Mental fatigue plays such a crucial role in athletic performance that much research has gone into it, how to test it, and how to avoid or alleviate it. I would bet my bottom dollar that routine testing is done on all our players. Nowadays, player performance can be monitored in real time every game, and every training session. In-game fluctuations in, to take your example, pass accuracy, will show up. The fitness guys will be watching for anything like that, just as much as for any drop off in distance covered, or in sprints.
But does Sara’s overall quality mean that he is likely to be picked at say 75% rather than Gibbs at 100%
Sara went from our Star man that seemed too good for this league assisting & scoring to just another outfield player going through the motions . For me he looks bereft of confidence & often fails to add that much needed spark going forward. It may be our new system of sitting back & relying on McLean to lob a ball over the top on the counter but he seems less hungry than Nunez to make things happen often choosing the safe pass backwards or sideways. This isn't a criticism of him he's a fantastic talent, perhaps he doesn't like the English winters . It's a squad game & Gibbs & Sorensen don't get many minutes so resting him may freshen things up . Kenny seems to be ever present too the guy is a machine .
Sara's WhoScored ratings have fallen off a bit, but he's still our highest rated player at 7.3 and he scored 7.39 against West Brom.
I'd imagine that the starting point for discussion of any player's availability for Sunday is the aim of having him as close to his optimum fitness levels as possible for the Coventry game and subsequent league games. Should the data suggest a problem in Sara meeting that requirement if designated available for selection against Liverpool, there would then be further discussion as to whether he needed to be left out altogether, or start on the bench, or start the game and play x number of minutes, etc.
