VILLAS-BOAS: STEPPING IT UP

Andre Villas-Boas will be pushing his players further in the first of our two games in the Barclays Asia Trophy on Wednesday.

Speaking at a press conference in Hong Kong to launch the start of the tournament, which also features Wednesday's opponents and local league champions Kitchee, Aston Villa and Blackburn Rovers, the manager explained that some players will be required to play the full 90 minutes as our preparations for the season ahead continue to gather pace.

'The most important thing is to continue our preparation. Hopefully we will be able to win both games and take the trophy, but we face a difficult challenge because in the pre-season, when you are trying to get back to your fitness level, and concentration-wise you are also trying to avoid mistakes, you know you are flexible to commit them because you are in the beginning,' he said.

'It is the second week of our Asia tour, we still have 15 days in London before our first game and at the moment it is a continuous process, we are not stopping, training very intensively, and the games are a continuous process of our training.

'We hope to put our ideas across and for the players to demonstrate their talent once again and for us to win both games. If we don't it is pre-season and the most important thing is our preparation.

'This kind of humidity we found difficult, we can't run away from that. The players are able to respond, we went almost 90 minutes with Ivanovic and Mikel the other day, [but] in the end we were able to put a couple of young boys across because it is valuable for them, and what you will see tomorrow is a different appliance of these principles.

'We will most likely use the team that played 30 minutes against the Thailand All Stars, they are going to get 60 minutes tomorrow to make 90.

'That's our logic for tomorrow's game based on the regulations of this tournament. I think in the end they will be able to perform. Because of the intensity of training, they will be able to respond. It is the job for us to judge it from the bench.'

The tournament rules state that only five substitutes may be used by either side, though it is likely players will be able to pause regularly for drinks breaks.

By Villas-Boas's comments, we can expect longer on the pitch for the likes of Ashley Cole, Paulo Ferreira, Yuy Zhirkov, Yossi Benayoun, Nicolas Anelka, Salomon Kalou and Didier Drogba.

The 33-year-old is so far pleased with how our tour has been progressing, and is working on a number of systems that will have us ready for when we meet Stoke City in our first league game, now less than three weeks away.

'We have this idea of a 4-3-3 and we are focusing on it at the moment,' he explained. 'It doesn't mean we won't go to other formations because you have to have this flexibility to challenge for the Premiership.

'I think with the players' experiences they are more able to do it. The 4-3-3 is a system for us in the end where it is not just a striker, it is three forwards in the end, and we have this flexibility in the squad.

'We have seen Daniel [sturridge] in the channels, Anelka in the channels and they are more than able to do it so we are pretty happy.

'Yossi [benayoun] is a creative player coming from the channels to between the lines, so we havethe flexibility to try different structures. We tried 4-4-2 in a diamond against Malaysia, 4-2-3-1 against Thailand in the second half, so we are getting bits and pieces with other formations, and we are pretty happy at the moment and not focusing a lot on the striking positions.'

LINK

This is live on TV here in Australia. Looking forward to that.

Looking for another goal fest, hopefully Torres scores one too.

This is live on TV here in Australia. Looking forward to that.

Oh my god, it is too.

I had no idea! Sweet, it may mean I get a bit less value from Chelsea TV, but to not have to rely on the internet to watch it will be heaven.

Foxsports 3 right? About 8pm?

Edit: Never mind, that's the early game between Villa and Blackburn. We're at 10.30. Is the other game on the 30/07 on Foxsports too?

Edited July 26, 201114 yr by Cam

I will be at work and will have to keep up by reading peoples tweets.

SKY here in the UK are also showing it live, I think.

Live in Holland on Sport1

ESPN showing it live in India .. Yipeee !!!

bugger picked the wrong day to work from home this week ...............

Cant wait to Watch it on Sky sports 1 tommoz at 1pm

Lewis323, i can't either mate, its been so long without premier league football, im even gonna watch the villa vs blackburn game f**k it!

With the next round of friendly fixtures set to take place in Hong Kong, albeit under the guise of the Asian Trophy, how are our walking wounded doing?

Firstly, John Terry missed the second training session today having picked up an ankle knock in the first session.

However, there`s no need to worry as the club have described it as minor and JT is expected to participate in the game on Wednesday evening.

Also noticeable by his presence on the training ground was Alex. The Brazilian has yet to feature in a friendly fixture so far but he was seen going through a training routine however we`re not sure he`ll feature in the game tomorrow.

Similarly, Ryan Bertrand who come off with a slight knock in our last fixture, against a Thai XI, was also seen participating although he too may sit out the clash this Wednesday evening.

.

Waking up bright early to watch this one. For those in the states, it's on at 5:30 am west coast time on FSC.

Also, the above post got me thinking. What's up with Alex? He didn't participate in many friendlies thus far (the Wycombe one I know for sure he did, not sure about Portsmouth though) and wasn't at the Copa America. Anyone know why?

This is live on TV here in Australia. Looking forward to that.

Sweeeeeeeet!

Oh my god, it is too.

I had no idea! Sweet, it may mean I get a bit less value from Chelsea TV, but to not have to rely on the internet to watch it will be heaven.

Foxsports 3 right? About 8pm?

Edit: Never mind, that's the early game between Villa and Blackburn. We're at 10.30. Is the other game on the 30/07 on Foxsports too?

Hey that is fantastic news. Not as good as being live in HK, which would be a hoot, but having just had Cadel Evans bring a tear to my eye, this will be icing on the cake.

Waking up bright early to watch this one. For those in the states, it's on at 5:30 am west coast time on FSC.

Also, the above post got me thinking. What's up with Alex? He didn't participate in many friendlies thus far (the Wycombe one I know for sure he did, not sure about Portsmouth though) and wasn't at the Copa America. Anyone know why?

A little early for me but better than Sunday's West Coast start time. How did I live without DVR?

I found out the last games are also shown on FoxSports, but delayed.

You sure it starts 13:30? on official site it says 10pm, confused.

Wednesday 27 July 10pm - Kitchee v Chelsea

My guess is that CTV wont show it live?

Edited July 27, 201114 yr by Andreas

Coverage here in Aus starts at 10:25pm andit's saying it's live, which is 1:25pm in England, so I assume it's a 1:30 start for you. Could be wrong though.

Yeah it starts 14:30 for me, im GMT+1, shame that ctv wont broadcast it live it seems

im so lucky, its on the official barclays premier league channel in HD, currently watching aston villa v blackburn.

im so lucky, its on the official barclays premier league channel in HD, currently watching aston villa v blackburn.

ll you be in the chatroom, Andreas? Will I contact Steve?

Dear me, if the picture quality I'm receiving here for the Villa v Blackburn game is anything to go by, coverage of the Chelsea game is going to be unbearable.

I've had to mute the tv, so I don't keep hearing choppy sound when the signal is interrupted. Choppy picture I can deal with, audio cutting in and out, I can not.

This Sopcast stream is working very well at the moment. Decent quality too::

sop://broker.sopcast.com:3912/116230

ll you be in the chatroom, Andreas? Will I contact Steve?

ill be in the chat, tell steve to be there :P