On I player, Steve Bruce talked about the distances his players are covering each match. He said that athletes would not run 13k with only a three day break, but his players are. I know that this could be the same for both teams, but it does look as if certain players in our squad have great games on a Saturday and fall short of pace on Tuesday's. Dawson being one of them. Is our style of play, relying too much on the wing back role? Shouldn't we be more conservative on mid week games? This isn't a go a Steve Bruce, I am asking the question.
We didn't play with wing backs on Tuesday, we haven't been playing with wing backs for a few games now, we've been playing a standard 4-4-2. Some of the older players might be a bit knackered, but I don't think it's got anything to do with the formation.
If they cant run 13k - which really isnt far at all - with a 3 day gap then Im genuinley worried. They should do that without even breaking sweat. Many athletes from all different sports will run more than that and if Bruce doesnt think so then it really is a bit of a concern. A boxer in training will run 10 miles a day every day for 3 months.
You make a valid point. Another example would be tennis players, who often play 5 set matches lasting 2.5 - 3hours, and then will have another match 2 days later. Three days rest ought to be more than enough
Thinking about it even I can run that pretty bloody easy with 3 days gap and I go to work for 10 hours a day on top of it and I dont have someone cooking me lunch every day! Ruddy pampered footballers.
I don't really get this. However far they run surely the opposition is in exaclty the same position having played on Saturday so how can we be disadvantaged by this? Plus I agree 13k is **** all. When I was training for a half marathon I'd run 13k on consecutive days and be ok. And i'm fat, not a professional sportsman.
A boxer may run 10k every day for threee months (but I doubt it), but even if they did, it's more liable to be a slow staedy run rather than the Fartlek style the footballers would be doing, which is harder to recover from.
They have just had a 2 week International Break as well. Dawson wont have an excuse as he has hardly played much this season. Doncaster, Wendies(pre Iint.break), Ipswich and Middlesboro. No way should Dawson be knackered yet. I prefer to think this was just a bad day at the office from Steve Bruce to the game. Its over. We move on now.
the point being missed is that the type of running is not the same as distance running. the combination of short quick sprints and long(er) sprints over a 90 minute period and also movements into position and closing down players would be hard for all of us. some sprints at full pelt are for 40/50 meters and they could be doing the same thing again in a few seconds time. over 90 minutes this is hard hard work no matter how much you train for this. most people can jog 13k in their own time given a bit of training.
Of course I recognise this but it doesn't change the fact that every other team has to play with 3 day's gap, as all teams always have done (historically games were even played on consecutive days). Add that to the fact that these are professional sportsmen whose entire working week is structured around being able to cope with this exact situation I don't see how on earth Bruce can offer this up as an excuse.
Nor i. Especially just coming off a 2 week break. Bruce set himself up for critisism for using that example/excuse.
my comments were aimed at the people comparing themselves to the footballers. I agree it is not a great thing to say. and to dmd..imitation is the greatest for of flattery. I actually wanted my name as swiss naval officer but it is similar to your name if you get my drift.
It's tricky to come across as you mean sometimes on these boards. It was meant as a tongue in cheek indignant comment. Is it true the Swiss navy trains in Kazakhstan?
This is a load of bollocks, when I was younger we'd play 7 or 8 a side games for 2 to 3 hours straight on a full size pitch in hot summer weather at least 4 times a week. These are professional athletes who have trained for this type of physical stress for years and years, if fatigue affects them that much they're in the wrong job. We could manage to play for longer on a pitch too big for the amount of players in consecutive days, I'm sure they can manage to play 2 games in 3 days.
Usain Bolt's a professional athlete as are marathon runners, but they couldn't hit the heights week in week out. Likewise, the pace of the game played in a park bears no comparison to the professional game.
But Bolt trains accordingly for his sport - his whole training regime will be built around running a race about every fortnight (I'm guessing) during the athletics season and a marathon runner similarly. Footballers should therefore train around being able to play a game twice in a week. Plus park football could be far more tiring - with no touchlines to mark the sides of the pitch it wasn't unusual to find yourself being chased by the opposition approximately half a mile away from the goal with you both still heading off in the wrong direction.
Not that this is oneupmanship or anything, but I would run 52 miles a day consecutively (this was in intervals of sprints, backwards running, cha cha chaing and moonwalking) for seven years, this was because a voice in my head (in the guise of John Pertwee) told me to, otherwise the world would end. Now I wasn't paid x number of thousand pounds to do this run, it was because a man who once played Dr Who before I was born suggested it was the right thing to do and if you're trying to tell me these nancy boys are tired, then let me tell you: I will not be voting for you in the upcoming police commissioner elections.
We played with fewer people in comparison to the size of the pitch, so the ball was constantly pinging from one end to the other, proper end to end stuff, and everyone would constantly run the length of the pitch each time possession swapped over. We didn't have the same physical challenges (sometimes there's be hard crunching tackles and wrestling for the ball though) and you could get a short break to catch your breath by spending a few minutes in goal, but we'd have done the same amount, if not more, running, short and long sprint bursts and constant direction changes.
