In this article we look at just how much we can take from pre season friendlies, when looking at the season ahead.
When I was a kid I used to believe that Southampton Football Club never played a friendly, it played every game to win, intruth i was perhaps not that naive, back in the 70's that was pretty much the case, professional footballers back then had very short lifespans and although they were well paid in relation to the average worker, they werent earning so much that they could retire in luxury at 25 without kicking another ball if they wanted to, unlike todays players.
That being the case they had to fight to get a place in the team and earn those bonus's that made them that little bit better off and didnt consign them to a season in the reserves, with only one sub allowed and the game not being the squad game it is now, at every top club every Saturday you were either in a squad of maybe 12 or 13 for the first team, or off to the oblivion of the reserves, it was hard to get your chance in the firsts when the manager never got to see you play. Back then managers used the backbone of their team week in week out, for instance in 72/73 Ted Bates used 22 players in the season, but out of that number, nine made under a dozen appearances including as sub in that season, even in 83/84 Lawrie McMenemy only used 21 players, 7 of whom played less than a dozen games apiece.
But the introduction of second subs meant the game got more tactical and as we entered the 90's the game was more of a continental squad game, subs could be used more tactically instead of being merely there in case someone got injured.
At the same time pre season games started to take on a different slant, they were becoming less of a full blooded contest with players of both sides trying to earn a first team opportunity, but part of scientific pre season programmes where it started to be about giving players warm up games and eeryone in the squad a game, reserve football was starting to change, teams would take squads of 18 or more on a Saturday and reserve teams started to fill up with youngsters as opposed to experienced pros out of favour with the manager.
This being the case in today's modern game the role of a pre season friendly has changed drastically, results rarely matter, both sides arent interested in whether they win or not, they are looking at something more scientific, subs roll on and off and you rarely see a side in a friendly these days use anything less than 20 players, this in turn means that the contest is far from even, teams lose shape and fresh legs can give a false view of a player.
I have lost count of the number of times I have seen a player be outstanding in pre season games and then be annonymous during the coming season.
Remember Marco Almeida ? outstanding in a pre season friendly at the Dell in 1999, his first team career at the Dell lasted 11 minutes during which he was turned by Thierry Henry for the only goal of the game, I am sticking to players in the last dozen years but the list of impressive pre season signings who were superb in friendlies but who failed to cut the mustard in the league is far longer than it should be, usually flair players who given a bit of space due to the non physical aspect of pre season friendlies, Stuart Ripley (in about 3 pre seasons) Paul Murray, Darren Kenton, Neil McCann, Jelle Van Damme, Steve De Ridder, I could look into the record books and bring up a few more, but you get my drift, its easy to turn on the style when there is no pressure on you, far harder when the opposition are actually trying.
So if you cant take much from a players performance in friendlies nowadays, you can take even less from the results, perhaps the first time I though this was in 91/92, we were superb in pre season we played nine games of varying standards, won 7, drew 1 and lost only the final game at the Dell against Real Sociedad, we were scoring for fun, yet we lost 5 drew 2 and won only once of our first 8 matches when the league season commenced.
So the inference of this article is plain, due to squad rotation etc, you cant be entirely sure of how much of a game your opponents are actually going to give you, what sort of line up they will put out, how many changes they are going to make etc etc.
The truth is that for team mamangers nowadays, what they look for in a friendly is something far different that twenty years ago, indeed almost the opposite of what the spectator in the stand will be looking for, for a manager its more of what he doesnt see from a player and his team that he will be concerned with rather than what he does see.
Of course they do still give opportunities for players to impress and put themselves into the managers mind, but it should always be with a word of caution, in 2003 there wasnt one Saints fan present watching our pre season game at St Mary's who didnt feel that Neil McCann would go on to be a Saints legend, history shows us different.
Friendlies have their place in pre season, but that place is far far different than in the past.
So I would say that in this and any pre season its not about results or individual performances from players, beating a side comprehensively or getting beaten by so called inferior opposition is no guide to the coming season, Nigel Adkins will be getting out iof the games what he needs to and the last thing on his mind is whether we have won them or not