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Björn Engels


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With regards the question of his pace, and his acceleration - 

He seems to have a good top speed, but like a lot of tall people, he takes time to get up to speed. You see this in athletics - the short arses are usually out of the blocks quickest, but the taller people make huge gains on them after 20m or 30m. The short arses can't improve their top speed by much; but the taller ones can improve acceleration and reaction time. And it wasn't like he was going nowhere; a small improvement could be massive in the context of his career.

And as he gains experience, he will become better at seeing the danger early - reducing the need for acceleration. Mick Quinn was the fattest, slowest player ever...but over a yard he was like lightening, and made a career out of knowing where the ball would land.

 

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With regards the question of his pace, and his acceleration - 

He seems to have a good top speed, but like a lot of tall people, he takes time to get up to speed. You see this in athletics - the short arses are usually out of the blocks quickest, but the taller people make huge gains on them after 20m or 30m. The short arses can't improve their top speed by much; but the taller ones can improve acceleration and reaction time. And it wasn't like he was going nowhere; a small improvement could be massive in the context of his career.

And as he gains experience, he will become better at seeing the danger early - reducing the need for acceleration. Mick Quinn was the fattest, slowest player ever...but over a yard he was like lightening, and made a career out of knowing where the ball would land.

 

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1 minute ago, WallisFrizz said:

Bjorn Engels just announced his wife is mid pregnancy. Bet he has been shielding rather than an injury. 

Yeah maybe, didn’t Smith say one of the squad was having to do so for family reasons at the beginning of the lockdown?

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12 minutes ago, WallisFrizz said:

Bjorn Engels just announced his wife is mid pregnancy. Bet he has been shielding rather than an injury. 

Yet he was getting involved in all the celebrations, and according to his Instagram is having treatment for an injury. I'll take the bet!

Edited by Rolta
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32 minutes ago, Rolta said:

Yet he was getting involved in all the celebrations, and according to his Instagram is having treatment for an injury. I'll take the bet!

Ah you might be right. I think I may have got distracted by my employer putting all partners of pregnant women on self isolation. Coupled with the vagueness of Engels appearances in and out the squad.

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On 30/07/2020 at 15:30, Pez1974 said:

With regards the question of his pace, and his acceleration - 

He seems to have a good top speed, but like a lot of tall people, he takes time to get up to speed. You see this in athletics - the short arses are usually out of the blocks quickest, but the taller people make huge gains on them after 20m or 30m. The short arses can't improve their top speed by much; but the taller ones can improve acceleration and reaction time. And it wasn't like he was going nowhere; a small improvement could be massive in the context of his career.

And as he gains experience, he will become better at seeing the danger early - reducing the need for acceleration. Mick Quinn was the fattest, slowest player ever...but over a yard he was like lightening, and made a career out of knowing where the ball would land.

 

This was Usain Bolt in the earlier stages of his career.

Even in his peak, and latter parts he often looked like he was going to lose due to terrible starts.

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It's not just pace (or the lack of), he has the turning circle of a bus!

 

Seriously though. If we want to be an attacking team. We need fast defenders strong in one on one situation. This is Engels weakness. Why because in the modern game an attack minded team needs to push up to squeeze space, this affects the territory where the match takes place (opponents half hopefully) and makes the high press easier. He is 4th choice at best and is surplus to requirements in my opinion.

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On 30/07/2020 at 13:30, Pez1974 said:

With regards the question of his pace, and his acceleration - 

He seems to have a good top speed, but like a lot of tall people, he takes time to get up to speed. You see this in athletics - the short arses are usually out of the blocks quickest, but the taller people make huge gains on them after 20m or 30m. The short arses can't improve their top speed by much; but the taller ones can improve acceleration and reaction time. And it wasn't like he was going nowhere; a small improvement could be massive in the context of his career.

And as he gains experience, he will become better at seeing the danger early - reducing the need for acceleration. Mick Quinn was the fattest, slowest player ever...but over a yard he was like lightening, and made a career out of knowing where the ball would land.

 

Yep. The problem is in today’s world of Opta stats people get fixated on numbers that don’t mean what they think they mean.

”Pace” in football is not the same as pace in a 100m sprint. Engels would probably beat Messi in a 100m race, but Messi would beat him over the first 20m and that’s the main thing that matters in football. Turn it into a slalom run (even closer to actual football) and Messi would destroy him.

What we call pace in football is more about speed over 10-20 metres, combined with ability to change direction quickly.

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32 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

What we call pace in football is more about speed over 10-20 metres, combined with ability to change direction quickly.

That Castrol documentary about Cristiano Ronaldo pitted him in a slalom against a Spanish Olympic sprinter.

Ronaldo absolutely toasted him.  Even the way he changed direction was technically far superior to the sprinter.

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2 minutes ago, NurembergVillan said:

That Castrol documentary about Cristiano Ronaldo pitted him in a slalom against a Spanish Olympic sprinter.

Ronaldo absolutely toasted him.  Even the way he changed direction was technically far superior to the sprinter.

Yep, and watch Usain Bolt playing football - he looks like a donkey. His stride is too long, he looks off balance the whole time.

The only players who really get to show off sprinter pace are counter attacking forwards (and the defenders chasing them), and occasionally an overlapping full back. Most of the time football is happening in tight spaces with lots of changes of direction.

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Getting it back on topic - it does show how irrelevant Bjorn Engels’s top recorded speed is to the debate about whether he’s quick enough (in footballing terms) to play at this level. I’d guess he’d be one of the slowest players in our squad at a slalom run.

Edit: but I also agree with others that when our collective shape is good, his pace might not be exposed as often, and he could still turn out to be a very useful player for us. Defending well in an organised team is very different from the last ditch heroics needed when you’re being overrun.

Edited by KentVillan
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1 hour ago, KentVillan said:

Yep, and watch Usain Bolt playing football - he looks like a donkey. His stride is too long, he looks off balance the whole time.

I still laugh at him and McCormack killing it as a front two in that friendly in Australia a couple of years back.

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8 hours ago, rayk said:

Does anyone know the apparent back story that Engels had a falling out with Smith?

I like Konsa but I think Engels is the better partner for Mings.

the rumour was that it was about the team reverting to a back 3 earlier in the season, story goes that Engels didnt like it and wanted to remain with a back 2 (seems a strange thing to fall out over though).

regardless, he missed some games apparently due to this fallout, then he was reselected but then got injured, which led to effectively missing the rest of the season.

A lot of perople seems to equate his long absence to the fallout, but from what it appears, maybe 30 % of it was the "fallout", or whatever happened, but the rest of the absence was effectively injury related.

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