Friendlies

[RoversTilliDie]

I hear we have arranged a friendly against Hartlepool in the Summer. With no disrespect to Hartlepool it's not much of a test for Blackburn Rovers. We need to be playing Premier league clubs to put us to the maximum test. If we lose, we can examine our weaknesses and strengths and put things right before next season. Rumour has it we might be playing Celtic in a friendly, thats the kind of test we need in friendlies.

 

[davulsukur]

The Celtic game is confirmed, it's not a rumour 

[Hasta]

36 minutes ago, RoversTilliDie said:

I hear we have arranged a friendly against Hartlepool in the Summer. With no disrespect to Hartlepool it's not much of a test for Blackburn Rovers. We need to be playing Premier league clubs to put us to the maximum test. If we lose, we can examine our weaknesses and strengths and put things right before next season. Rumour has it we might be playing Celtic in a friendly, thats the kind of test we need in friendlies.

 

Somewhere on another Premier League message board:-

"I hear we might be arranging a friendly against Blackburn Rovers in the Summer. With no disrespect to Blackburn it's not much of a test for Wolves. We need to be playing European clubs to put us to the maximum test. If we lose, we can examine our weaknesses and strengths and put things right before next season. "

Plus remember who it is at Ewood who will be phoning clubs up to try and arrange these fixtures. 

Add in we only ever seem to have 1 friendly at Ewood to look after the pitch then the chance of playing multiple premier league teams is low.

Edited May 13, 2022 by Hasta

[rigger]

23 minutes ago, RoversTilliDie said:

I hear we have arranged a friendly against Hartlepool in the Summer. With no disrespect to Hartlepool it's not much of a test for Blackburn Rovers. We need to be playing Premier league clubs to put us to the maximum test. If we lose, we can examine our weaknesses and strengths and put things right before next season. Rumour has it we might be playing Celtic in a friendly, thats the kind of test we need in friendlies.

 

You haven't got your head around the reason for pre-season friendlies. they are all about match fitness. Weaknesses and strengths are sorted out in pre-season training. That is where managers will be showing players how they want the team to play.

[bluebruce]

Umm..we pretty much always have at least one, usually more like 2 or 3, games against opposition of about that level. Even when we were in the Prem we would play some teams of a lower level. Usually we have one or two 'prestige' friendlies against higher or similar level opposition (like the Celtic one) and the rest are weaker.

Is this your first time paying attention to a preseason friendly programme?

[riverholmes]

I vaguely remember a pre-season during, I think, the Souness regime, when in not a single game, as far as I remember, did we play our strongest eleven. It might've been on one of those Austrian tours, playing mostly amateurs and lower league sides. As feared, we started the season badly and Souness still hadn't worked out his best eleven. I think that happened, though, it's a vague memory.

Ideally, you test out fitness and players early on and then play your strongest eleven in the final games to develop some cohesion.

Edited May 13, 2022 by riverholmes

[rigger]

6 minutes ago, riverholmes said:

I vaguely remember a pre-season during, I think, the Souness regime, when in not a single game, as far as I remember, did we play our strongest eleven. It might've been on one of those Austrian tours, playing mostly amateurs and lower league sides. As feared, we started the season badly and Souness still hadn't worked out his best eleven. I think that happened, though, it's a vague memory.

Ideally, you test out fitness and players early on and then play your strongest eleven in the final games to develop some cohesion.

I am not disputing that. What I disputed was that the opposition needs to always be top class.

Edited May 13, 2022 by rigger

[oldjamfan1]

The worst pre-season I can remember results-wise was in 1994.........

[Claytons Left Boot]

On 13/05/2022 at 12:14, RoversTilliDie said:

Rumour has it we might be playing Celtic in a friendly, thats the kind of test we need in friendlies.

We play Celtic, at Celtic Park on Saturday 16 July.