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Fitness


villanwesty88

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I'm convinced in my own mind that our problems this season are mainly down to the fitness of the players. In many games we have played well in spells in then looked like a completely different side later on; running out of steam and looking incredibly lethargic. We've conceded god knows how many late goals too. Take yesterday Vs Wolves and I think that we were extremely lucky to escape with a point - I've read that we failed to register a single shot on target in the second half. Wolves on the other hand had all of the ball and so many opportunities. We failed to close down, press or have any long spells of possession. 

All I can put it down to is our players are way off of the pace in terms of fitness. Wolves were miles fitter than us in my opinion - they've had Tony Daley as their fitness coach for some time and they looked like they could play another 90 minutes, whereas our players struggle to cope with 45 minutes.

I can't get my head around how two professional teams, both with access to incredible facilities, technology and fitness personnel could be so far apart on fitness. 

My answer is simple; sign up Tony Daley, get the lads in for double training sessions and then on the international break in November get them doing some altitude training. 

How did it get to this with players being monitored daily? Who was our fitness coach under RDM? 

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This seems to be a theme with us. Last season Sherwood didn't get the players fit preseason. This year RDM the same. What a absolute joke. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37669066

New Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce says that lack of fitness appears to be one of the biggest factors behind their poor start to the campaign.

Villa, who drew Bruce's first game in charge 1-1 against Wolves on Saturday, have taken the lead seven times in 12 Championship games this season - but have only once gone on to win.

"I wouldn't like to say anything against another manager," said Bruce.

"But it's fair to say that some of them could be in better condition."

Bruce, who took over on Wednesday following the sacking of Roberto di Matteo, told BBC WM: "I can now understand why they've been conceding late - but that's an easy one to sort.

"To play in the Championship, you have to have intensity. But we can work on that.

"There's a lot to be done and we can only get better. This is a wonderful football club with wonderful support. They're not used to seeing their team play at this level and there's a lot of expectation - and it's my job to try to put smiles on faces."

Further hampered by calf injuries to captain Tommy Elphick and fellow defender Micah Richards, ruling them out of Tuesday's trip to Reading, Bruce said that, in retrospect, he might also have left out Mile Jedinak.

"Jedinak only got back from Australia on Friday morning," said Bruce, after withdrawing the Australia midfielder early in the game. "Maybe I should have left him alone, but I wanted his experience. That was a mistake by me."

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Quite simply a disgrace if the players are not fit.  Sherwood/Wilkins messed this up in pre season and it now looks as if RDM may have messed this up too.  Conditioning and fitness takes several weeks of high intensity work, so it will probably be November before we see any change.  Get them in today I say and start double training sessions. Sod tiredness, they've only played a handful of games so far for gods sake.  There must be some top fitness guys out there who can get these guys fit and ready to last a full game?  

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To me it's mental fitness rather than physical.

We don't know how to win as a group so when 1 up in the second half players get nervous and sit back, preferring to hold their positons rather than fight for the ball and take risks going forward.

Aswell as a fitness coach we need a Sports psychologist for this group.

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15 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

To me it's mental fitness rather than physical.

That's a great point. 

But I think the devastating truth is it's both. 

No idea how we got to this stage so soon after our fresh start, new owner, fresh hope, etc.

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50 minutes ago, Richard said:

Really difficult to put this right with two games a week, players away for international break and no preseason to work with it's going to tough to resolve this

Spot on. This isn't going to be a quick fix. The manager has had at most 8 hours on the training ground with the players and will get only a handful of hours with them before our next game.

It may be that we will have to adopt a style of play that overcomes our fitness issues whilst we get those up to the levels they should be.

Di Matteo has a lot to answer for. He had a full a pre season and huge resources for this level yet has let behind an unbalanced and unfit squad of players.

Edited by markavfc40
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Noticed on a few occasions that both Kodija and Elphick has what can only be described as budding "bitch tits".

Not sure if that's just how they look or if they've been given female hormones by mistake?

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I don't think we've had a physically fit team since MO'N.

You look at teams like Barcelona, Arsenal, City, all teams that usually have possession of the ball, but they're always moving as well, and that doesn't mean it has to be a 30yard run beyond a full back, just a general buzz of movement in the midfield. I don't think I've watched a Villa game ever where I haven't said at least 5 times 'where's the movement?' when we're in possession.

Lack of fitness is then multiplied when you don't have the ball because you don't know where you're going to be changing direction to next, all those extra paces where you're having to react kills you both physically and mentally. It's like in boxing, you tend to see a fighter tire a lot quicker when they're missing all the time.

Typing all this out has made me realise I've finally turned into my father. When I played under 15's I was small, weak and slow, but my old man told me to concentrate on my fitness and by the time the last 20 mins came around I'd be the best player on the pitch. I never listened lol.

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