Another Pre-Season Down... Your Thoughts Here

Obviously this has been far from the best pre-season in our history, though I would have been much more worried had we been playing our strongest side throughout, which we clearly haven't.

For most of the games we were playing about a 50/50 mix of reserve players and regulars, and switching the whole lot of them at half time! It's almost impossible to judge the form of the side in these conditions. Rafa was probably wanting to look at various combinations of youngsters and our starting line up, to see who interacts better with who.

From a purely fitness side of it, lots of players got quite a lot of minutes in, without being overly tired as they weren't playing a full 90 at a time.

The biggest negative point for me is the injuries to our defence. I thought that going forward and in midfield we were getting steadily sharper, but at the back we haven't seen our main three CB's play together, and Aurelio's bizarre injury at home didn't help things. Whilst Carra and possibly one of Agger/Skrtel might be back in time for the Spurs match, they haven't had that time in pre-season to "gel" after the summer break, hopefully Rafa will be making up for this on the training ground.

All in all, I think it was a very poor pre-season, but in all honesty when our first choice players are back I have confidence in us to beat whoever we face.

I'm worried about Riera. How many minutes has he played? Not much from memory. We have injuries in defense, we have Riera lacking alot of fitness on the pitch, Torres still scratchy on the ball, Masch in doubts, a left back down...it isnt something you can smile about yet i still think we're doing ok.

Could do with an easier game but then again, that could prove to be more difficult as we did have trouble last season against them.

In a week i suppose we will really see how pre-season faired for us.

Pre-season hasn't gone all too well for us, I don't think. We can't just expect to start winning when the season starts, and with this pre-season under our belt i'm worried we aren't going to hit the ground running. Hopefully i'm just being paranoid.

I just hope Tottenham start this season the way they did last season.

 Pre-season has been a disaster as far as results are concerned,but we will know the true value when the season proper kicks off next week.That is when the results will matter.

Results wise season sucked . Transfer wise , it was O.K , other wise ...it ruined my summer . The main reason why most of the results we're bad was because of  the Xabi saga ....we were too paranoid about that so it messes us up bad . Transfer wise .......I WANT OT KILL FLORENTINO PREREZ , he wasn't paying up until the end ...if he had done thing earlier then maybe we could've gotten more than Aquilani and Johnson .

I hope when the league comes we realize that it's time to step up our game and hopefully get a good result against Totenham .

I have to admit that I haven't watched the pre-season closely, I.e. following every match on the tv or the internet.
The one that I watched fully was when we played Espanyol. That was a disjointed performance from us, Espanyol kept the ball very well and we lost soundly. With this kind of performance, in which we showed that we're not clicking as a team yet, there are a lot to worry about our early season games.

However, mind you, we (always) used a combination of first team players and reserve team players in our pre-season games, most notably in the central defender position where due to injuries or Rafa's wish, we used San Jose or Ayala to deal with more experienced opponents. In other words, while the results were not great, the team didn't actually reflect our strongest available team. As we didn't use our first team players for most of games in the pre-season, then it will take time for our teamwork to gel like it was at the end of last season. So, I guess we can expect more disjointed performances and perhaps some draws instead of wins.

It was a very tough pre-season for us, and I'm going to say we aren't readily prepared enough for the season ahead. Although I hope to be proven wrong.

Although this may only be 'pre-season', but we've already laid down a marker for the season ahead. We've lost key players such as Alonso, not helped by the fact that Aquilani, our new replacement, will only be fit in 2 months time, and we're not even talking about 'match-fit.' We have made changes to our spine, and although we might feel that Aquilani would be a more-than-able replacement, would it affect our formation? Would it affect our style of play? Probably.

We have not seen the results in pre-season, yes and we may argue that there's nothing to fight for. However, the results act as a morale booster that we can do it. These results have certainly casted some doubt on the players' mind as to whether they'll be alive and kicking come August 16. We have not shown that sharpness in front of goal, we have not seen our play as smooth as before, and more or less our passing has been generally wayward. Even, Rafa, who called Lucas the player of the pre-season, to me, doesn't put in sterling performances, losing out in critical positions that we'll be punished if we continue playing this way.

Not forgetting the defensive worries we have. Going into the season with the possibility of all our 3 first team centrebacks out, it doesn't bode well. Obviously Carra is just a precaution, but no one is going to say that he'll be 100% fit come Spurs. Agger, Skrtel at the moment are only 50-50. And that leaves us with Kelly, Ayala, and San Jose. San Jose has been sh*te for me, as well as Ayala. They haven't shown that they merit a place as a 4th choice defender so if we do not make any signings, Kelly gets the nod.

Travelling wise, it has been a pain in the arse. We've virtually globe-trotted and covered the most miles next to the mancs. From Liverpool to Switzerland, then Austria, then back to Liverpool then Thailand, Singapore. Back to Liverpool then jetting off to Spain, then Norway, then back to Liverpool.

These are precious hours lost in terms of travelling and the players' clocks ain't caliberated properly. Hopefully they'll get some rest, get refreshed before thre season-opener.

Some positives that we can pick up are the potentials of Pacheco, Kelly and Nemeth. They looked great and if they continue working hard, then they'll cut it out for us in the future.

But generally, it's been a sh*te pre-season, let's hope everything changes when we kickoff at Spurs.

I believe our pre-season hasn't been the greatest ... however as a few of you have pointed out I'd rather hope its a case of sh!te preseason - League Trophy at the end of the season. I think the pre-season is a good time to get out all the newies and young uns and see what they bring to the table, with a pinch of top class players to see how the relationships form.

Also, look at the Mankers - they did not have the best run over the course of last season - with bumps and hitches and thanks to our silly draws crossed the finish line first... if we try to ensure we don't settle for draws we should be singing all the way home.

To be honest, I'm glad pre-season is over with.


Too much will this person sign, will this one leave, stressing about Xabi , fantasizing who we're going to bring in. sh*t results bar the 5-0 win for me.


Bring on the new season and hopefully by the end of it we'll be celebrating Number 19.

Like has been said by myself and others before, we were known for piss poor pre-season form when we were the best team in Europe so it dont mean much as long as the players are getting pitch time and sharpening up for the real thing on Sunday. Tbh its the injuries thats worrying me, just hope theyre all ok for Sunday.

I think the main positive thing to take from the pre season is the improvement of the young lads. Nemeth seems to be going from strength as does Kelly. Also a player who I didn't ever believe would impress me has with his work rate....Andriy Voronin! Who knows hw could end up being of some use by the end of the season!! Other than that the pre season was pretty terrible. The two decent teams we played beat us which is kind of worrying. However you can't get too hung up on pre season results. It would have been nice to start the season off the back of a win against athletico though!

It has been a poor pre season.

Results were dissapointing but not too concerning, what was concerning though was the poor play especially in the midfield area. Despite a lot of chopping and changing of a large number of players at times we failed to do the basic things right like ball retenetion against lesser opponents.

A big, big improvement and consistency are needed from the left wing as Riera and Babel will have the season of their lives this year, specifically with the world cup's coming up.

One can only hope that they will respond to the demand and really do their best this season.

I honestly wanted a new left winger during the pre-season, but it seems that we didn't have the right candidate and didn't have the money either.

Rubbish pre-season matches !! very very disappointing ! but I'm sure all the squad will realise this and the only way is up ! so whilst I wanted a dominant pre-season from us , I'm gonna bet on our team to win the title this year no matter who has gone the club need a title now ! not next year or the year after ...this will be our season ..believe it !

I think the Alonso saga was like a black cloud over our pre season , will he go will he stay Rafa knew as early as late April that he was going so why did it  take 2  months to move him on , my gut feeling he's made a mistake in bringing  in a player with a worse injury record than darren anderton , I really hope I am wrong but we'll wait and see  I just think we could have spent 20 m  a bit more wisly . It was good to see some of the younger lads getting games but come the big kick off we won't see much of them as most of them will be shipped out on loan .