{"id":316,"date":"2018-08-04T22:34:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-05T05:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football2020.net\/?p=316"},"modified":"2018-08-06T06:52:07","modified_gmt":"2018-08-06T13:52:07","slug":"as-pre-season-2018-19-comes-to-a-close-what-can-be-gleaned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football2020.net\/?p=316","title":{"rendered":"Pre-season 2018\/19 &#8211; What can we glean?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>The Pessimistic Perspective<\/h4>\n<p><a id=\"6I-Jz5pWQodgpHSVB7JeGg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.ca\/detail\/1007863294\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'6I-Jz5pWQodgpHSVB7JeGg',sig:'9KTerkdw3PjFLvw5RVh9Sese1g9mm_YUZ77GtfYuy40=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1007863294',caption: true ,tld:'ca',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Following the 5-1 routing of PSG, Thomas Tuchel was an unpopular person with most Arsenal fans. \u00a0In the post game interviews Tuchel stated that teams which had players on international duty at the World Cup were at a significant disadvantage as their players did not return to their perspective teams until late in the preseason. \u00a0He was of course unpopular for raining on Arsenal&#8217;s parade as Emery trounced his formed club, but unpopular or not his comments had merit. \u00a0Few if any of the starting 11 for PSG will be in Tuchel&#8217;s first team come the start of the season, whereas Arsenal had most of their first team players back and available. \u00a0And so ultimately we cannot take too much from this match.<\/p>\n<p>Even for teams that have the majority of their players for the preseason, it is unusual to see starting lineups that reflect the regular first team. \u00a0Frequent substitutions are common and players certainly do not develop the consistency of playing with consistent teammates the way they do in the regular season.<\/p>\n<h4>The Optimistic View<\/h4>\n<p>We won all our games, bar a shoot out loss to Atletico Madrid. \u00a0And our new manager was able to pummel his former employers. \u00a0Not bad!<\/p>\n<p>The importance of the preseason cannot be underrated. \u00a0In the Premier League every single point counts and one has to start the season flying from game 1. \u00a0We will face Manchester City on August 12 and will need to be playing full throttle from the first whistle. \u00a0And if the preseason is any gauge, Auba and Lacazette are firing on all cylinders!<\/p>\n<p>The preseason is a time for new players and staff to familiarize themselves with each other, new philosophies and new tactics. \u00a0It is vitally important in the preparation for the upcoming season. \u00a0It is a stage for young players to state their claim for first team opportunities come the regular season. \u00a0As every single point is important in the Premier League, once the regular season starts there are few opportunities to gamble playing less experienced players. \u00a0Even with impressive preseason performances these young players are often limited to cup ties and opportunities when the first team players end up on the injured list, yet still it is the preseason where they can show their A<em>rsenal!<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>The Reality<\/h4>\n<p>The idiom &#8216;Taken with a grain of salt&#8217;, sums up what can be determined from the preseason. \u00a0Essentially the preseason results should be viewed with skepticism, but really the\u00a0<em>results<\/em> are not what is important here. \u00a0Certainly a string of losses in the preseason would be concerning and could hurt team confidence and moral, but favourable results should be taken with that pinch of salt.\u00a0<a id=\"03ncjScDRPtXpBcOivw0tA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.ca\/detail\/1006710468\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'03ncjScDRPtXpBcOivw0tA',sig:'S3EAwPghgu3-r3aTxbddDoZTSx6Z66m0SKYLsP8ugAg=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1006710468',caption: true ,tld:'ca',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><br \/>\nUnai Emery&#8217;s true test lies only a week away, yet the optimism around the club is undeniable. \u00a0Hopefully a Premier League debut win for the new manager will lead the way on to a successful season!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Pessimistic Perspective Embed from Getty Images Following the 5-1 routing of PSG, Thomas Tuchel was an unpopular person with most Arsenal fans. \u00a0In the post game interviews Tuchel stated that teams which had players on international duty at the World Cup were at a significant disadvantage as their players did not return to their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arsenal"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa1Vgs-56","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football2020.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football2020.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football2020.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football2020.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football2020.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=316"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/football2020.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":327,"href":"https:\/\/football2020.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions\/327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football2020.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football2020.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football2020.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}