What is the impact of pre-season games? When should we experiment? « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

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By Walter Broeckx

I was going to write an article about how much pre season friendly games have an impact on the season. Of course as the season is not yet underway we cannot know what the impact will be of those games we have been playing so far.

Looking at the noise some part of the fans make it seems that we have just lost the FA cup, the league title, the Carling cup and the champions league and are about to be relegated. We are doomed and nothing can change that is the word out on the streets. I think you could light up a fire with those words in Tottenham for the moment. I must admit that living in Belgium I don’t know what exactly is going on in London but it sure is a frightening sight to be honest.

But let us return to football and see how pre-season games have an impact on the start of the season. So I took the liberty of going down the gutter of the internet and visit some websites of other important clubs in England. And the lot down the burning road.

Let us start with Liverpool who only had 3 friendly games last season and lost 2 of them and had 1 draw. And granted after that they had a rather poor start of the season. Which lead to the sacking of the manager a little later.

Now for those who are worrying about those pre-season friendly games I should advise you to have a look at how United is dealing with those games: they even don’t keep record of them. Because when I go and check their fixtures and results it seems that they only started playing their first game against Chelsea in the Community Shield. Before that no date, no names, no teams, no nothing. At United they are so interested in those games that they just don’t mention them. Well at least they don’t have to mention losing 8-2 to Marseille. But whatever the results might have been the fact was that they started strong at home and weak when going away. Something that stuck with them the rest of the season.

Let us go to their neighbours and see how City did last pre season. Well it wasn’t that good to be honest. 6 games played : 1 draw, 2 wins and 3 lost. After that they had a mixed start with a draw, a win and losing away at Sunderland. I think it was with the gigantic Tevez miss in that game. But later on they started playing better and got to 3^rd place at the end of the season.

If we go back to London we will go to the ones who want to leave North London. The Spurs played 7 games in pre-season and they won 4, had 2 draws and 1 defeat. And then they had a mixed start with a win, losing and a draw in their first 3 games. A bit like City but in fact the Spurs had a far better pre season than City and still it didn’t tell in the results in the EPL.

So how did Chelsea do last season? Well the pre season could be best described as…a disaster. If I include the Community Shield they had 6 games before the season started. And they could only win 1 (yes one) game of those 6. A 1-0 win against Crystal Palace. And all the other games were lost. 5 games lost in pre-season including the Community Shield. I really wonder how the Chelsea fans felt before the start of the season. And yet when the league was underway for some 5 games everyone in the media declared them the new champions. They won all their first 5 games and scored 21 goals and only conceded 1 goal. I don’t think many Chelsea fan will worry that much about the pre season results since then.

And last but not least Arsenal. We had 6 games and we had a draw against AC Milan. And the other 5 games we won. So very very good results I would say. In fact maybe the best results of all the teams involved. And then we started the league and had a draw at Liverpool and then we also won some games. But despite our good pre-season it didn’t last.

And if we compare Chelsea and Arsenal they had a disaster in pre season but had a great start of the season. Even better than our start. So you can have a bad start in pre-season and a good start in the league. It just is so different for every club you cannot say: if this will happen, then we are doomed or we will win the league.

Because maybe last time around Chelsea did what we did this pre season. Maybe they played all kind of formations that you wouldn’t expect to play in the league unless the whole team is sick or injured. Chelsea went in that pre-season as the defending champions with very much the same squad as they ended the season. So the need to play the best players was not very high. They knew each other, they had been playing together.

Just like our best 11-14 players know each other and have been playing together for a while. So then a manager might be thinking: okay I play them 45 minutes and then I will see what works and what doesn’t work. Can I put Vermaelen together with Squilacci or not? Can I play Ryo and Gervinho at the wings at the same time and will it work? Can I play Ramsey with Rosicky and will they link up? Will Jenkinson be good enough to cover for Sagna when needed? Those are questions that needed answers and there are many more questions like that.

So when do you think a manager will have to see if those things work? When we go to Newcastle? At home against Liverpool? In the CL Qualifier? Or away at United? Just pick the game you would have wanted us to experiment a bit with those players. And to put some reserves and some youth players on the field and see how far they stand and how they can cope. I think by now the manager will have more answers to what he can do or what he cannot do. To what he should avoid if possible and what should be the best possible team. And isn’t this the main reason that football teams play games in pre-season?