The bizarre panic about players not being ready for the new season

afrocentricity

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I like it. We are out of the general malaise we were in. Let's face it, there was a point were most of us couldn't give a feck as our team was doing so badly. Now, EVERYONE cares about any little detail. We are so close...
 

Peter van der Gea

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That was true for the earlier years, but once Abramovich/Mourinho came along it was really required to be going strong right from the start. There's still some truth to obviously wanting your absolute peak to be towards the end, but teams can't really afford to get off to slow starts like we could get away with sometimes in the first decade of the league.
Unless you've got a massive squad, it'd be like whipping those horses in the races that have heart attacks and keel over before the end. You can't be at peak peak fitness for 11 months of the year.
 

hungrywing

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There's no theory, it's just an observation.
If that’s a reference, I missed it.

If you’re serious, them two bolded things are the same thing; just that a theory has some ‘extra underpinnings’ so to speak. “Hey, doesn’t it look like A and B are related via C?” “By George, you’re right! I’ll get started on the equations. Think of a way we could test it.”
 

Acole9

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I don't have any worries, sure all the players will be at different levels but that was always going to happen with the international tournaments.
 

choccy77

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There's an argument raging on RE Sancho about him not being back earlier and missing a few games (he won't, he'll get minutes v Leeds).

What I'm wondering though is why some posters are getting worked up about pre-season and seem to think the players that haven't had a full one at United will suddenly be unable to play football again or be majorly unfit.

The majority of the late arrivals have just played a huge covid enhanced season and straight through to major international tournaments (EC and Copa). During these tournaments they are pretty much 'on season' training, diet and match intensity. They have had a pre season, a much more intensive one than they would have had they stayed at the club!

The notion that players like Sancho, Varane, Cavani, Pogba will be unable to play for several games baffles me. Yes they haven't played with their colleagues but so what? It's not a massive issue. They'll be fit and ready to go. If anything the rest will have done then good physically and mentally.
I said this yesterday but got shot down by someone saying that Martial is more fit than Sancho.

That's impossible.

Martial has been out injured for months and only a few weeks ago returned to full training.

Sancho has been playing all year us euros and took a 3 half week break.
 

justsomebloke

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If that’s a reference, I missed it.

If you’re serious, them two bolded things are the same thing; just that a theory has some ‘extra underpinnings’ so to speak. “Hey, doesn’t it look like A and B are related via C?” “By George, you’re right! I’ll get started on the equations. Think of a way we could test it.”
If you think an observation is the same thing as a theory, you've got some reading to do.

I simply pointed out that to me it looked like Maguire, Shaw and Fred were our sharpest-looking players against Everton. If you think that amounts to a general claim that big tournaments 3 weeks back is a superior way of preparing for the season, I'm afraid you're going to have to find someone who thinks that to discuss it with.
 

Marwood

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I said this yesterday but got shot down by someone saying that Martial is more fit than Sancho.

That's impossible.

Martial has been out injured for months and only a few weeks ago returned to full training.

Sancho has been playing all year us euros and took a 3 half week break.
How many games do you think Sancho will have played in the last 3 month come the Southampton fixture?

I'd guess that Sancho might still be fitter but I couldn't be sure.

In terms of fitness is there a difference between between 1 game in 3 month as opposed to 1 game in 5 month?
 
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noodlehair

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It was worst last year as we had a similar time to prepare the entire squad, as opposed to just most of it.

Also this year our players have managed to avoid further complications by going the 3 weeks they had off without creating any international incidents, fighting the entire of Greece, or randomly deciding to fly to a quaranteen area a week before the season.

Also last year our start to the season was made "fairer" by our first game being against a team who not only had more time to prepare, but were given the extra benefit of a competitive game the week before.

Although Im still a bit worried as there's no way you get up to speed in less than 2 weeks. In theory you should when you only get 3 weeks off but we all know that's not how footballlers work. Some of them seem to treat the short time off they have as a challenge to get as unfit as possible. Thing is we've always had this issue after international tournaments and sometimes it'd harm us, sometimes we'd grind oout the early results anyway. Sometimes we'd throw fringe or young players in who'd actually had the full pre-season and they'd do well. So just have to wait and see.

Slightly off topic but the big farse is actually losing Rashford for possibly 3 months so he could go sit and watch the Euros and actually be even less useful than he would have been if he hadn't have gone, and then somehow not being able to find a surgeon on the planet capable of doing a shoulder operation afterwards, despite knowing both that he needed an operation and when the Euros ended for at least fecking 6 months in advance. Why was he even allwoed to go to the Euros if he needs an operation to be able to play football properly?
 

hungrywing

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If you think an observation is the same thing as a theory, you've got some reading to do.

I simply pointed out that to me it looked like Maguire, Shaw and Fred were our sharpest-looking players against Everton. If you think that amounts to a general claim that big tournaments 3 weeks back is a superior way of preparing for the season, I'm afraid you're going to have to find someone who thinks that to discuss it with.
Yikes. That don't portend well for any books you might want to recommend.

As for the rest, you proposed the idea, I offered encouragement.
 

hungrywing

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Oh, right - you're just trolling. Well, have fun.
Not at all. Feel free to recommend some books.

Just saying that not being able to recognize a playful extrusion between two concepts that even a bright grade-schooler would understand isn't exactly the biggest endorsement of oneself when the following phrase then proceeds to put on airs of condescension. But again, feel free to recommend some good reads.
 

TheReligion

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Bizarre?

Every team that had a poor pre-season started last season poorly and took 6-7 games to get going. Not just in England but throughout Europe. Ourselves (2 wins in the first 6), City (3 wins in the first 8), Chelsea (2 wins in the first 6), Inter (3 wins in the first 7), Sevilla (2 wins in the first 6). Every one of those teams improved drastically after that period, including City and Inter obviously going on huge winning runs to run away with their leagues. We had a 34 day break between the two seasons there, and every other team I listed had a 34-37 day break as well. The break our English players (and Fred) will have between their international matches and the start of this season - 34 days. The same.

A good pre-season is about the players having a decent break to recharge their batteries and get over niggling injuries, then getting a handful of friendly games to build their match fitness back up. It shouldn't be as bad this season as our players had a 2 week break between the end of last season and the start of the internationals (plus of course some of our players had longer breaks as they didn't go to or as far in the tournaments), but it's still far from ideal.

I haven't really been reading the threads so maybe I'm wrong, but I feel the OP's claim of 'unable to play football again or be majorly unfit', 'unable to kick a ball or run 100m' is a massive exaggeration of what people are saying. If not then fair enough, but if it is then he's basically panicking about people supposedly panicking.
Not picking on you, there's plenty of people to quote, but I told you all...

Bizarre!
 

villain

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Where's the lads that said Sancho should've cut his holiday short :lol:
 

predator

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I remember a thread a few weeks ago about whether we would be 'up to speed' for the leeds game and posters were talking as if it was a given that we would get off to a horrific start to the season and would be chasing city from the get go.

Quite hilarious how negative this place can be.
 

Marwood

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Where's the lads that said Sancho should've cut his holiday short :lol:
I'm lost as to what your point is. Sancho didn't start right? Cos he hadn't trained enough.

The result was awesome but doesn't change the above.
 

villain

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I'm lost as to what your point is. Sancho didn't start right? Cos he hadn't trained enough.

The result was awesome but doesn't change the above.

My argument has always been that our squad was strong enough to beat Leeds and it was ridiculous to expect Sancho to cut short his holiday for a few days extra preparation.
 

Marwood

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My argument has always been that our squad was strong enough to beat Leeds and it was ridiculous to expect Sancho to cut short his holiday for a few days extra preparation.
Squads good enough to win the next two without Sancho. So would you still play James ahead of him and give him even more rest? Course not. It's not how football works.

Whatever todays result was it has no bearing on pre season decisions.

If we'd have lost or drawn today would it have changed your mind. I doubt it.
 

villain

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Squads good enough to win the next two without Sancho. So would you still play James ahead of him and give him even more rest? Course not. It's not how football works.

Whatever todays result was it has no bearing on pre season decisions.

If we'd have lost or drawn today would it have changed your mind. I doubt it.
If my aunt had wheels she’d be a bike.
Like I said - our squad is strong enough to beat Leeds, Sancho didn’t need to cut short his vacation after all, and the narrative around it, was bizarre & unnecessary
 

Halftrack

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Where's the lads that said Sancho should've cut his holiday short :lol:
Demanding people cut their vacations short takes a special level of entitlement. It's literally "ENTERTAIN ME!!" and it's as hilarious as it is mental.
 

villain

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Demanding people cut their vacations short takes a special level of entitlement. It's literally "ENTERTAIN ME!!" and it's as hilarious as it is mental.
There was a collective of them just the other week, saying he should’ve been chomping at the bit to join the team in Scotland & sacrifice his holiday.
Our fanbase is in shambles.
 

Lj82

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I'm lost as to what your point is. Sancho didn't start right? Cos he hadn't trained enough.

The result was awesome but doesn't change the above.
The problem wasn't that Sancho took too long a holiday. Ole said that he was ill after his holiday, which was why he joined training later than expected.
 

Winrar

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I really just think the horrendous start last season amplified the fears after we had a few not so stellar pre-season results.
 

Brightonian

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OP is right, but give people a break. This is a fanbase who have spent years watching Rooney take a weekend off and come back a stone heavier and not play well again for four months. We've all been burnt too badly before...