Southampton report and mom

Saints play with much more tempo and pressing since their new manager arrived. They bashed us about the first 20 minutes. We came back with our "old" style faster game later and reaped the rewards.

Setting aside injuries ,which disrupt any team, we always seemed one of the fittest teams in the league with a reputation for late come backs. This season we don't seem to stand out fitness wise so much.
 
hba1 said:
Setting aside injuries ,which disrupt any team, we always seemed one of the fittest teams in the league with a reputation for late come backs. This season we don't seem to stand out fitness wise so much.
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Last season we peaked during the 2nd half of the season whereas other sides were running out of gas during the same period.

Eddie himself stated he wanted a fast start to this season. That was evident during those first 10 fixtures but that’s clearly taken it’s toll now. It’s virtually impossible for professional athletes to maintain peak fitness for 9 months
 
Tinpot Club said:
Last season we peaked during the 2nd half of the season whereas other sides were running out of gas during the same period.

Eddie himself stated he wanted a fast start to this season. That was evident during those first 10 fixtures but that’s clearly taken it’s toll now. It’s virtually impossible for professional athletes to maintain peak fitness for 9 months
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Im not sure I agree with that. I think we might train our lads too hard hence the injuries and the in game fatigue.

When you think we play 38 games, are never in Europe and never play the first team near the cups at all. We winter break in Dubai and give the players at least two free weeks to go abroad on their own. We have less players involved internationally than most teams. We should be fresher than most.

Compare our running out of steam to Watford, Wolves, West Ham, Leicester and Everton, similar standard teams when you look at our games against them, they have played more games in cups and look far fresher.

I know I sound like a stuck record but Eddie needs to help evolve by bringing in someone with experience at this level as at least an equal to JT.
 
I will give an example to support the above statement as no doubt the ‘beat off because we are not playing Bury’ brigade will be along shortly.

When we warm up we do that ten minutes of really intense football that leaves the players panting and sweating. Now, before the inevitable is pointed out, I’m no expert in fitness and recovery. What I do have though is eyesight and I watch other teams warm up out of interest. Man City and Liverpool didn’t do this... far more technical and relaxed. Burnley didn’t do it before they stuffed us. Fulham did the same intense training as us as did Brighton.

I wonder if anyone has questioned the necessity of it? It doesn’t seem to stop Liverpool and Man C from pressing hard ( you could argue it may help).

For SDD’s purpose this is purely my opinion and does not reflect an official view from the club so apologies for bringing it to a fans forum but I have been wondering about this for awhile.....
 
Aren't you talking about expert fitness coaching, which will involve sports scientists rather than ex-players? Now I'm not suggesting you're confusing your own argument here Neil but doesn't he have expert outside non-friends and family people involved in that department?
 
SlowDownDerek said:
Aren't you talking about expert fitness coaching, which will involve sports scientists rather than ex-players? Now I'm not suggesting you're confusing your own argument here Neil but doesn't he have expert outside non-friends and family people involved in that department?
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I would imagine they will put in place what the hierarchy want. jT picks the kit colours for example. It’s a very hands on detail focused senior team. Anyway this isn’t about whether they are friends and family or not, this is about new blood that haven’t come through the divisions and can look at things in a different way to complement the strengths we already have.
 
Neil Dawson said:
I would imagine they will put in place what the hierarchy want. jT picks the kit colours for example. It’s a very hands on detail focused senior team. Anyway this isn’t about whether they are friends and family or not, this is about new blood that haven’t come through the divisions and can look at things in a different way to complement the strengths we already have.
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But in terms of injuries and fitness haven't they employed loads of new people since promotion to the top flight?
 
SlowDownDerek said:
Aren't you talking about expert fitness coaching, which will involve sports scientists rather than ex-players? Now I'm not suggesting you're confusing your own argument here Neil but doesn't he have expert outside non-friends and family people involved in that department?
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We do, it’s headed up by Dan Hodges...who was appointed under Paul Groves...
 
I agree we should be fresher than most and we probably do overtrain. I’ve made the same point myself.

But if you compare this season to last season the evidence speaks for itself. There was a run of games in the third quarter when we simply overpowered teams. Specifically Stoke, Newcastle and West Brom at home. These were all fairly poor performances but the opposition was literally dead on their feet in the last 5 minutes as they couldn’t live with our relentless energy.

We just aren’t seeing that this season so something seems different. I know in sports like cycling, riders focus their fitness on a certain objective at a particular stage of the season. Some riders target the Giro d’Italia others target Le Tour de France. It’s almost unheard of to win both in the same season.

If we were at pretty much 100% intensity early on this season, that was obviously never going to be maintained. Sure with less fixtures we should be getting a bit of freshness back. However, unlike cyclists there can never be any complete rest as it’s never more than 2 weeks until the next match. It’s more a case of training to hold onto fitness as long as possible rather than training to build fitness for the next race.
 
We weren’t at high intensity at the start of the season though... we were more effective than at any point in our time at the top, aside from that run the Jack Wilshere side had up until New Year’s Day, but not playing our normal in your face way.

Our possession stats were well down there was a very deliberate change to defending deep, keeping the full backs back and playing on the break with the Fab Four. At the time I actually wondered if we were doing this because our previous six seasons under Eddie were very high tempo and he wanted to get more longevity but that hasn’t turned out to be the case.

It’s interesting. Be good to hear Eddies view on it and the inconsistency. His teams have always been very high tempo and very consistent. This year there have been changes in both of those and he will have a theory as to why and he working on it in the summer. I bet he can’t wait for the season to end.
 
Tinpot Club said:
I agree we should be fresher than most and we probably do overtrain. I’ve made the same point myself.

But if you compare this season to last season the evidence speaks for itself. There was a run of games in the third quarter when we simply overpowered teams. Specifically Stoke, Newcastle and West Brom at home. These were all fairly poor performances but the opposition was literally dead on their feet in the last 5 minutes as they couldn’t live with our relentless energy.

We just aren’t seeing that this season so something seems different. I know in sports like cycling, riders focus their fitness on a certain objective at a particular stage of the season. Some riders target the Giro d’Italia others target Le Tour de France. It’s almost unheard of to win both in the same season.

If we were at pretty much 100% intensity early on this season, that was obviously never going to be maintained. Sure with less fixtures we should be getting a bit of freshness back. However, unlike cyclists there can never be any complete rest as it’s never more than 2 weeks until the next match. It’s more a case of training to hold onto fitness as long as possible rather than training to build fitness for the next race.
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A bit like a racehorse then, but horses are never let down, trotting and cantering during the winter to keep them ticking over then upping their work as the season approaches. Normally a hard gallop 3 days before the race. Sprinters seem to keep fit better than distant runners and can run every third week without giving them hard work, just keep them happy and they should be ok. Small niggles can interrupt their work program but with swimming it keeps them ticking over without stressing the injury.
 
I’ve never understood why clubs don’t give individual players a full week's holiday during the season, to get fully away from football.

We all need a break and holiday from the tedium of work, so, one first teamer and one fringe player given 7/8 days off from say week 12 to week 26. Hopefully they would come back refreshed and raring to go.
 
tednphil said:
I’ve never understood why clubs don’t give individual players a full week's holiday during the season, to get fully away from football.

We all need a break and holiday from the tedium of work, so, one first teamer and one fringe player given 7/8 days off from say week 12 to week 26. Hopefully they would come back refreshed and raring to go.
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Good idea. When is IBE due to return, anyway?
 
Eddie keeps confusing me.

“When we scored the goal, Ryan was playing left wing-back, David Brooks was playing right wing-back"

“We had to really go for it with Dominic (Solanke), Joshua King and Callum Wilson in our frontline"
 
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