maqroll Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 It's almost November and we have yet to see a fully fit Villa squad. Probably won't happen this weekend either. Injuries and lack of fitness seems to have become a default status for the club over the last few years. Do we need new personnel in this department? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birdman Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 I hope the club is always looking to improve and pre season prep wasnt great but I think you can only do so much. We have been unfortunate with injuries/covid but by no means disastrous. It feels frustrating of course but hopefully we'll have a good run from here on in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBlack Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 Does anyone have stats on other teams and the percent of first team players they've had injured at any one time over the last couple of years? It does feel like we've had a shit run of luck, but curious how we compare. Also fair to say we've had a very disrupted pre season and that has probably been a big factor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAMAICAN-VILLAN Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 (edited) 16 minutes ago, MrBlack said: Does anyone have stats on other teams and the percent of first team players they've had injured at any one time over the last couple of years? It does feel like we've had a shit run of luck, but curious how we compare. Also fair to say we've had a very disrupted pre season and that has probably been a big factor. Weren't we relatively lucky with injuries last season though? Aside from Jack? Might just be balancing out IMO. Edited October 21, 2021 by JAMAICAN-VILLAN 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLegendOfLeonBailey31 Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 Lukaku banged up yesterday and now out for a few weeks... DCL been out for a while and just had a set back trying to come back... Richarlison was out for a while... Pulisic been out for a while... I think almost all teams have been affected this year in some way shape or form with regards to injuries, so not sure it's necessarily on the strength and conditioning folks. As another poster mentioned though, you should always been evaluating your staff and looking for areas to improve. For me, what I'll be watching going forward is what happens with Bailey and Bert for instance, for the rest of the year. Both been banged up twice now so far this year.... did we do what was necessary to get them ready to be healthy for the rest of the year, or will this become a recurring situation. If the latter happens, then it might be fair to wonder if adjustments are needed to both prevent injuries in the first place and properly rehab them when they do happen. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, MrBlack said: Does anyone have stats on other teams and the percent of first team players they've had injured at any one time over the last couple of years? It does feel like we've had a shit run of luck, but curious how we compare. Also fair to say we've had a very disrupted pre season and that has probably been a big factor. what seems a feature to me is the length of time out....blimey they used to recover from broken legs quicker. we used to get niggles years ago, that lasted a few games or weeks, blimey we went through a competitve season in 80/81 with 14 players and muddy pitches, with not much regulation from officials. I don't understand the change......is it the speed of the game and they are all highly strung. Edited October 21, 2021 by TRO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeilS Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 I think the problem can be partly down to Covid shutdowns. It has left virtually no recovery period between the last two seasons and matches are coming thick and fast with international tournaments and games filling in gaps. Some of the players have been playing mostly non stop since June last year, something has to give, and sadly it’s some of the players bodies that are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAMAICAN-VILLAN Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 Saw a feature on CNN the other day, FIFPro I think it was, were apparently looking to implement mandatory rest periods for players between games. Not sure if it was 3 or 4 days? They claim less affects performance, causes injury etc etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 (edited) 15 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said: Saw a feature on CNN the other day, FIFPro I think it was, were apparently looking to implement mandatory rest periods for players between games. Not sure if it was 3 or 4 days? They claim less affects performance, causes injury etc etc. That’ll get squashed by the money men straight away! More games, more money, sod the players and fans. I think it was the FIFA President the other day talked about to get around the issue of overplaying that to have world cups every two years that a player couldn’t play in consecutive world cups….wow! Money over common sense….anything to sound like another billion dollar tournament is good for the game…..oh and they are thinking of the players wealth-fare BS. edit: my apologies it was teams weren’t allowed to play in consecutive world cups so maybe a little off topic for this thread https://www.joe.co.uk/sport/fifa-looking-at-preventing-teams-from-competing-in-consecutive-world-cups-295159 Quote "I welcome as well the idea of Thiago to say, well, we need more participation and maybe there is a way of doing that by having two World Cups, but not with the same teams participating," he said. Edited October 21, 2021 by nick76 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 2 hours ago, maqroll said: It's almost November and we have yet to see a fully fit Villa squad. Probably won't happen this weekend either. Injuries and lack of fitness seems to have become a default status for the club over the last few years. Do we need new personnel in this department? Is it really? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villabromsgrove Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 Do a bit of research on the evolution of fitness in the top league. In the early 1970's players ran on average 7/8 kilometres per match. Top athletes like Ward Prowse and James Milner now run over 13 kilometres a match. It's not surprising that muscle injuries take longer to fully recover, when you consider the very highly stressed muscles that are needed for the demands of the Premier League in 2021. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aston_Villan4 Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 If we’re rushing players back before their bodies are ready then sure, the question you posed should be asked. But with the intensity of the sport these days and the amount of games crammed in, it’s inevitable that we will see injuries here and there. I think this year we’ve just been more unfortunate than usual due to the timing of them and the lack of a full preseason for various reasons. So no, I don’t think that we need new personnel in that department. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villabromsgrove Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 I think the answer to our problem going forward is regular rotation. That's what a squad is all about. It means we'll have to get used to not having what we believe is our best first eleven on the pitch each match, but I believe our squad has improved to the point where rotation is possible to allow us to win more points going forward. It should also reduce our injury problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 3 hours ago, maqroll said: It's almost November and we have yet to see a fully fit Villa squad. Probably won't happen this weekend either. Injuries and lack of fitness seems to have become a default status for the club over the last few years. Do we need new personnel in this department? Find one club that has had a fully fit squad this season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fightoffyour Posted October 21, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted October 21, 2021 (edited) Since the title of this topic is literally the same as this guy’s job, Oli Stevenson, maybe we could talk about him? As far as I know he’s doing excellent work. Look at grealish after just first major injury, ramsey after this summer. As for injuries? Shit luck. Maybe Smith set the bibs out in the wrong place. Edited October 21, 2021 by fightoffyour 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rightdm00 Posted October 22, 2021 Share Posted October 22, 2021 6 hours ago, villabromsgrove said: Do a bit of research on the evolution of fitness in the top league. In the early 1970's players ran on average 7/8 kilometres per match. Top athletes like Ward Prowse and James Milner now run over 13 kilometres a match. It's not surprising that muscle injuries take longer to fully recover, when you consider the very highly stressed muscles that are needed for the demands of the Premier League in 2021. Not only that but players have far more value tied into them. Take Leon Bailey for example. We paid almost £40 million pounds for his fee and that's before you factor in his guaranteed wages over 4 years. He is easily has a value of £60 million and that's to a club that is worth about £400 million. If you have an asset that, by itself, is worth over 10% of the value of your club how would you treat it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lexicon Posted October 22, 2021 Share Posted October 22, 2021 Don't think we're comparatively struggling compared to anyone else in the league tbf - it's been a brutal year or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Griffin Posted October 22, 2021 Share Posted October 22, 2021 15 hours ago, nick76 said: That’ll get squashed by the money men straight away! More games, more money, sod the players and fans That's not quite the case though. More games, more money and now players are earning tens and hundreds of thousands of pounds every week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Griffin Posted October 22, 2021 Share Posted October 22, 2021 14 hours ago, villabromsgrove said: Do a bit of research on the evolution of fitness in the top league. In the early 1970's players ran on average 7/8 kilometres per match. Top athletes like Ward Prowse and James Milner now run over 13 kilometres a match. It's not surprising that muscle injuries take longer to fully recover, when you consider the very highly stressed muscles that are needed for the demands of the Premier League in 2021. Yeah, the work rate is much more these days and also the standard of fitness is really high too. Also, the players are such valuable assets to a club now they don't want to take any risks or at least as few risks as possible. I am sure some of the injuries that keep players out of games these days would have received a kick in the arse by the manager if a player claimed they had that injury 20 or 30 years ago Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted October 22, 2021 Share Posted October 22, 2021 27 minutes ago, Peter Griffin said: That's not quite the case though. More games, more money and now players are earning tens and hundreds of thousands of pounds every week. I meant future not past. Obviously players are earning far more than decades ago, I was on about now and future in reference to what I was quoting from JV about FIFAPro wanting mandatory resting periods...not going to happen with money men around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts