Wimbledon

[kirkrich]

Only saw second half so can’t comment on the first half team. Pops and Mo were very good for the first 20 mins, very wide and caused all sorts of problems, then we appeared to switch off and allowed them to come back in. Edawards looked like someone who had won a competition, he is either v unfit or completely crap. He was huffing and puffing and holding his chest a lot. Not a footballer. Meyler looks calm and in control and Smith up front looked decent.... But 4-2! Need to play the first team and see what they can do rather than “bits” of teams. Anyway on to England

[muirinho]

Only saw second half so can’t comment on the first half team. Pops and Mo were very good for the first 20 mins, very wide and caused all sorts of problems, then we appeared to switch off and allowed them to come back in. Edawards looked like someone who had won a competition, he is either v unfit or completely crap. He was huffing and puffing and holding his chest a lot. Not a footballer. Meyler looks calm and in control and Smith up front looked decent.... But 4-2! Need to play the first team and see what they can do rather than “bits” of teams. Anyway on to England

We lost to Wimbledon season before last and then got to play-off final. so result utterly irrelevant. Think Clement is still sorting out who the first team actually are, and there's a while to go yet on that front.

The pre-season game to watch will be the one against Palace at the end of the month

[Snowflake Royal]

Pre-season is exactly the time to try out different combinations in a match environment and at this stage it's all about fitness.

We started last year underprepared and under fit and it showed.

No point signalling to half your squad they're not in your first XI plans in early pre-season either.

[Snowflake Royal]

Pre-season is exactly the time to try out different combinations in a match environment and at this stage it's all about fitness.

We started last year underprepared and under fit and it showed.

No point signalling to half your squad they're not in your first XI plans in early pre-season either.

[alfie9]

I'm still worried. It's the same lot that were utterly useless last season + some old mercenaries. Was hoping for more outs this summer

[Old Man Andrews]

Absolutely baffling why anyone gave a single f*ck about this game today. Reading are completely irrelevant until July 16th.

[NewCorkSeth]

Did we win?

[Jagermesiter1871]

Didn't we look dog shit in our 106 pre-season?

[tidus_mi2]

Didn't we look dog shit in our 106 pre-season?

I did ask in another thread and I think it was mentioned we might have lost to Farnborough. Now I could get one of the 05/06 programmes out of the attic to confirm but right now I'm not sure.

[SCIAG]

Didn't we look dog shit in our 106 pre-season?

I did ask in another thread and I think it was mentioned we might have lost to Farnborough. Now I could get one of the 05/06 programmes out of the attic to confirm but right now I'm not sure.

I was there. 1-0. We made nine or ten changes in the second half, but gradually. Andy Hughes played and he is one of the two (along with Ivar) who I think may have played the whole 90.

[Sutekh]

Didn't we look dog shit in our 106 pre-season?

Think there was a set of poor preseason results before 85/86 as well.

Think we’d all agree though that while results in preseason are utterly irrelevant it’s the performances that are not. If the club are basically showing exactly the same hideous problems from last season in every game then I think we all need to be very worried. And from what I saw last week at Eastleigh that’s exactly what is happening. Too much tippy tapping crappy crabbing leading to next to no chances and zero excitement while at the back it’s concede at the first half decent opportunity the opposition get. Cue opposition sitting back to wait for the next breakaway while Reading continue to play patience ball.

[Royalwaster]

It's all about momentum though and if we can make a good start things can change quickly ... but if we don't, it could continue like last season. But agree in general that pre-season matches tell you very little.

[windermereROYAL]

Not the slightest bit concerned yet, but the remaining 4 friendlies against real testing opposition will give us more of an idea where we stand going into the season.

[Hound]

Not the slightest bit concerned yet, but the remaining 4 friendlies against real testing opposition will give us more of an idea where we stand going into the season.

Yep agree with that. Not bothered about the last two (or Fulham really) but would like to see considerably better performances by the time we play Palace

[Snowflake Royal]

Didn't we look dog shit in our 106 pre-season?

I did ask in another thread and I think it was mentioned we might have lost to Farnborough. Now I could get one of the 05/06 programmes out of the attic to confirm but right now I'm not sure.

We scored about a million goals on our pre-season tour of Sweden iirc.

There are four things that are important about pre-season friendlies and none of them are results.

1) Get match fit
2) Try out your possible shapes and player combinations
3) Get your forwards scoring some goals
4) Don't concede too many too often

I wouldn't want to see us conceding four very often, but I wouldn't care if we lost all the games as long as we're scoring a few, not getting hammered, look fit and know our best XI for the start of the season.

[TheSpread]

Worrying times. 2 defeats against lower league opposition. Clement needs to instill and winning mentality before the season starts.

[Hound]

according to JLow, Yann was left out of both games, along with Joey. Not injured etc

I'm not against that tbh. But we must surely be looking very strongly at bringing in another striker, as very much doubt PC is relying on Meite or Smith being a genuine regular option this year up front

[John Smith]

Tbh care little for the result or even the performance today. It’s stupidly hot and a week into pre season

What is interesting though is Meite has started the 2 games up front, whilst Yann is nowhere to be seen

Joey not in again today either.

No Rinomhota or Loader either which suprises me

We’ve a stupidly bloated squad haven’t we? Need to shift some of this lot out

This is almost good enough news to cushion the defeat.

Glad to see Meite finally being used. Just wish GMac would get some game time before the season starts or we might never see him back to his best

[Hound]

yep, shame imo that a few more haven't been given their cards - Edwards, Evans, Smith (quite like him, but get him sorted out a decent loan) would be a good starting point.

[John Smith]

yep, shame imo that a few more haven't been given their cards - Edwards, Evans, Smith (quite like him, but get him sorted out a decent loan) would be a good starting point.

Yes. I'm so glad that most share this opinion on here.