Christhegreekred:

If all these young kids are wearing chelsea shirts, they are nothing but glory hunters. Same goes for the ones who will start wearing city shirts.

You're right, however, Chelsea run soccer clinics here. Sheffield United have just finished one in Brisbane and it was part of the requirement that players had to buy or wear their shirts during the training.

this has always been the way we prepare what is the issue here

aussiefanfromnowhere:

I agree with gerald232. I live in Sydney, and all I see is young lads wearing chelsea, arsenal and liverpool colours. It seems like I'm the only one who wears the famous red proudly down under.

Can you tell me why this is please?

If all these young kids are wearing chelsea shirts, they are nothing but glory hunters. Same goes for the ones who will start wearing city shirts.

manutd4eva_rahul:

MANUTD vs barca exactly the sort of fixture for which i created this thread, we needed to be at those performance levels that barca will help us and themselves get to

So we should be playing the best teams in Europe for all of our pre-season friendlies? C'mon son. Preseason is simply about getting back into the swing of football, getting some fitness, getting some touches, getting a little bit of match sharpness back about you. It's not supposed to compare to the level of a regular season game.

Although it is a bit worrisome that Everton will have warmed up against the Malaysia 11 just before facing us! (jokes)

Not really all that different from prior pre-seasons so no, not worried about it all.

reminder of last seasons game vs Barc at the end of July

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/jul/31/manchester-united-barcelona-friendly-report

Manchester United (4-4-2): De Gea; Rafael (Fabio, 17), Vidic, (Jones, 76) Evans, Evra (Smalling, ht); Nani, Cleverley, Anderson (Giggs, ht), Young (Obertan, 62); Rooney (Owen, ht), Welbeck (Diouf, 77). Subs not used: Lindegaard, Amos, Jones, Ferdinand, Carrick, Park, Berbatov, Macheda.

Barcelona (4-1-4-1): Valdés; Dos Santos (Muniesa, 62), Busquets, Fontàs (Lozano, 73), Abidal (Balliu, 73); Keita; Afellay (Cuenca, 42), Thiago, Iniesta, Pedro (Espinosa, 86); Villa (Carmona, 62). Subs not used: Piqué, Puyol, Xavi, Jeffrén, Pinto, Riverola, Maxwell, Masip.

MANUTD vs barca exactly the sort of fixture for which i created this thread, we needed to be at those performance levels that barca will help us and themselves get to

gerald232:

can someone give Fergie an atlas to show him where Australia is, as all these young kids are wearing Chelsea, Liverpool and (only a matter of time) before they start wearing City shirts.

Agreed. I cant remember the last time United came out here to Australia. My mum saw them after she moved out to here from England back in the 1960's with Georgie Best, etc. Would have killed for that. But yeah, it doesnt seem fair its the same countries all the time. Like they went to South African like 4-6 seasons ago.

aussiefanfromnowhere:

I agree with gerald232. I live in Sydney, and all I see is young lads wearing chelsea, arsenal and liverpool colours. It seems like I'm the only one who wears the famous red proudly down under.

Your the only one with a bit of class then mate!!

The only thing I am worried about is our fitness level. The new signings (ie Tom Cleverley, Chris Smalling and Phil Jones) started well but in mid-season most crashed out to injury. I hope that during this Euro break, the youngsters will take this opportunity to train up their endurance just like what Berbatov did when he missed out the 2010 world cup. Berbatov came back to score over 20 goals.

I actually think even the Olympics would have been a better preseason. At least it's held here.

aLook though, the Euro 2012 is happenng for a lot of our players are in WC qualifyers. I'm not worried.

I agree with the other posters about fitness levels but I think they have also taken into account the amount of players participating in the Euros and Olympics. They will either need a break from football or that will count as their preseason training.

kev.utd:

dlakadejan:

thomas21:

It is all preparation, for fitness levels

trying the the new players, some new routines, few experiments etc ...

no need for competitive matches ... just getting in the rytham

I agree but there's evidence. We had an easy pre-season in 2009 and we got off to a not so good start to the season and we lost to Chelsea in the Community Shield. Last season we had a good pre-season facing Barcelona and winning, we had probably our best start to the campaign in years.

believe me, beating Barca was not the reason for our good start ... and sometimes a harder pre-season can cost you burn-outs before season even starts

especially when it's EURO or World Cup summer

and I'm sure that Sir Alex knows exactly what players needs after all pre-seasons he had

I'm calm

dlakadejan:

thomas21:

It is all preparation, for fitness levels

trying the the new players, some new routines, few experiments etc ...

no need for competitive matches ... just getting in the rytham

I agree but there's evidence. We had an easy pre-season in 2009 and we got off to a not so good start to the season and we lost to Chelsea in the Community Shield. Last season we had a good pre-season facing Barcelona and winning, we had probably our best start to the campaign in years.