Hiya boys and girls, hope everyone is recovering from a somewhat dull Saturday. I meant to write this a week back when the actual article came out but 'lazy' is the only excuse that comes to mind. Now I am no doctor, and nor will I ever be one but as I've written before, I work in the football industry. In fact I had a player training with a certain London premier league team earlier this year and I was there as his translator/company representative. The reason why I mentioned this is because just by chance at this club there was an Asian physio who had previously worked at Roma. We had dinner during my time there because of our similar heritage and he explained something very interesting to me. He said- England is very unique in the way training/games is run and how the players are kept in shape. Training is not any longer or shorter than any other country but they just train harder during the 90-180 minutes. This perhaps stems from the British mentality of 'balls to the wall' when it comes to footy. The other unique thing is that due to the climate the grounds are much softer than you find elsewhere in Europe. Because of this when you turn, or run in general the ground digs deeper into the ground thus requiring more strength to push, twist and so on. Players don't realise the strain they are putting on their hamstrings and muscles around their knees. That's why you see a lot of players that have come in from foreign leagues burn out in their first season in England. He said even in his team that most frequent players in the physio room with muscle strains are foreigners. The british born/raised players are used to the conditions so the muscles are also in tact to cope with the conditions. Now with Ji being a young player, especially from Asia where muscle development is definitely not a priority, it really didn't surprise me that something like this came out. I have seen Ji play a number of times in the past and I do think he's a talent, however he will take definitely a season before he starts producing in my opinion. This is why I am so looking forward to the return of Fraizer as I think he can be that spark upfront to unsettle defenses. Also I think Noble looks an enthusiastic player who has bit of goal scoring wit to him. Hope this helps in explaining the Ji situation, although with the SAFC medical record I could completely be wrong, perhaps they don't feed them enough or make them walk home after training, who knows...
Na mate Bruce told us.. It was cos he had to travel 11,000 miles, even though Dubai is only 3,500 miles.. Perhaps that was the problem, airline tickets, and he travelled to Korea, and realised he was further from the match, than when he started.. Sorry if i sound rude, but i'm not buying into this foreign muscles are weaker or develop different....Perhaps we just bought a dud..
if you don't buy into what i just wrote thats no problem, however being half asian I have to stand by that each heritage has a different genetic muscle makeup. I grew up around a lot of full asian kids and just by the muscle weight comparisons you can tell that the asian body is completely different to the Caucasian one. There was an african kid on the team and his muscle mass around the hip, lower back was 1.5 times more than mine and we were same weight, same height. I think Asamoah Gyan was the perfect example of a player suffering from fatigue in the second half of the season. Compare him in the beginning of the last season and towards the end, take form aside, simply his burst of pace was a different level.
It's an interesting thought mate, and i'm not totally dismissing it.. But then you will also understand that the Asian are reknown for training, and are fairly strict when it comes to this kind of thing. Also many are not priveledged to have the same facilities and surrounding that home grown players have. They also have just as much to deal with in term of temperatures etc..going from very hot to very cold (in korea's case) and then have rainy seasons etc to deal with. It's an interesting thought though, and maybe in some parties there is an element of truth in it..
I think Asamoah Gyan is the perfect example of a player who over exerts whilst he is playing upfront by himself in a 4-5-1 formation and as a result, sustains a hamstring injury. Subsequent to the hamstring injury Gyan failed to return with the same 'burst of pace' due to concerns over his hamstring. As a perfect example, how do you explain Gyan's lack of fatigue at the start of this season?
lack of preparation, he joined the the team very late into the summer. he looked out of shape, and the lack of interest was obvious not that that is what this is article but i thought i'd throw that in there.
Oh ok... I just picked up on your comment regarding Gyan being the 'perfect example' to support your initial article, although you now choose to suggest that the perfect example's lack of fatigue at the start of this season was due to poor preperation, perhaps the same applies to Ji? Like I said, the reason why Gyan 'lost his burst of pace' at the end of last season is because he had returned from a hamstring injury, a hamstring injury that was caused by over exertion and over exertion being caused by the limited opportunities that were available due to playing 4-5-1.
i do know exactly what you mean and definitely do agree. Players 'looking over their shoulders' in terms of injuries are very apparent and discouraging for the fans. However as a player you have to try to understand they are looking for themselves. I think we got a little bit off topic, as I was trying to explain Ji's situation of 'terrible condition' or so his manager said. To be honest I think it was a bit exaggerated on the manager's part, he has to understand that this is a young player moving countries (which is stressful enough) and adapting to a new style of play.
It's an interesting thought but not much more than that as far I can see although I certainly could be wrong. The Chinese win the most medals at the olympic games and their training methods are bordering brutal. As far as Gyan is concerned, his hamstring is definately the cause that done his pace last season. His 'fatigue' at the start of this season is likely to be caused by the realisation that he had to return to the guidance of Steve Bruce, minus Mensah and Muntari for company. As the topic diversed to include Gyan it is only appropriate we consider those thoughts too.
I'm interested in this train of thought mate.. I may not agree with it, but it's certainly and interesting topic, and one not to be dismissed totally. Although i see Ji as nothing more than cheap PR for the the club, and is being used for his nationality.
funny you mention the pr bit because it's obvious to see for anyone that it is but i got to see it first hand. i dont know if it has been mentioned anywhere (forgive me if it has) but i know for a fact we are looking to do an entire asia tour which includes korea, indonesia and even india. the prices that we require to attend a game at each country was very interesting, perhaps quinnys new post isn't a glorified vacation was my first thought. Good to see the club expanding it's fan base but at the end of the day i'm more concerned at the performances right now than our summer preseason tour.
COBBLERS. Anybody know any good cobblers as I believe the footware is the problem? Maybe when foreign/Asian players train they should try different footware to the British lads shorter studs perhaps, okay they will slide more but it could work.
Yeah as a youth player, not much competitive football in England, reckon it would do him the world of good.
I can see the OPs point but, why if this happens do we still by these players when it takes a full season or so to get sorted?
