Fitness of the players

[OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint]

Has anyone else watched our matches and thought the other team's players look fitter and more up for it?

Most of us agree our squad isn't the strongest, but there's no excuse for not being among the fittest. With Archer, we have one of the fastest players in the league. Even Sulemana, if he could take his head out of his arse, is super quick. With proper training, that alone could be an asset, and apart from KWP, most of our players look knackered at the end of a game. 

Our slow, plodding style doesn't help and makes us look lethargic but we've had numerous international breaks where these guys could have worked on speed, agility, endurance. This year, I've thought Brentford and Bournemouth looked particularly fit, and with that comes mental awareness and mental strength. And in a sport of fine margins, this makes a big difference.

 

[beatlesaint]

I have serious doubts about the fitness of the squad, its strange that the first 20-25 minutes of games is usually our best spell or when we look half decent.

I suppose with Russball the idea is you make the ball do the work but yes, where its such a slow meandering method of playing the players dont tend to be high energy.

Its not even like most of the subs he makes on the 60 minute mark are needed cos they cant be tired, or if the traioning was geared towards fitness they bloody well shouldn't be. 

Edited Sunday at 10:03 by beatlesaint

[Hodgey]

I thought this after the first 5 games, considering the theory that possession based football tires the opposition out that is not what I’m seeing.

Our thinking should be simple - we can’t make our players better footballers than other squads, but we can make them at least as fit - and to my eyes they aren’t.

Also Tall Paul and Lallana can’t do much more than 60m at this level.

[Whitey Grandad]

1 hour ago, Hodgey said:

I thought this after the first 5 games, considering the theory that possession based football tires the opposition out that is not what I’m seeing.

Our thinking should be simple - we can’t make our players better footballers than other squads, but we can make them at least as fit - and to my eyes they aren’t.

Also Tall Paul and Lallana can’t do much more than 60m at this level.

60 metres?

[spyinthesky]

I must admit that I have wondered about the fitness level of our players.

I am sure there are statistics available which show fitness levels.

Would Russball tactics mean that players are spending too much time passing the ball in training rather than improving fitness?

[bangkoksaint]

I’d love to see the stats if anyone can find anything. This fitness issue has been mooted for a while and the more I watch us the more I’m convinced there’s something in it.

[Badger]

2 hours ago, Hodgey said:

Also Tall Paul and Lallana can’t do much more than 60m at this level.

You can understand and accept this of Lallana given age, and injuries etc. And he wasn’t really a 90 minute player at his prime.

Inexcusable for the rest of squad though. 

[Ted Bates Statue]

2 hours ago, spyinthesky said:

I must admit that I have wondered about the fitness level of our players.

I am sure there are statistics available which show fitness levels.
 

 

1 hour ago, bangkoksaint said:

I’d love to see the stats if anyone can find anything.

Best I can find for now is this which shows that in October Flynn Downes was top the 'most distance covered' chart

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c0kjykv4z78o

Dropped to 5th in mid-November although would have been preferable to see a "km per 90mins" stat.

https://www.premierleague.com/news/4171059

Would like to think that if a new coach came in, maybe he could get the rest running a bit more.

[Saint NL]

If Russ was smart, he'd plan a Ralph like "injury" and let the players get a breather.

Ralph always did it around 70mins, but seeing as our lot are so unfit, we could do one on 25mins, 40mins, 70mins, 85mins and 107mins (extra injury time for all our fake injuries).

 

[Toussaint]

6 minutes ago, Saint NL said:

If Russ was smart, he'd plan a Ralph like "injury" and let the players get a breather.

Ralph always did it around 70mins, but seeing as our lot are so unfit, we could do one on 25mins, 40mins, 70mins, 85mins and 107mins (extra injury time for all our fake injuries).

 

Ralph played high intensity football, they needed a breather. You could play Russball four about four hours and have a cup of tea during the game without spilling any.

[bangkoksaint]

34 minutes ago, Ted Bates Statue said:

 

Best I can find for now is this which shows that in October Flynn Downes was top the 'most distance covered' chart

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c0kjykv4z78o

Dropped to 5th in mid-November although would have been preferable to see a "km per 90mins" stat.

https://www.premierleague.com/news/4171059

Would like to think that if a new coach came in, maybe he could get the rest running a bit more.

Thanks. I’d like us to be higher up in some stats that actually matter. It’d give Russ a bit more credibility too. Instead I look at them and think that amongst other things that we could do infinitely better in the basic application of ‘effort’. 

[SambaMaverick]

Absolutely, been saying it for a while. They don't do enough without the ball in training.