Coventry City v Everton, Tues 30th July, 7.45pm

[Verbal Kint]

Correct, it's a results game. My forecasts for our first game now as follows, tell me why I am wrong:
Brighton (H): 0-2
Tottenham (A): 3-0
Bournemouth (H): 1-1
Aston Villa (A): 3-1

I'll take that, every point is crucial

 

[Raino85]

If it helps we were unbeaten last pre season and we started the season terribly

 

[Ragnar]

Some of our fans are embarrassing. It’s a training session.

 

[NilSatisOptimum]

Some of our fans are embarrassing. It’s a training session.

Probably the danger of monitzing these games (training).

 

[carolinablue232]

Some of our fans are embarrassing. It’s a training session.

Indeed. The result doesn’t matter, but even in training sessions you expect to see quality at an individual level and some cohesion within the team. We’ve seen neither. So yeah, it doesn’t matter but that doesn’t change the fact that the players themselves look poor and don’t seem to know what they’re being asked to do. It’s a bad combination, and the reality is when we’ve seen similar in recent years, the actual season follows suit.

 

[Pittsburgh Footy]

Granted, I haven't been able to watch any of the games thus far, so take this with a grain of salt.

So much of our "success" under Dyche is solely from 1) being fitter than other teams, 2) being able to out grind teams - scraping and clawing for every ball and 3) having a very strong spine of Pickford, JB and Tarks.

Preseason walkabouts aren't conducive to showing any of these 3 points. The whole point is to not get injured, don't go too hard now, try to peak for the season. Our spine has barely played. For example, I saw Coventry's first goal yesterday - that goal simply doesn't happen with Tarks/JB there.

We don't have a lot of quality as is, it's not our strength. Our strength, if we have one, is creating a sum greater than its parts through the hard yards and graft.

So simply due to this, I wouldn't look too much into preseason glorified training sessions. I would, however, expect us to look much better with Pickford/JB/Tarks all playing in the final game of preseason.

 

[Ragnar]

Indeed. The result doesn’t matter, but even in training sessions you expect to see quality at an individual level and some cohesion within the team. We’ve seen neither. So yeah, it doesn’t matter but that doesn’t change the fact that the players themselves look poor and don’t seem to know what they’re being asked to do. It’s a bad combination, and the reality is when we’ve seen similar in recent years, the actual season follows suit.

And we have had good pre season results in the past and started the season awful. It really doesn’t matter at all.

 

[Cork Evertonian]

Pfft wake me up when the real stuff and the serious business starts.

 

[carolinablue232]

And we have had good pre season results in the past and started the season awful. It really doesn’t matter at all.

Again, it's not the result that's concerning.

 

[Rooney_Tunes]

Again, it's not the result that's concerning.

Correct.

We played one dimensional rubbish last night and never looked like scoring.

Of course, we started a back four that had a combined age of 172 years, and they played like they had a combined age of 243 years so that was a tad worrying.

 

[Bez2k2k]

I wish none of these games were publicised or televised. It’s simply the manager saying.
Don’t worry lads. Just get some running in.

 

[ValBlue]

Again, it's not the result that's concerning.

Exactly, it’s the exact patterns of play we saw last season when we didn’t win in *checks notes* 104 days

 

[pejic]

Some of our fans are embarrassing. It’s a training session.

It really isn't. Did you watch it?

 

[LEONARD]

What we knew already, aside from our starting 11, not much quality in reserve.

 

[James Patrick]

Granted, I haven't been able to watch any of the games thus far, so take this with a grain of salt.

So much of our "success" under Dyche is solely from 1) being fitter than other teams, 2) being able to out grind teams - scraping and clawing for every ball and 3) having a very strong spine of Pickford, JB and Tarks.

Preseason walkabouts aren't conducive to showing any of these 3 points. The whole point is to not get injured, don't go too hard now, try to peak for the season. Our spine has barely played. For example, I saw Coventry's first goal yesterday - that goal simply doesn't happen with Tarks/JB there.

We don't have a lot of quality as is, it's not our strength. Our strength, if we have one, is creating a sum greater than its parts through the hard yards and graft.

So simply due to this, I wouldn't look too much into preseason glorified training sessions. I would, however, expect us to look much better with Pickford/JB/Tarks all playing in the final game of preseason.

You're right - we'd have clung on for a 0-0 with the defence back. Last night's team could quite easily be a team we'd field in Carabao Cup