A new approach to pre-season?
I have to admit, it feels like we’re starting pre-season a little bit late and I’ve been thinking about our pre-season friendly matches in some detail.
They start later than in recent years and with pre-season starting today, the players have a whole 19 days of solid intense training under Iain Dowie before we take on the first of our seven scheduled pre-season friendlies against Stevenage Boro on 19th July.
From there on in, it’s pretty hectic in terms of matches. July is rammed with games also on the 22nd, 23rd, 25th, 26th and 29th. We then finish up with a home friendly against Chievo Verona on 2nd August.
In between those games, there’s not much of a chance for the players to rest and there’s also a visit up to Scotland to boot too. We may obviously chop and change the side and use plenty of fringe players and youngsters, but it’s still very interesting all the same.
Last season we played seven friendly matches, with games in July on the 11th, 15th, 18th, 28th, 31st and then in August on the 3rd and 7th.
In 2006/07 we played just five pre-season friendlies, all occurring in July on the 8th, 19th, 22nd, 24th and 28th. In 2005/06 we played six friendlies, also all in July, on the 11th, 14th, 17th, 23rd, 26th and the 30th.
So as you can see, this time around, there is much less recovery time between games but a lot more preparation time with no friendlies occurring in that second week. Obviously some of the past seasons have seen short trips abroad, but is this a sign of a new scientific approach by Dowie?
The recent refurbishments at Loftus Road will obviously have made it difficult for us to host friendly games at home though, so the signs are the majority of the works will get their first proper test on 2nd August to pass all the tests before the opening game of the season on 9th August against Barnsley.
I wonder if that will be of any hindrance to Dowie and his preparations, and hopefully I will be able to make a few of these games to see how we’re progressing.
