Five things you might have missed from pre-season as Howe allays Isak injury fears | OneFootball

We’re just two weeks away from the start of the 2024/25 Premier League campaign and pre-season preparations are ramping up.

Tours are coming to a close and those who went deep in tournaments are starting to arrive. There are still friendlies to come, but a lot of Premier League clubs will be hosting them more local than their commercial tours.

Given all the football across several time zones it can be tough for fans to follow the happenings of the top clubs. So, we’ve rounded up what’s happened in Premier League side’s pre-season matches over the past few days.

Eddie Howe allays Newcastle fans’ worries over Isak

Newcastle continued their pre-season with a 2-0 defeat to Japanese side Yokohama F. Marinos. The hosts are in the middle of the J1 League season and currently sit 11th in the table, with more defeats than wins.

But, being in the middle of their season, of course Yokohama F. Marinos were going to be fitter than Newcastle. And the 2-0 win over a practically full-strength Newcastle side perhaps shouldn’t be the upset some may see it as.

And, now, Newcastle fans are worried about more than just the result of a pre-season friendly. Alexander Isak came off at half-time in the defeat, having collided with Yokohama F. Marinos goalkeeper Hiroki Iikura and looked to have hurt his shoulder.

Naturally, Newcastle fans were worried that Isak had suffered an injury that could hurt their campaign. But Eddie Howe has revealed that the change was pre-planned and he doesn’t expect any problems with Isak’s shoulder.

“No, that was scheduled for him. Of course he went over on his shoulder early in the game, it was sore but he was fine to carry on,” Howe told reporters.

“We don’t envisage any problems but of course, we need to check out the mechanism and how his shoulder is but I think he looks okay.”

Tottenham fall to fresh Bayern Munich

This summer’s first Harry Kane Derby was Harry Kane-less, with the English striker still on holiday while Tottenham Hotspur took on Bayern Munich.

The two sides will play again next week in England, but this game was hosted in South Korea at the end of Tottenham’s Asian tour. Ange Postecoglou’s starting XI was pretty strong with only Djed Spence, Radu Dragusin and Archie Gray not in Tottenham’s strongest team from last season.

For Bayern Munich, this was an equally strong XI but with 20-year-old Gabriel Vidovic leading the line over Harry Kane. And it was Vidovic who put Bayern ahead early on, after a turnover high up the pitch that didn’t look good on Tottenham’s part.

Leon Goretzka made it 2-0 before Pedro Porro got a consolation for Tottenham. For Postecoglou, the defeat was simply because they had pushed themselves too much in their Asian training camp.

Tottenham had been perfect in pre-season with wins over Hearts, QPR, Vissel Kobe and a K-League XI before.

“It is fair to say the players were showing the effects of us working hard here for 10 days,” Postecoglou said.

“I think we’ll get an enormous benefit from the camp we’ve done here though, but in this game we perhaps just paid the price for it.

“The really important thing for us was that we got 10 days of really solid training. The guys will feel the benefits of it when we get back because they have trained that much in this weather.”

Premier League worries for Leicester?

Depending on who you ask, results don’t really matter in pre-season. But sometimes a poor run of fixtures, even in friendlies, can spark concerns. And that’s where we’re at with Leicester City.

The Foxes are preparing for life back in the top flight with Steve Cooper at the helm, after Enzo Maresca joined Chelsea. In their first pre-season friendly, Leicester beat Shrewsbury 2-1 before also getting a win over Villarreal. But the Foxes have fallen in defeat in their two games since. First they were beaten 1-0 by Serie B side Palermo before a 1-0 loss to Augsburg on Saturday.

The game against Augsburg came as part of Leicester’s training camp in Germany and they are by no mean a team to be sniffed at. After all, they were in the Bundesliga last season while Leicester are newly promoted. But fans will have hoped for a better performance.

The Foxes were toothless in front of goal despite getting into good areas, with Patson Daka struggling in particular through the middle. It’s not a problem limited to the Augsburg match either. After four goals in their first two games, Leicester are now two friendlies without finding the net.

Adam Armstrong Southampton bounce back from shock

In midweek, Southampton suffered a shock defeat to Championship side Oxford United, their first loss of pre-season. Alex McCarthy came under a lot of criticism during that game, struggling to play the ball out from the back.

But Saints beat another Championship team at the weekend, leaving the Den with a 1-0 win over Millwall. It wasn’t perfect, as pre-season friendlies never are, and Southampton needed to grow into the game. But Adam Armstrong scored the only goal of the game in the second half to secure the win against a side whose season starts next weekend.

“I thought we could have created a few more chances, but that’s pre-season, you know, it’s all about learning and getting better and that’s something that we’ve done every game,” Armstrong said after the win.

“I think we’re getting better every game. I think in pre-season the biggest thing is about learning and about getting better each week, and the first game’s around the corner now, so it’s nice to see some boys getting 90 minutes and some lads topping up the minutes.”

The goal continued Armstrong’s good pre-season ahead of the Premier League campaign. Southampton’s top scorer in the Championship last season, and it feels like a lot of hope will be place on him carrying that form into the Premier League.

The Englishman now has three goals in four pre-season matches, with his strike against Millwall adding to two scored in a 7-1 thrashing of non-league side Eastleigh.

Ipswich ramp up preparations for Liverpool opener

Another newly-promoted side bouncing back, Ipswich started their tour of Germany and Austria with a 1-0 win over Shakhtar Donetsk but then lost 2-1 to Fortuna Dusseldorf. But the rounded off the trip with a second victory, beating Hoffenheim 1-0.

This could have been a tough summer for Ipswich, who many expected to have a different manager after Kieran McKenna was linked with the vacant jobs at Chelsea and Brighton. But McKenna stayed and signed a new deal, and Ipswich are slowly building up form ahead of their Premier League opener against Liverpool.

The Tractor Boys looked good against their German opponents, who will be playing Europa League football this season. There was a first pre-season appearance for Omari Hutchinson after his permanent move, while Conor Townsend showed Ipswich have cover for Leif Davis.

Jack Taylor scored the winning goal in the first half and even with changes in the second 45, Ipswich were in control for large parts. An encourage victory to end their stay in Austria and Germany.

But there was a blow as George Hirst missed the game with a knee injury, expected to see specialists for an update.