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da bwin： In theory, pre-season friendlies only really prepare you for the first game – or, at a stretch, the first three until the international break comes along at the start of September. From then on, it’s about quality, organisation, momentum and adapting to the circumstances at hand. Full fitness should no longer be part of the equation.At the same time, however, a poor pre-season can be disastrous. It’s much like how an over-lit office may not necessarily boost your productivity, but a dimly lit one will almost certainly reduce it. Chelsea’s spectacular implosion during the 2015/16 season provides the perfect example.Whilst the Eva Caneiro scandal is often seen as the catalyst for the second-worst title defence in Premier League history and Jose Mourinho’s eventual dismissal, Chelsea’s problems started way before then.A burnt-out squad at the end of 2014/15 were taken on a post-season tour, whilst the subsequent pre-season, which started around a week later than many of the Blues’ Premier League rivals and consisted of just four games, saw Chelsea suffer defeat to New York Red Bulls and Fiorentina and draw with PSG and Barcelona. It was then followed by defeat to Arsenal in the Community Shield. Not a single win ahead of a title defence.We often don’t pay attention to results in pre-season; the games are supposed to be a means to an end. But it was clear that Chelsea’s pre-season didn’t prepare them properly for the coming campaign. By the time of Mourinho’s spat with Caneiro during the opening game of the Premier League season, damage had already been done and the negative momentum was already snowballing. From then on, the Blues didn’t really recover until Guus Hiddink took the helm after Christmas.Of course, pre-season tours in distant lands have become part of the parcel for Premier League clubs, a necessary evil for managers who accept the corporate demand to have a presence in the emerging markets – namely the USA and the Far East – because of the enormous revenues they now bring in. At the same time, the Premier League is no longer the English top flight; it’s now a global top flight, the fan-bases shifting from local to international. Those fans will feel they deserve to see their club and their heroes in action too.But as all of the Premier League’s top clubs jet off to the over side of the world, you have to wonder how well these pre-seasons, so financially driven Ronald McDonald lead both teams out during Manchester United’s clash with Real Madrid in San Francisco, actually prepare the players for the coming campaign.
The Premier League’s Asia Trophy was disrupted by concerns over the standard of the pitch and torrential rain that affected Leicester’s clash with Liverpool. Here’s what manager Jurgen Klopp said about the pitch conditions in Hong Kong – before describing the tournament win as ‘in the most difficult circumstances’.
“Yeah, it’s a worry. What can I say? I’m a football manager, I’m interested in the game, I’m interested in the quality of the game and different things have influence on the quality.Players do of course, the pitch is very important, but if it’s bad we can’t change it. We’ll see how it is.”
No doubt, Premier League footballers have greater support than ever before. Medical staff can detect injuries before they happen, sports scientists know which training exercises work best in certain conditions. It’s not a question of clubs putting the safety of their players at risk – more than ever, English clubs can afford to take every precaution and spare no expense should an injury happen.
Yet, the differences in the Premier League are now so slight, a pre-season disrupted by poor pitches and tropical storms surely leaves Liverpool at a worrying disadvantage. Everton, for example, have recruited well this summer and following a friendly in Tanzania at the start of July have spent the rest of their summer in Europe – that could be what sees them leapfrog their local rivals in the coming season.
Comparing anything to Leicester City’s miraculous title win is the beautiful game’s answer to Godwin’s Law; when you compare someone or something to Hitler, you’ve immediately lost the argument. But it’s certainly intriguing that the Foxes spent their entire pre-season in England before winning the title, despite the club’s Asian ownership, and when Chelsea lifted it the year previous, their friendlies never spanned further than Turkey, the rest taking place in mainland Europe.
In fact, from the eight tournaments thus far, the Asia trophy has gone on to produce just one title-winner; Manchester City who won the tournament in 2013 and then the Premier League during the 2013/14 season. That’s despite the remaining list of Asia trophy winners including Chelsea twice, Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool – four clubs who will expect to be part of the title race next season. Likewise, no winner or runner-up of the International Champions Cup, including the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United, has gone on to win the Premier League title in the season proper.
Of course, it’s important not to draw too much into coincidences – and to point out, if it’s not obvious already, that I’m not a leading figure in the world of fitness and sports science. But it’s clear that pre-season tours in far-away lands often aren’t the ideal preparation for Premier League clubs; in fact, they create distractions and obstacles during a time of the season when players are asked to re-establish their physical and mental sharpness.
But in many ways, that epitomises the never-ending struggle at the heart of the beautiful game today; what best serves football versus what best serves business interests. Pre-season tours are walking a delicate tight-rope in between, but one sway in the direction of business can have a massive impact on the season ahead.