No league matches… could it help?

MyBloodIsRed

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We have a decent layoff of no league matches. While it sucks for fans could actually be beneficial for ETH to embed his playing style and principles? could this actually benefit our performances this season and allow us to get in position to challenge this season? Some players didn’t get a preseason with the squad. I’m just curious what people‘s thoughts are on if this could actually benefit our team gelling and Casemiro bedding in.
 

Offside

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Definitely yeah. But in the longer term when we’re squeezing in the rescheduled games it won’t help.
 

MyBloodIsRed

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Definitely yeah. But in the longer term when we’re squeezing in the rescheduled games it won’t help.
that’s fair. Shaw and Lindelöf have had injuries and could help get them back. Maybe it’s an opportunity to get the whole squad to do what we need and not just have the starting 11 perform. Long-term we will need others to come in and share the load if we are going to be successful.
 

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Maybe it could be if we're playing behind closed doors matches or something like that. However, it's more of a lost opportunity I feel as our fringe/young players are now unlikely to feature in the Europa league games. As we saw last week most of the ones who came in are desperately short of match fitness.
 

amolbhatia50k

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We're a bit fecked due to the oncoming figure congestion and being behind in games played / points. It's just logical to want to spread games over a period rather than having them bunched together. You could argue that well get time to train but for this season this is a negative imo.
 

Leftback99

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No, it doesn't help. It just means we'll have an extra congested fixture list in the second half of the season, and be even further behind the likes of Arsenal and Spurs.

We'll gain a couple of days on the training field for the missed Leeds game before the vast majority of the squad leave for 2 weeks.
 

DevilRed

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Yes. Without a doubt it will help alot of the new players settle in and for everyone to get more familiar with ETH's tactics.

Europa league is the perfect place to experiment and hone our tactics. Nobody cares if we crash out early of that one.
 

Leftback99

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Yes. Without a doubt it will help alot of the new players settle in and for everyone to get more familiar with ETH's tactics.

Europa league is the perfect place to experiment and hone our tactics. Nobody cares if we crash out early of that one.
I do.
 

Nou_Camp99

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No, it doesn't help. It just means we'll have an extra congested fixture list in the second half of the season, and be even further behind the likes of Arsenal and Spurs.

We'll gain a couple of days on the training field for the missed Leeds game before the vast majority of the squad leave for 2 weeks.
Arsenal are more than likely going to have to postpone their GW12 match Vs City to play the PSV game. They won't be any better off than us. Neither will City, not that I think we are in a race with them this year.
 

wolvored

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It will help with extra training, but we were also building up an head of steam. Palace and Leeds could have been 6 sraight wins. Playing City could well knock us back down if we lose.
 

croadyman

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We have a decent layoff of no league matches. While it sucks for fans could actually be beneficial for ETH to embed his playing style and principles? could this actually benefit our performances this season and allow us to get in position to challenge this season? Some players didn’t get a preseason with the squad. I’m just curious what people‘s thoughts are on if this could actually benefit our team gelling and Casemiro bedding in.
Not worried about Casemiro like some of the media seem to be, block against Southampton epitomised him. He will get up to speed after international break. Just not ideal we are facing that Norwegian man mountain straight after.
 

bond19821982

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Chelsea just fired their manager. Liverpool was quite unimpressive and Arsenal were just beaten. How exactly does it benefit us ? They all got a break which would actually help them. We had a momentum and that's now lost.
 

bosnian_red

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Chelsea just fired their manager. Liverpool was quite unimpressive and Arsenal were just beaten. How exactly does it benefit us ? They all got a break which would actually help them. We had a momentum and that's now lost.
They were tight wins. Ten Hag needs time on the training ground. The results gave him some backing and togetherness with the players for his methods, now a mini pre season essentially to really train his ways can be very useful. Time to keep players fresh. Time for Martial to come back sooner.

The momentum/results were good but they were games that were on a knife edge. Good performances, but it takes time on the training pitch to switch into controlling games. This will help.
 

Wing Attack Plan R

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Anything that helps Casemiro get up to speed will be a good thing. Our issues right now are fitness and team integration. Both of those will be helped by a couple weeks off. We aren't going to fluke our league position, the Europa title, or whatever: when our team is fit and firing we should be able to beat anyone.
 

Leftback99

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They were tight wins. Ten Hag needs time on the training ground. The results gave him some backing and togetherness with the players for his methods, now a mini pre season essentially to really train his ways can be very useful. Time to keep players fresh. Time for Martial to come back sooner.

The momentum/results were good but they were games that were on a knife edge. Good performances, but it takes time on the training pitch to switch into controlling games. This will help.
Agree on the tight wins which could have gone either way in reality, but how is it a 'mini pre season' if the majority of the squad are going to be away on internationals?
 

Tarrou

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Double edged sword.

Absolutely helps ETH in terms of more time with the squad, especially the new signings. But it's gonna feck us over with fixture congestion, as the squad is thin in some key areas.
 

kaku06

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Negatives :
- Lost our momentum
- Recovery period for struggling Rivals


Positives :
- Much needed Training time
- Rest before hellish October
- Getting Martial back
- Casemiro, Antony, Ronaldo (arguably) match fitness
- Keeps Eriksen fresh for next month
- Strong team against Sheriff
 

DJ_21

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It will help in the sense that Ten Hag gets to work with the team more to get his ideas across without a game inbetween, also will help people like Casemiro to have more time with his new team mates. However it could be a bad thing as they’ll lose match sharpness… I’m expecting everyone to be fully fit and firing when we next play a league game which is against city, we’ve done well against the top teams so far this season but city are just different level this year… they have there missing piece to the puzzle in haaland. I still think we can get the win though, we’re deadly on the counter .
 

Crashoutcassius

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It ultimately ETH will get sacked anyway so surely we want to speed that up so we can get a top manager with a philosophy in ? And that manager will eventually be sacked anyway so we surely want to leave him with the least cohesive squad possible to make sure he doesn't accidentally do well. We need a blank slate for the following manager to implement his philosophy so maybe we can plan so all the contracts expire on the day we sack manager 2. We will need that manager to have a few extra weeks to bed in his new players so hopefully Charles is gone around then.
 

Isle

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It will help in the sense that Ten Hag gets to work with the team more to get his ideas across without a game inbetween, also will help people like Casemiro to have more time with his new team mates. However it could be a bad thing as they’ll lose match sharpness… I’m expecting everyone to be fully fit and firing when we next play a league game which is against city, we’ve done well against the top teams so far this season but city are just different level this year… they have there missing piece to the puzzle in haaland. I still think we can get the win though, we’re deadly on the counter .
About match sharpness, most of the squad will play be on International duty and play for their national team. As for Haaland let's say we hope his flight gets delayed from Norway.
 

ROFLUTION

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More benefits for struggling Pool and Chelsea with a break than for us, so its not really an advantage.

Had they needed to play every 3rd day their crisis could continue, now they have time to recover, set up solid tactics and get going again.
 

Bestietom

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Good for clubs who has a lot of players out injured. Gives them time to get them back. Liverpool could benefit most.
 

romufc

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More benefits for struggling Pool and Chelsea with a break than for us, so its not really an advantage.

Had they needed to play every 3rd day their crisis could continue, now they have time to recover, set up solid tactics and get going again.
Not only that, they do not need to rotate so will pick up points in CL and PL whereas other clubs will have a fixture congestion that will mean games every 2/3 days.
 

Sir Erik ten Hag

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More benefits for struggling Pool and Chelsea with a break than for us, so its not really an advantage.

Had they needed to play every 3rd day their crisis could continue, now they have time to recover, set up solid tactics and get going again.
It's not a coincidence that this round gets played normally, yet 3 matches are postponed including 3 big teams: Us, Liverpool, Chelsea.
This is a campaign against United to halt our momentum and bring Liverpool, Chelsea back into a fighting position again.
Fergie's years of domination has left people looking at us with resentment. FA are happy to see us down for the count.
 

bosnian_red

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Agree on the tight wins which could have gone either way in reality, but how is it a 'mini pre season' if the majority of the squad are going to be away on internationals?
2 full weeks with only midweek Europa games and then 2 international weeks where plenty are here, it's a good amount of time
 

RaddyRed

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On a run of 4 straight league wins, a real good chance to have made that 6 before City and now we go there after an international break where ETH won't have had that much time due to that and an away EL game.

It's a disaster.