• Dear Guest, Please note that adult content is not permitted on this forum. We have had our Google ads disabled at times due to some posts that were found from some time ago. Please do not post adult content and if you see any already on the forum, please report the post so that we can deal with it. Adult content is allowed in the glory hole - you will have to request permission to access it. Thanks, scara

Injuries - why are we suddenly plagued by them?

Pirate55

The Last Man Standing 17/18
Is it my imagination, or have we recently had more than our fair share of injuries?

This season (with no World Cup or any meaningful summer competition) we have already been without the following players for some or all of our four games so far: Foyth, Aurier, Walker-Peters, Davies, Sessignon, NDombele, Lo Celso, Dele, Dier and possibly Jan.

That is almost an entire X1 not available for selection by Poch in the first four games of the season.

What do people feel is the reason for this lengthy injury list? Is our preparation/medical staff in any way responsible for what seems an endless supply of mainly strained groins, hamstring pulls or ankle injuries.
 
What is obvious to ME.. Not scientific, no stats, pure speculation :

- we play too honest a game. I don't think that it's wrong to fall with moderate contact even if it's possible to continue just to make sure the opponent doesn't take advantage of us and the refs become insensitive to fouls against us

- we advocate players prioritize internationals. I get the feeling that we have more than the fair share of players, and risk more injuries ; not surprised to see opponents injured during internationals bounce back with full fitness, at the first premier league game after the internationals

- something has changed compared to the frenetic first few years of pochs' methods. Its obvious he is still learning how to sustain fitness levels while avoiding slow starts and year end slumps. A key part is reducing his reliance on key players, maximizing substitutions to force rest and reduce injuries. The training staff and maybe the new medical facilities are still on a learning curve; they need to be able to deal with larger squads too

Sent from my SM-T835 using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app
 
Jan wasn't injured according to him. Aurier considered fit for the bench from the start. Sess was injured when we bought him. Dier (who I had and have high hopes for for this season) just seems to be broken, added to the long list of midfielders that have become broken during their time here. Lo Celso hasn't been reported injured as far as I'm aware (some hoo har about some rough tackles on int. duty but seems okay).

I'm not sure why or how one of us good GG folk would be aware of any reason our players are injured ahead of our trained medical staff but would be worried if we had the inside scoop before they did.

It's not sudden for us to feel like we're the only team that suffers injuries though, it's par for the course..
 
It can’t be just one thing, at the beginning of Poch’s tenure I’m sure it was the opposite with the first X1 playing a lot of games and it seemed we’re lucky to be able to continually field the same players game after game.

Aurier, Lamela and Wanyama are now injury prone players.

Dier seems to have had a couple of illnesses and time will tell if the long lay off will lead to little niggles as he tried to regain optimum match fitness.

Kane plays a lot of football and looks to draw fouls. He also rushes back from injury and seems to be the only player who doesn’t need to be Poch fit before he returns.

Rose also attracts a lot of contact because of the way he plays.

Foyth was in a game cant be helped.

Alli’s seems to be related to his hamstring possibly worsened by a different type of physical shift in centre mid as opposed to an attacking role.

NDom is a new player but perhaps a reaction to our intensive training sessions.

Sessegnon was bought injured.

I was hoping last season was due to the over reliance on players due to a lack of opportunity / willingness to rotate on top of a lot of players playing a lot of games due to the internationals. Hopefully we will get a few back after this break and see a reduction as we integrate the new younger signings and see more rotation. We do have some players who rarely seem to be injured but I didn’t want to list them through fear of jinxing them??
 
We clearly need Trippier to help us tap up Atletico Madrid’s fitness coach, Oscar Ortega...

Interesting, but isn't that what Jesus Perez should be doing? Along with Poch's own summer camps and so on. We used to be known as a side that ran more, pressed more, lasted through to 95 minutes. What has changed?

Is it because our players are getting older? Is it long term fatigue after several seasons of high energy football?

Perhaps, injuries aside, this is just our usual start of season malaise, brought into sharp focus through one unlucky loss and having to play a couple of high profile away games early on.
 
Similar to others ..

- We have a few players who have always had injury concerns (Lamela, Dier, Dembele, Wanyama)
- Squad was getting older, Jan, Toby, Hugo, Rose as examples
- We allow players lots of internationals
- Impact injuries, Lo Celso, Kane (in past), Foyth

Add on top a thin squad that has had very little rotation in last 2 or so years, plus the fact that ref's do not protect our players anywhere near the level of other clubs (I think you could stab Rose on the pitch and most refs would do nothing)

I would add Poch's methods to that but we haven't really played that high intensity, high press game in a while ..
 
Back