[Football] Too many games

[Sarisbury Seagull]

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.

 

[lasvegan]

Didn’t we used to have 11 players and 1 sub, playing on a mud pit? For a couple of hundred quid a week?

Pansies…

Rodri: Manchester City midfielder says he needs a rest

Manchester City midfielder Rodri says he is planning to take a break during the season run-in as the club chase a second successive Treble.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[jcdenton08]

Didn’t we used to have 11 players and 1 sub, playing on a mud pit? For a couple of hundred quid a week?

Pansies…

Rodri: Manchester City midfielder says he needs a rest

Manchester City midfielder Rodri says he is planning to take a break during the season run-in as the club chase a second successive Treble.

www.bbc.co.uk

Well yes, but the quality was comparatively dogshit. I see this argument a lot and I understand where you’re coming from, but modern top level footballers are largely elite level athletes, playing at an intensity which doesn’t compare to football of the past.

 

[lasvegan]

Well yes, but the quality was comparatively dogshit. I see this argument a lot and I understand where you’re coming from, but modern top level footballers are largely elite level athletes, playing at an intensity which doesn’t compare to football of the past.

Twas in jest.

I had my picture taken with Kit Napier when I was 7 (in the Evening Argus no less), my most vivid memory of the occasion was his nicotine stained fingers…

 

[amexer]

He has made mistakes this season that’s for sure the goal keeper rotation didn’t work resting players didn’t work as they struggle to find any rhythm.

Yes It would be interesting with our rotation how many of our players are up near the top of hours played. I would guess Gross is the only one

 

[RandyWanger]

Yiannis Kouros never complained about too many miles. Get on with it you pampered princesses

 

[Swegulls]

Yiannis Kouros never complained about too many miles. Get on with it you pampered princesses

The GOAT!

 

[Commander]

Professional elite athletes moaning about playing two games of football a week. My heart bleeds for the poor little lambs.

Yawn. I can't believe people still trot out this bollocks in 2024.

Is it really that hard to understand how hard it is on the human body playing at that level, regardless of how much you are paid / how fit you / what recovery facilities you have? They are not saying "I am so tired I can't play anymore, please feel sorry for me" they are saying "When you get to this stage of the season and with the games coming thick and fast, it's impossible to keep the intensity and sharpness of the body at 100%, and when it dips to 90%, that's when you start picking up niggles and making mistakes that can cost you points".

 

[rippleman]

We were always going to struggle having entered four competitions without having the quality in depth to be competetive in all four. And that's before the injuries. The top 3 sides in the EPL have the quality in depth to effectively field two first XIs.

Maybe we will do business in the summer to address the issue. If not, maybe we should think about fielding an exclusively under 23 team in the League Cup. It's the League Cup so who cares? Or the next time we qualify for Europe we just don't enter the League Cup at all.

Also be more "cute" regarding releasing our players for "international friendlies" (see Ferguson A). I'm not talking about WC / Euro qualifiers but games like the two recent games v Brazil and Belgium. Totally (and literally) pointless.

 

[BLOCK F]

Twas in jest.

I had my picture taken with Kit Napier when I was 7 (in the Evening Argus no less), my most vivid memory of the occasion was his nicotine stained fingers…

Great player for the Albion.

 

[lasvegan]

Great player for the Albion.

My hero, at the time.

 

[Mellotron]

Yawn. I can't believe people still trot out this bollocks in 2024.

Is it really that hard to understand how hard it is on the human body playing at that level, regardless of how much you are paid / how fit you / what recovery facilities you have? They are not saying "I am so tired I can't play anymore, please feel sorry for me" they are saying "When you get to this stage of the season and with the games coming thick and fast, it's impossible to keep the intensity and sharpness of the body at 100%, and when it dips to 90%, that's when you start picking up niggles and making mistakes that can cost you points".

It blows my brain that people still don't get it.

At the top, top level there is a HUGE difference between being 90% fit and 100% fit.

 

[Commander]

It blows my brain that people still don't get it.

The top, top level there is a HUGE difference between being 90% fit and 100% fit.

Same. Like when people say "He is paid x amount, he should just get on with it" as if they player is saying "Well pay me another £20K a week and then I'll make my body work a bit better".

All by people who have never been anywhere near the level of being a professional athlete, of course.

 

[Mellotron]

Same. Like when people say "He is paid x amount, he should just get on with it" as if they player is saying "Well pay me another £20K a week and then I'll make my body work a bit better".

All by people who have never been anywhere near the level of being a professional athlete, of course.

It is well known that once your earnings go over a certain level you become BIONIC.

Lethargy, low moods, thirst, hunger, aches and pains - these become a thing of the past.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

My challenge to any manager who starts whinging about this is “OK, then ask your club owners to withdraw from European competition” (it’s always managers of clubs playing in Europe) and see how far they get

I do have mixed feelings about the extra workload which European competition brings. It’s one extra game a week for a fixed period…then maybe a bit more after this. Looking back over my year I have very busy periods working late etc, as do friends and family….we just get on with it.

 

[zefarelly]

It is well known that once your earnings go over a certain level you become BIONIC.

Lethargy, low moods, thirst, hunger, aches and pains - these become a thing of the past.

So when you're young you write cheques the bank won't cash,
then cheques the bank will cash
now its the brain writing cheques the body won't cash.

It'll be cash for organs/limbs next then

 

[Jeremiah]

Didn’t we used to have 11 players and 1 sub, playing on a mud pit? For a couple of hundred quid a week?

Pansies…

Rodri: Manchester City midfielder says he needs a rest

Manchester City midfielder Rodri says he is planning to take a break during the season run-in as the club chase a second successive Treble.

www.bbc.co.uk

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.

 

[Commander]

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.

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.

 

[Swegulls]

Maybe the biggest issue is how to use the time inbetween games, not two games a week occasionally? Just a thought.

 

[Jeremiah]

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.

What intensity do you think Lallana plays at ?