🗓️Pre-Season Friendlies 2024/25

[Mark_Ross]

Mmm.

Let's not forget the superb new pitch.

All we've got to do is find some players to go with it.

[Woodypie]

Awaits the “Maynard Out Bedsheets!”

Mmm.

[Woodypie]

Mmm. Things not looking too clever, are they?

[OldBanksy]

You appear not to have noticed, but there are a few players not getting minutes in legs and the dismal results suggests that the players aren't gelling particularly well!

Players who aren't getting minutes are injured. The players only need to be ready to gel well when the season starts.

[80milesSouth]

I would have thought the last couple of friendlies before the season starts should see us playing with pretty much our first choice 11 so that they gel as a unit

[irishpete]

I would have thought the last couple of friendlies before the season starts should see us playing with pretty much our first choice 11 so that they gel as a unit

We'll get the usual ****, that it takes 10 or so games for the team to gel when we get off to a bad start. Got no buzz about this season at all at the minute.Hope I'm miles off the mark but.....

[Notts78]

I would have thought the last couple of friendlies before the season starts should see us playing with pretty much our first choice 11 so that they gel as a unit

A fair point. I will counter it. If you spend the last few games playing your first choice 11 and then your keeper gets sent off in the first game, you are left with a keeper who hasn’t played for a few weeks. Or your centre midfielder picks up an injury, you are left with a player not match fit. Or as some predict, your unproven first choice striker goes a few games without a goal and you want to change it, the player replacing him hasn’t played for weeks.
Pre season is the worst part of the year for most players where they are ran ragged - to not have that carrot of a game dangled in front of you would be horrific.
The thing that’s also gone relatively unnoticed is that youth players have been making an appearance.. some on here have been banging the drum about seeing more of these lads given a go. Is a PSF not better than a League game to see how they go?

[matt_magpie]

A fair point. I will counter it. If you spend the last few games playing your first choice 11 and then your keeper gets sent off in the first game, you are left with a keeper who hasn’t played for a few weeks. Or your centre midfielder picks up an injury, you are left with a player not match fit. Or as some predict, your unproven first choice striker goes a few games without a goal and you want to change it, the player replacing him hasn’t played for weeks.
Pre season is the worst part of the year for most players where they are ran ragged - to not have that carrot of a game dangled in front of you would be horrific.
The thing that’s also gone relatively unnoticed is that youth players have been making an appearance.. some on here have been banging the drum about seeing more of these lads given a go. Is a PSF not better than a League game to see how they go?

Exactly, great point on the youth players though he has little choice to play them with squad size. The facts are the friendlies are selected and all the players share the minutes to build up to get to 90 for the week before the season starts, that’s why we have 2 games Sat. If he was to pick the 1st 11 for 60 at the moment then the second would just be full of 4 or 5 available seniors and then youth and trialists and a bit of a waste of time that way.
I think most the doom and gloom is driven by not many believe in SM and we also seem to be short of 1 or 2 more quality players and less so about the results.

[slack_pie]

Jeez, the state of this thread. If we're in meltdown after losing a pre-season friendly, what's this place going to be like if we lose at Tranmere (which we always tend to do)?

It's clear that Maynard won't be given any time by a lot of vocal Notts fans. I can see the boos and "Maynard out" messages erupting every time we don't win. Not sure how helpful it is really.

[Elite_Pie]

Jeez, the state of this thread. If we're in meltdown after losing a pre-season friendly, what's this place going to be like if we lose at Tranmere (which we always tend to do)?

Are we really in "meltdown"? All I'm seeing is some valid concerns about the way our pre-season is going. We look short on numbers, we're not playing well against some poor teams, and we're lacking up front. Those who have seen the matches say we have no real style of play, and we're conceding late goals at an alarming rate. Hopefully the rose-tinted specs crew will be right, and it will all fall into place at Tranmere. I'm not convinced, and at the moment there is next to nothing coming from the club to raise optimism.