a aspect Ole banged on A LOT about when he took over the team, I fully expect he will make them as ready as possible for the opener.
You heard him elude to "hope the guys have looked after themselves" which clearly means they have been instructed or given some fitness or exercises they have to keep up even while on holiday, which I assume most footballers do anyway though.
You heard him elude to "hope the guys have looked after themselves" which clearly means they have been instructed or given some fitness or exercises they have to keep up even while on holiday, which I assume most footballers do anyway though.
Hopefully our Home form from last season is a thing of the past too.
We need to get off to a good start, so Ole and his coaches have to get team selections right.
Lot of Man Utd fan pessimism on this thread. I am a Leeds fan but would point out odds checker shows Leeds odds of winning at 5/1 and Man Utd at 5/9 on.
The bookies have more faith in your team than you do....
Having said that I will be putting a cheeky tenner on my boys :-)
The bookies have more faith in your team than you do....
Having said that I will be putting a cheeky tenner on my boys :-)
I remember watching first few games last season and was left frustrated with just how easy it was for the opposition players to dribble and cut through our front and midfield players. The lack of match fitness was glaringly obvious and manifested itself mostly in absolutely abysmal pressing and marking.
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Do we really HAVE to be at the peak of fitness?
Doesn't really matter to me, as long as Ole is able to manage the mileage of players over the course of the season and we're fit and up to speed in the 2nd half of the season.
Doesn't really matter to me, as long as Ole is able to manage the mileage of players over the course of the season and we're fit and up to speed in the 2nd half of the season.
The match fitness will be an issue with a lot of first teamers. I would expect Ole will have them play a couple of 90 min games on the training pitch though. We have a decent start so we should be able to build up match fitness in the first 3-4 games without dropping too many points
Cheers Geoff
No. But i don't think there's much we can do about it, we have a large number of key players who made it far into international tournaments and missed a big chunk of pre season. 13 of 19 made it to the knockouts of various tournaments this summer.
De Gea
AWB
Telles
Maguire
Lindelof
Varane
Bailly
Shaw
Pogba
McTominay
Matic
Fred
Fernandes
Sancho
Rashford
James
Cavani
Martial
Greenwood
Have any of our rivals had so many of their starting players out for this pre season campaign?
De Gea
AWB
Telles
Maguire
Lindelof
Varane
Bailly
Shaw
Pogba
McTominay
Matic
Fred
Fernandes
Sancho
Rashford
James
Cavani
Martial
Greenwood
Have any of our rivals had so many of their starting players out for this pre season campaign?
Have Leeds had many first teamers available for pre-season? Does anyone know?
I assume they have managed to recruit a fair few internationals too, haven't they?
I assume they have managed to recruit a fair few internationals too, haven't they?
It doesn’t look as if we will be up to speed which is really frustrating as we’ve actually managed to do some good transfer business early for a change. We can’t afford to drop many points in August. With the fixtures we have been dealt we have a great chance to put some big points on the board in the first six games which I think would be massive for momentum and confidence.
It’s been a nightmare combination of international commitments and injuries for Ole. And then Covid thrown into the mix.
Still, hopefully a lot can change in two weeks.
I expect senior players like Maguire and Bruno to step up. We should have 3/4 of a defence ready to go. Then in midfield and attack hopefully between Greenwood, Lingard, Martial, Matic, VDB etc we will have enough.
It’s been a nightmare combination of international commitments and injuries for Ole. And then Covid thrown into the mix.
Still, hopefully a lot can change in two weeks.
I expect senior players like Maguire and Bruno to step up. We should have 3/4 of a defence ready to go. Then in midfield and attack hopefully between Greenwood, Lingard, Martial, Matic, VDB etc we will have enough.
Slow start I can take but not the horseshit we saw last season.
I can answer that...... 80% of the first team have played at least some preseason games....some, like the very impressive new left back Firpo have played a couple of full games. We have been putting out some reserve players for experience like Shackleton at right back but Ayling will take that spot provided Llorente and Strujk remain fit in central defence.
Phillips has obviously not played due to having been with England and has been missed as Leeds have had to use Heidar Costa as a CDM and he has been abysmal in preseason !
Bamford played and scored in his first game back against Real Betis.
Last season none of the players had a genuine rest, that was the biggest problem rather than lack of pre-season. And that huge spell of no matches followed by a spell of a shit tonne of matches, followed by very little rest, followed by a new season with a shit tonne of matches.
And that aside, we started utterly dogshit, it was no excuse for the likes of the palace performance at home.
I won’t need to hold on to the Maguire example cause I’m sure Chelsea, United, Liverpool and City will all start much better this season.
I fully expected you to get some excuses in early though, just incase, but I have faith that Ole and the squad especially with his two new amazing signings will start the season just fine.
He also said we'll press a lot and I think we're near the bottom of the league in that.
I'm think they had the same 3 weeks rest last season like they have had since the Euros.
Predictably bringing it back to 'excuses' and Ole.
Players haven't come back, the few games we have played we have looked rusty and not fluid at all. Just think the time is running out and we just don't look nowhere near ready. But let's hope Leeds aren't any better.
Well ... This doesn't exactly inspire confidence!
It doesn't really make any difference what their results are like.
It will be all about match fitness and that's a lot more games than even our reserves will have played.
We'll definitely be undercooked. Hopefully we get through it ok.
It's pretty much exactly the same as last season. The vast majority of our first team have had feck all rest and aren't back in training yet.
How is it any different?
It's a short pre-season, but not significantly worse than it always is in big tournament years, and unlike last year, no worse for United than for other big clubs. Also unlike last year, at least everyone will be more properly rested.
Probably. But I'm hoping the squad has a point to prove after the new signings, and that'll carry us a little. I'm not too panicky about the preseason, because those games mean nothing and aren't exactly momentum builders because of how substitutions happen. Just need to figure the fitness side out somehow.
They've all had a rest this year. Last year I think everyone got 2 weeks holiday and then 2 weeks pre season. I think the rest is actually more important than the preseason
It's different in all sorts of ways. Above all in that the previous season we had a week less than anyone else in the PL, and 3 weeks less than most (because of having to play three stages of the EL after the PL finished) - so it affected us worse than it affected other teams. By the time our players went on holiday, players from every other team save Wolves, Chelsea and City had already had 3 weeks. This is the key thing - one thing was how little preparation and rest they'd had, but that might not have mattered as much if everyone else had been in an equally bad position.
If I remember correctly, also no one got more than 2 weeks off, or had much more than 2 weeks of pre-season after the rest. There were players who arrived back literally a few days before the season opener. We had a single pre-season game. Only one of our newly signed players (DvdB) was in place by the season opener. It really was extreme. Players went out to face Crystal Palace in the opener who normally wouldn't be considered to have reached a high enough level of fitness to start a friendly.
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I imagine our opening first 11 will have a slightly odd look to it. We will most likely pick players based on fitness and sharpness than ability.
Last summer turned out horrible for us. Very short break for our players and almost no participation in pre-season.
Harry had his issues down in Greece and our squad depth was inferior to what it is at the moment.
I think we'll field mostly players who've been taking part in the majority of the games this pre-season, but I'm worried about our CB pairing. None of our CBs have played any games, apart from Bailly, but I wouldn't put any trust in him.
I hope that having most of the squad close to match fitness would help the rest of the squad build up to it rather quickly.
I expect Brandon's possible loan to be delayed and him taking part in the first game. Maybe even Heaton.
'AWB, Brandon, James, Greenwood, Lingard will most probably make the starting 11. Maybe Pereira, Tuanzebe, Matic and Elanga could also be considered for the starting 11.
It all depends if any of Cavani, Bruno, Sancho, Varane, Lindelof, Shaw, Martial are close to match fitness. They might be preferred ahead of the players I mentioned above.
Harry had his issues down in Greece and our squad depth was inferior to what it is at the moment.
I think we'll field mostly players who've been taking part in the majority of the games this pre-season, but I'm worried about our CB pairing. None of our CBs have played any games, apart from Bailly, but I wouldn't put any trust in him.
I hope that having most of the squad close to match fitness would help the rest of the squad build up to it rather quickly.
I expect Brandon's possible loan to be delayed and him taking part in the first game. Maybe even Heaton.
'AWB, Brandon, James, Greenwood, Lingard will most probably make the starting 11. Maybe Pereira, Tuanzebe, Matic and Elanga could also be considered for the starting 11.
It all depends if any of Cavani, Bruno, Sancho, Varane, Lindelof, Shaw, Martial are close to match fitness. They might be preferred ahead of the players I mentioned above.