[Football] Too many games

[kojak]

I’d like to see how they would get on against the super-athletes of today’s Premier League. They might have been ‘real men’ but there is no way they were playing at the same intensity as today’s players.

Is running up and down a patch of grass really that exhausting

Super athletes, I think your getting confused with the Olympics

 

[Weststander]

What intensity do you think Lallana plays at ?

Walking Football … we’d have a CL winning midfield:

Gilmour
Milner
Gross
Lallana

 

[Bodian]

The Highland League has just been won by Buckie Thistle - on goal difference from Brechin City.

To end the season, Buckie Thistle played, and won, six games in thirteen days.

3-0, 2-0, 6-1, 6-1, 7-0, 1-0

They were still behind on goal difference until the penultimate game.

 

[bluenitsuj]

It's just an excuse. They want more and more money these players and managers but want to do less for it. If they are not tough enough for two games a week maybe they should shut the f*** up and find a different career.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Might well be too many games overall, but how come that at the business end of the season we haven't played a game in what seems like yonks? What gives?

 

[Stato]

Is running up and down a patch of grass really that exhausting

Super athletes, I think your getting confused with the Olympics

Players run on average approx. 10km/6 miles in a game. They do this in a stop start fashion involving a lot of short sprints. Putting aside the turns, the jumps, the physical challenges, that's an Olympic 10,000m often twice a week. I reckon they're probably as fit as those who manage it once every four years.*

* - Yes, I know. I was being flippant.

 

[trueblue]

United have played 52 games this season. Coventry 54. I know which one is a lot more likely to wheel out the ‘too many games’ excuse.

 

[METALMICKY]

All this bitching about too many games. However, how many of the big clubs in particular are off like a shot to far flung places post or pre season as they are lucrative ' push the brand ' trips?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Is running up and down a patch of grass really that exhausting

Super athletes, I think your getting confused with the Olympics

It is exhausting when you’ve spent most of your time since an early age being conditioned into an over pampered prima donna.

 

[withdeanwombat]

Bit of an aside, really, but the improvement in football pitches has improved the game tremendously. Some of the precision, pinpoint passing and flair in the game would be lost if the games were played under Baseball Ground conditions.

Imagine Wardy playing at the Amex. And Kit Napier! I should think levels of physical fitness must have been pretty good to play on the quagmires of the past.

 

[WATFORD zero]

If you look at minutes played by Premier League players this season the first Albion player is, unsurprisingly, Pascal. But he is 42nd with Lewis being the only other player in the top 80, and JPVH making only 3 Albion players in the top 150.

https://www.premierleague.com/stats/top/players/mins_played

Ahead of Pascal, Villa have five players at more minutes, Arsenal five, West Ham four. (I know it's premier league minutes but they were/are all in Europe).

When we started rotating players early on in the season, I thought this would pay off later in the season as other teams suffered from overusing players. Are these other teams about to explode, or are we due a load of luck with injuries next season, because I hope it's one of those

 

[osgood]

In Season 1971-72 we finished runners up to Aston Villa in League 3 (now League 1). That was 46 league games plus 5 cup games

We used 18 players , 8 of them played more than 40 games each and 2 played 30+ games

"Groundsman Frankie Howard admitted painting bare patches of the pitch green to make it look better on television "

Real men - the lot of them.

We came straight back down the next season though , a bit tired maybe ?

 

[Jimmy Grimble]

If you look at minutes played by Premier League players this season the first Albion player is, unsurprisingly, Pascal. But he is 42nd with Lewis being the only other player in the top 80, and JPVH making only 3 Albion players in the top 150.

https://www.premierleague.com/stats/top/players/mins_played

Ahead of Pascal, Villa have five players at more minutes, Arsenal five, West Ham four. (I know it's premier league minutes but they were/are all in Europe).

When we started rotating players early on in the season, I thought this would pay off later in the season as other teams suffered from overusing players. Are these other teams about to explode, or are we due a load of luck with injuries next season, because I hope it's one of those

It’s an interesting point. I’d like to see how many we had in the top 150 last year.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Villa/West Ham/Arsenal suffer more next year, especially if lots of their players are off to the Euros.

I think a couple of our injuries this season could have stemmed from players who were used heavily last year and also played in the World Cup (Pervis and Mitoma spring to mind).

There are also some players who are just built to withstand more, have better natural stamina and recover quicker. Pascal being the obvious stand-out in our squad.

 

[Lifelong Supporter]

Pascal is a cross country runner whilst others are sprinters and it shows!!!

 

[Justice]

I do think RDZ made too much of an issue of the extra European games, we convinced ourselves we couldn’t cope with it before we’d even started. We had some pretty comfortable opposition in Europe. But as we’ve seen, like most managers, RDZ does like a bit of self preservation so gets his excuses in at every opportunity.

However, you can’t compare Premier League games to Championship games, the difference is too vast. A 38 game PL season is almost the equivalent of two Championship seasons in quality and intensity.

Top players do play far too many games domestically and internationally at the intensity modern football is played at. It means more injuries and at times, dilutes the quality.

From mid table downwards in the PL isn’t it more or less top end championship level? Look at the sides Everton apart they are all championship clubs excelling, us included.

 

[Happy Exile]

I think maybe it's as much about intensity of games as it about the number of games.

Some European football expert who sounded like they know what they are talking about said the other day that the lack of Premier League clubs in the further reaches of the competitions this season isn't a sign that the English league is weak, but that it's strong because clubs like Real Madrid, or Bayern don't come up against consistently strong teams in their league in the way that Arsenal do for example, so they can prepare properly while English clubs will go from a hard league game straight into a hard European game with half an eye on another tough league game a few days later.

Number of games might be less of an issue without that intensity, but the number of games is still higher in England it seems. To show both points - in the 6 weeks before Man City were knocked out by Real Madrid, City played against every English club likely to qualify for Europe next season (they played 6 of the top 7), plus Luton and Palace, both battlers...so 8 games in total, 6 of them especially tough. Real Madrid played fewer games, and only one against another side in the top 10 in their league. I don't sympathise with City or Guardiola, but I can see why some players might be a bit knackered and why he might want to make a fuss about it.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Some European football expert who sounded like they know what they are talking about said the other day that the lack of Premier League clubs in the further reaches of the competitions this season isn't a sign that the English league is weak, but that it's strong because clubs like Real Madrid, or Bayern don't come up against consistently strong teams in their league in the way that Arsenal do for example, so they can prepare properly while English clubs will go from a hard league game straight into a hard European game with half an eye on another tough league game a few days later.

I dont buy this.

Not having much decent opposition to test yourself against week in week out, which is what this theory suggests, would surely hamper you overall?

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

Another obvious different between footballers now and back in the day is squad sizes. So Guardiola can take out Rodri who says he's tired and put in Stones. I'm not sure how many players have played for us this season, but it has to be 25ish. Yes there are lots of matches, but there are also opportunities for rest and rotation.

Guardiola hasn't got the balls to rotate players like RDZ has, not in a big match. that's why Palmer got fed up and left. I have no sympathy for his moaning. What does he expect, he's going to get balls deep in every competition, which a squad full of internationals, play the same players all the time and he's not going to have tired players in April? He's been very lucky. He can basically put out a full team against us if he wants. We'll have 10 out and we've rotated.