Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Nastylee on August 03, 2011, 08:36:15 PM
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Is anyone else concerned at the lack of game time our squad seem to have had this year? I mean, most of the team playing tonight at Derby are fringe/back up players which means the probable starting XI only have Braga to come before playing a Fulham team that has already played in Europe.
Is anyone aware of how this compares to previous seasons and other clubs as it does not seem enough?
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Maybe we'll play some behind-closed-doors games? We quite often play against Blues although I doubt that will happen in the immediate future. I agree it seems a bit light. Mind you, a miserable August and a fantastic March will at least be a bit different!
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We looked well off the pace against Chelsea.
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A warning to any Villa fans attending the Braga game. Just read and Google-translated the match preview on the Brage website.
One line in particular should serves as a terrifying warning to all those intending to be present...
"Game Presentation Gverreiros
Next Saturday marks the official start of the new season of Gverreiros.
After all what has been achieved in the recent past, can now be said that the party they are preparing is the starting point for another stage in the maturity of SC Braga, which is not limited to one team, one city, nor a country.
SC Braga is a way of being and living, is a want and believe. It is mostly a passion that fuels the dream of reaching further with the pride of being Gverreiro of Minho.
So to invite all fans to be united around the team in the carnival atmosphere in the squad with the presentation of the game against Aston Villa.
The program is planned as follows:
16:30 - Opening the doors of AXA.
17:00 - Presentation of the team at the center of the lawn.
17:15 - Start of heating period.
18:00 - Start of the game.
Before the game and the range will be the party environment. There will be interaction with the public. It is therefore important that Braga are present and be heard loud and feel this pride Gverreiro, by welcoming the 2011/12 season.
We waited for everyone, because everyone will be a Legion.
JUST SO ... THE JOURNEY CONTINUES.
08/03/2011"
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It has worried me in all fairness, N'zogbia will only get 90 minutes pre season if he plays against derby!
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Yep. looks a bit of a fuck up. As usual. I guess we took so long appointing AM that arranging games was a bit more difficult than usual
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Yep. looks a bit of a fuck up. As usual. I guess we took so long appointing AM that arranging games was a bit more difficult than usual
Tonight's fixture was announced on May 4th.
The Asia Cup games were arranged well before that.
You really don't think these things through, do you?
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Yep. looks a bit of a fuck up. As usual. I guess we took so long appointing AM that arranging games was a bit more difficult than usual
Tonight's fixture was announced on May 4th.
The Asia Cup games were arranged well before that.
You really don't think these things through, do you?
thats what i'm saying. done long ago, most likely while GH was still here. they have to be because of the logistics. I'm guessing they'd have been a few more after that if the decision to bin GH had been taken earlier.
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How many games did we play in the last few pre-seasons and how does this one compare?
How many are other teams playing?
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Yep. looks a bit of a fuck up. As usual. I guess we took so long appointing AM that arranging games was a bit more difficult than usual
Tonight's fixture was announced on May 4th.
The Asia Cup games were arranged well before that.
You really don't think these things through, do you?
thats what i'm saying. done long ago, most likely while GH was still here. they have to be because of the logistics. I'm guessing they'd have been a few more after that if the decision to bin GH had been taken earlier.
It's harder to arrange pre-season games when we take so long to appoint the new manager BECAUSE they're arranged long before the new manager was appointed?
Well, it's hard to argue with crystal-clear logic like that.
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In 2006-7 we played 153 matches in 12 different tournaments spanning six continents and Wales.
In 2010-11 Richard Dunne and James Collins played a game of table football in the pub between pints.
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Yep. looks a bit of a fuck up. As usual. I guess we took so long appointing AM that arranging games was a bit more difficult than usual
Tonight's fixture was announced on May 4th.
The Asia Cup games were arranged well before that.
You really don't think these things through, do you?
thats what i'm saying. done long ago, most likely while GH was still here. they have to be because of the logistics. I'm guessing they'd have been a few more after that if the decision to bin GH had been taken earlier.
It's harder to arrange pre-season games when we take so long to appoint the new manager BECAUSE they're arranged long before the new manager was appointed?
Well, it's hard to argue with crystal-clear logic like that.
I'm saying they stopped arranging them in May when they decided GH was getting the boot. Obviously they didn't think it would take that long to get their target in.. when was AM appointed Dave?
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A warning to any Villa fans attending the Braga game. Just read and Google-translated the match preview on the Brage website.
One line in particular should serves as a terrifying warning to all those intending to be present...
"Game Presentation Gverreiros
Next Saturday marks the official start of the new season of Gverreiros.
After all what has been achieved in the recent past, can now be said that the party they are preparing is the starting point for another stage in the maturity of SC Braga, which is not limited to one team, one city, nor a country.
SC Braga is a way of being and living, is a want and believe. It is mostly a passion that fuels the dream of reaching further with the pride of being Gverreiro of Minho.
So to invite all fans to be united around the team in the carnival atmosphere in the squad with the presentation of the game against Aston Villa.
The program is planned as follows:
16:30 - Opening the doors of AXA.
17:00 - Presentation of the team at the center of the lawn.
17:15 - Start of heating period.
18:00 - Start of the game.
Before the game and the range will be the party environment. There will be interaction with the public. It is therefore important that Braga are present and be heard loud and feel this pride Gverreiro, by welcoming the 2011/12 season.
We waited for everyone, because everyone will be a Legion.
JUST SO ... THE JOURNEY CONTINUES.
08/03/2011"
*GULP* There's not been sight nor sound of Legion for days. So that's where he's got to.
I'm afraid, very afraid.
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Yep. looks a bit of a fuck up. As usual. I guess we took so long appointing AM that arranging games was a bit more difficult than usual
Tonight's fixture was announced on May 4th.
The Asia Cup games were arranged well before that.
You really don't think these things through, do you?
thats what i'm saying. done long ago, most likely while GH was still here. they have to be because of the logistics. I'm guessing they'd have been a few more after that if the decision to bin GH had been taken earlier.
It's harder to arrange pre-season games when we take so long to appoint the new manager BECAUSE they're arranged long before the new manager was appointed?
Well, it's hard to argue with crystal-clear logic like that.
I'm saying they stopped arranging them in May when they decided GH was getting the boot. Obviously they didn't think it would take that long to get their target in.. when was AM appointed Dave?
What does that have to do with anything?
Last summer we played four friendlies against Walsall, Feyenoord, Benfica and Valencia.
This season we are playing five friendlies against Walsall, Blackburn, Chelsea, Derby and Braga.
Is your point that we are so useless that we didn't have a manager to sort out the friendlies that we'd already sorted out, or is your point that we're so useless that we didn't have a manager to sort out more friendlies, even though we're already playing more than we normally do?
Or (and I think this is where my money is going), did you think that we were scrabbling around trying to find opponents after we appointed McLeish, not actually understanding that these things are sorted out quite a bit in advance? Because that's how your original post reads.
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Yep. looks a bit of a fuck up. As usual. I guess we took so long appointing AM that arranging games was a bit more difficult than usual
Tonight's fixture was announced on May 4th.
The Asia Cup games were arranged well before that.
You really don't think these things through, do you?
thats what i'm saying. done long ago, most likely while GH was still here. they have to be because of the logistics. I'm guessing they'd have been a few more after that if the decision to bin GH had been taken earlier.
It's harder to arrange pre-season games when we take so long to appoint the new manager BECAUSE they're arranged long before the new manager was appointed?
Well, it's hard to argue with crystal-clear logic like that.
I'm saying they stopped arranging them in May when they decided GH was getting the boot. Obviously they didn't think it would take that long to get their target in.. when was AM appointed Dave?
What does that have to do with anything?
Last summer we played four friendlies against Walsall, Feyenoord, Benfica and Valencia.
This season we are playing five friendlies against Walsall, Blackburn, Chelsea, Derby and Braga.
Didn't we play in Ireland last pre-season and Basingstoke and Posh
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we always play walsall, the asia cup, my guess was agreed in march? As for last season, are you claiming that was an ideal pre-season? As you say the derby one was probably arranged by GH. So that leaves Braga which lets say AM has arranged which idoubt. I'm not sure what he's going to learn from that except what N'Zogbia looks like BUT I'M GUESSING when he arrived most clubs had already got their pre-seasons set in stone so if he fanced a more competitive game it wasn't an option
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Walsall, Basingstoke and (I think) Posh were reserve teams last season.
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Fulham are way ahead of us fitness wise. They will give us a battering next week if we are not careful.
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Fulham are way ahead of us fitness wise. They will give us a battering next week if we are not careful.
thats my worry. Hopefully AM is a bit more of a taskmaster than MON and GH. I read Phil Neville's piece about Moyes' pre-season and i'm hoping he's similar. Moyes sounds a sadist.
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we always play walsall, the asia cup, my guess was agreed in march? As for last season, are you claiming that was an ideal pre-season? As you say the derby one was probably arranged by GH. So that leaves Braga which lets say AM has arranged which idoubt. I'm not sure what he's going to learn from that except what N'Zogbia looks like BUT I'M GUESSING when he arrived most clubs had already got their pre-seasons set in stone so if he fanced a more competitive game it wasn't an option
When might we have played these additional games?
Five seems about average, except for the clubs out to market the brand rather than get fit.
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we always play walsall, the asia cup, my guess was agreed in march? As for last season, are you claiming that was an ideal pre-season? As you say the derby one was probably arranged by GH. So that leaves Braga which lets say AM has arranged which idoubt. I'm not sure what he's going to learn from that except what N'Zogbia looks like BUT I'M GUESSING when he arrived most clubs had already got their pre-seasons set in stone so if he fanced a more competitive game it wasn't an option
Let's take tonight's craziness one bit at a time:
"we always play walsall, the asia cup, my guess was agreed in march?"
So are you suggesting that McLeish would have wanted us to cancel the normal Walsall fixture? Or not enter the foreign tournament that generates cash like we normally do?
"As for last season, are you claiming that was an ideal pre-season?"
I assume this is to do with O'Neill leaving? If so, the drum you've been beating for the last 12 months is how shocking it was that he left us right before the season started (a view I for one, subscribe to). So what the fuck has it got to do with how the pre-season games were arranged and then conducted?
"BUT I'M GUESSING when he arrived most clubs had already got their pre-seasons set in stone so if he fanced a more competitive game it wasn't an option"
More competitive than the UEFA Cup semi-finalists? The week following our game with the Premier League runners-up? Who would you suggest to act as a more competitive game?
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What if we'd lost to Blackburn and ended up with only 4 games? Doesn't seem that would have been enough to get the squad up to fitness, especially with a new manager maybe trying different things.
I know it's hypothetical because we obviously did have the Chelsea match, but makes me wonder if they had any plans in the event we lost.
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we always play walsall, the asia cup, my guess was agreed in march? As for last season, are you claiming that was an ideal pre-season? As you say the derby one was probably arranged by GH. So that leaves Braga which lets say AM has arranged which idoubt. I'm not sure what he's going to learn from that except what N'Zogbia looks like BUT I'M GUESSING when he arrived most clubs had already got their pre-seasons set in stone so if he fanced a more competitive game it wasn't an option
When might we have played these additional games?
Five seems about average, except for the clubs out to market the brand rather than get fit.
yeah..to me the asia cup we could have done without this season. Came over as a bit of a jolly. But i suppose money comes first.
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we always play walsall, the asia cup, my guess was agreed in march? As for last season, are you claiming that was an ideal pre-season? As you say the derby one was probably arranged by GH. So that leaves Braga which lets say AM has arranged which idoubt. I'm not sure what he's going to learn from that except what N'Zogbia looks like BUT I'M GUESSING when he arrived most clubs had already got their pre-seasons set in stone so if he fanced a more competitive game it wasn't an option
When might we have played these additional games?
Five seems about average, except for the clubs out to market the brand rather than get fit.
yeah..to me the asia cup we could have done without this season. Came over as a bit of a jolly. But i suppose money comes first.
Oh but Gregory, you wanted us to be playing competitive games? So you want us playing someone more competitive than Braga, but you don't want us wasting our time on a corporate jolly by playing Chelsea's first team?
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What if we'd lost to Blackburn and ended up with only 4 games? Doesn't seem that would have been enough to get the squad up to fitness, especially with a new manager maybe trying different things.
I know it's hypothetical because we obviously did have the Chelsea match, but makes me wonder if they had any plans in the event we lost.
If we'd have lost to Blackburn we would have played against Kitchee for third and fourth place.
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Dave, you've obviously missed my mantra this last 12 or so years - pre-season games mean nowt. some sort of asian harlem globetrotter tour where we play in a greenhouse. we lost to chelsea, beat blackburn, who cares? I'd rather have played someone who wants to beat us because its a scalp. - see tonight.
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What if we'd lost to Blackburn and ended up with only 4 games? Doesn't seem that would have been enough to get the squad up to fitness, especially with a new manager maybe trying different things.
I know it's hypothetical because we obviously did have the Chelsea match, but makes me wonder if they had any plans in the event we lost.
If we'd have lost to Blackburn we would have played against Kitchee for third and fourth place.
Thanks Pauline, didn't know there was a 3rd/4th place game.
*Puts on a big pointy hat with a D on it and sits in the corner*
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Dave, you've obviously missed my mantra this last 12 or so years - pre-season games mean nowt. some sort of asian harlem globetrotter tour where we play in a greenhouse. we lost to chelsea, beat blackburn, who cares? I'd rather have played someone who wants to beat us because its a scalp. - see tonight.
So we'll play say, Walsall and Derby who are lower league teams who really want to beat us, we'll play say, Blackburn and Chelsea because that's sensible preparation for the Premier League season (with them being Premier League teams and all that) and we'll throw in a game against, say Braga because they've got an awesome stadium.
Sounds like a pretty perfect set of pre-season games to me.
Which ones do think McLeish will have had a problem with?
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What if we'd lost to Blackburn and ended up with only 4 games? Doesn't seem that would have been enough to get the squad up to fitness, especially with a new manager maybe trying different things.
I know it's hypothetical because we obviously did have the Chelsea match, but makes me wonder if they had any plans in the event we lost.
If we'd have lost to Blackburn we would have played against Kitchee for third and fourth place.
Thanks Pauline, didn't know there was a 3rd/4th place game.
*Puts on a big pointy hat with a D on it and sits in the corner*
hehehehe
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Dave, you've obviously missed my mantra this last 12 or so years - pre-season games mean nowt. some sort of asian harlem globetrotter tour where we play in a greenhouse. we lost to chelsea, beat blackburn, who cares? I'd rather have played someone who wants to beat us because its a scalp. - see tonight.
So we'll play say, Walsall and Derby who are lower league teams who really want to beat us, we'll play say, Blackburn and Chelsea because that's sensible preparation for the Premier League season (with them being Premier League teams and all that) and we'll throw in a game against, say Braga because they've got an awesome stadium.
Sounds like a pretty perfect set of pre-season games to me.
Which ones do think McLeish will have had a problem with?
Its all about fitness dave. who do you want to play against? Frank lampard working off the summer intake of pies or someone who thinks yer a high paid prima-donna and wants to launch you into row Z so he gets a cheer from the home crowd If what i've heard about AM is true we'd have had a few more games with the latter players involved if it had been his pre-season. Obviously we'd have still have had the asian junket.
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Last summer we played four friendlies against Walsall, Feyenoord, Benfica and Valencia.
Five - We played a strong team at Bohemians.
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Last summer we played four friendlies against Walsall, Feyenoord, Benfica and Valencia.
Five - We played a strong team at Bohemians.
Six-We played a strong team against Posh
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Martin Jol after last night's Euro game:
“We have played six games now. Maybe you would prefer to play eight or nine games in the pre-season as some other players didn’t play a lot so that is probably a disadvantage, but I am satisfied with the results because we got through to the next round."
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Bit out of date now but this is an interesting article by the Zonal Marking guy Simon Cox (geek).
http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/id/6865778/english-premier-league-being-underminded-greedy-preseason-tours