Marks out of 10 for Pre-Season Business and Results

Nuttalls Mint Toes

Well-known member
I realise we still have Tuesday to come 🙈 (Barnsley took a 4-0 pasting at City yesterday and so let's not dwell on that) but how would you rate Critch's pre-season.

By my reckoning 9 signings - mix of youth, experience and the unknown. Big signing for me was getting Yates on a long term deal. The rest remains a work in progress. Not seen any pre-season and so can't comment but I have been looking out for 'what a signing' and so far there seems to be some hesitant in that. Good news is that we should have the core of last season's squad to fall back on at the start.
My big disappointment is that we haven't got an of the loans back. When you reflect on the last 2 months of the season Ballard, Embleton and Simms were big players for us and that's three big players to lose going in to a new season.
Clearly we've had an injury and Covid plagued pre-season - for me, we've not lost in a worrying manner but we've also not won in a convincing manner and so we'll see how that transfers in to the season.
Disappointed that we lost Calderwood but pleased to have gained McCall - we'll see how that plays out.

Of course you don't win anything pre-season and the way we played against Everton last summer lead us all to believe we'd walk League One and as we know the start didn't reflect that.

So I will give pre-season a 5/10 - am hoping new faces, results and performances will turn August in to more of a 7/8 out of 10.
 
Good well balanced post. Would also add that pre-seasons are always a bit tricky after a Play Off final.
 
Pre season has not been inspiring really, a few wins but nothing amazing, not much creativity shown.

The signings are hard to mark, we've just not seen enough of them.

We have strengthened in defence, brought in a striker and an attacking mid but from lower leagues a winger on bowler.

Has anyone come in better than what we had? Hard to say but nothing proven better has arrived, some might be but we don't know.

I'd say we've done OK in the transfer market but still miss some key positions and that flair needed.

But pre season hasn't gone well with covid and injuries.
 
Some interesting signings. No particular ‘wow’ signings.
The Rangers game was the biggest and that was cancelled.
The rest of the matches were pretty uninspiring tbh.
We feel a way off on our prep / Covid / injuries / missing key positions. I know we finished after everyone else, and maybe that’s why we could do with a few more weeks we haven’t got.
Ongoing frustration over the Ballard / Simms / Embleton / Gabriel situations.
We should be on a high after the play off win and it feels a bit flat imo.

5/10
 
An in the middle 5/10. Decent turnover of players but not brought in players in areas we perceive we are lacking (right back, striker, centre back, advanced central midfielder).
I’m not sure what the reserve league set up is for the forecoming season? With no LDV / early FA cup games to give players minutes I have slight doubts of the ability of some of the squad depth to effect the first team?
 
7/10.

We looked pretty good against Burnley, both defensively and we also created several clear chances. Despite having a thrown together midfield.

We controlled possession yesterday, but the tactics and selection didn't produce goals. It was a practice match.

Compared to this point last season, a month before the window closes, we have recruited well.

Simms and Embleton took a while to get up to speed. So will TJJ, Lavery, Carey, Casey.

Last summer we signed Woodburn, Lubala, Sarkic, Robson and Williams earlier on. As well as Anderson, Ekpiteta, Yates and CJ.

Results mean nothing at all in pre season, history proves that.

I suspect every set of fans is feeling the same way. Are we ready? We need more players! We are weak in x and y positions!

We are not too far away. The best loans will happen at the end of August. That's how it works.
 
We were very comfortable against Burnley until all the substitutes came on.
Tayt Trusty looked great on the ball and should be given more chances in the championship also.

I think some of our more interesting signings would be from loans.
Not sure Blackpool are that interested in the current situation to spend big money on a singular player.
 
results uninspiring but as said shouldn't read too much into them. The new players? Only time will tell as to whether a, they are good enough and b, will they be regular starters. I still think there's a big gap in creativeness but looking back at last season it was just the same. Plenty of possession but creating very little. But I seriously doubt we'll dominate possession like we did against teams last season.
Agree that probably once again loan signings will be vital but it's far from ideal that some of these are likely to arrive once the season is well under way. And make no mistake about it this season will be far harder so it's not ideal that we are unlikely to have our full complement of players come the start of the season next week.
 
6 out of 10. Yates , Maxwell, new contracts 10, Lavery 8, Bowler 6 , Keogh 1 too old and slow (sorry) the rest I haven’t seen in the flesh . But in C I now trust .
 
5

Our plans derailed by Simms surgery and teams not wanting to part with our targets, and the Covid problems, and the pricing of the preseason games putting a dampener on things. Not sure on the set up from preseason nor any idea whether our best players will be anywhere near the team when we kick off.

aside from Keogh the signings are all ones we could have made in league one.

D:reaming of things only getting better but fear an underwhelming start. I’d take nil nil and a workman like organised performance and some good news on the injury/selection front.
 
Another way to judge pre season might be to look at Hull and Peterborough, how have their results been who did they bring in?
Not being negative but I think we need to focus on who will potentially be in the bottom 8 and finish as high in that mini league as we can.
 
aside from Keogh the signings are all ones we could have made in league one.
Tend to agree with that. I think we're looking at a set of players who will have to be at their very best. Concerns me how few chances we created and from Critch's response at Morecambe whether he has a plan but not the players to execute it?

4/10
 
aside from Keogh the signings are all ones we could have made in league one.

D:reaming of things only getting better but fear an underwhelming start. I’d take nil nil and a workman like organised performance and some good news on the injury/selection front.
Cheer up you old fucker! Your needle's been stuck since last August! 🤣

Keogh though will be shocked he got a Championship club! Probably our poorest signing. I doubt many of our other signings would have signed for us in League One. Carey had another Championship offer, for example. Doubt Casey would have dropped that far. John-Jules needed to progress. Connolly was Cod of the season. Cod fans have mournayed his departure.
 
results uninspiring but as said shouldn't read too much into them. The new players? Only time will tell as to whether a, they are good enough and b, will they be regular starters. I still think there's a big gap in creativeness but looking back at last season it was just the same. Plenty of possession but creating very little. But I seriously doubt we'll dominate possession like we did against teams last season.
Agree that probably once again loan signings will be vital but it's far from ideal that some of these are likely to arrive once the season is well under way. And make no mistake about it this season will be far harder so it's not ideal that we are unlikely to have our full complement of players come the start of the season next week.
Yes, but the cliche that results don't matter at this time of year is absolutely true. We were brilliant a year ago and then started poorly.

A right back would be good and a few injured players being available would be good, but I see stability being good this season when others are in complete turmoil.

Don't forget we've signed 9 players.
 
Yes, but the cliche that results don't matter at this time of year is absolutely true. We were brilliant a year ago and then started poorly.

A right back would be good and a few injured players being available would be good, but I see stability being good this season when others are in complete turmoil.

Don't forget we've signed 9 players.
Barring Jerry & Keogh, the signings are players with good potential for the future, but are far from proven at Championship level. Considering the out's and in's, the team hasn't really improved from the end of last season and the Championship is a much tougher league.
Arranging a tour to Scotland, with all the Covid warning signals (& Jimmy Krankie not wanting the English up there), was a huge error of judgement, which backfired and resulted in disrupting our pre season preparations, to the point where we now have a late BCD friendly against the best team in the PL.
Signing 2 or 3 experienced players this week would significantly improve things, but even then, they would take a couple of weeks to settle in.
As it stands 4/10
 
We haven't been firing up front in pre-season. I can see us starting the new season very much as we started the last one.

One thing I would be very displeased about is if we carry as many injured players through the season as we did last time. That would suggest a systemic problem in the way we train.

PS. Critchley needs to stop players consuming take-aways on a Saturday night
 
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