Last week PL players were generally, briefly back in training, but clearly this was cancelled again and they're all having to do individual regimes at home. I wonder how long PL players can go without playing any matches or partaking in proper training before there starts to be a significant (and maybe permanent?) decline in their performance levels? If they all have to just train at home for upwards of 2-3 months then will they be pretty crap for a while after they eventually get back? Many of them would be used to the rhythm of playing at high intensity regularly over many years with only a few weeks of break at a time. Will some not be able to get back in to the same rhythm? They've all been given detailed fitness regimes ( https://www.watfordfc.com/teams/first-team/fitness-update-they-are-working-very-hard ) but is this really enough? I suspect it would be more difficult for older players as they may have been finding it more difficult to keep up anyway (and they may get more used to having some downtime). Having said that, could the loss of playing and training time be permanently detrimental on the development of younger players at key ages who probably still need regular games to learn, e.g. Sarr? Curious to hear your thoughts.
The impact will be the same as the usual summer break. The longer they are away, the more they'll lose peak fitness. Fitness work generally has diminishing returns, so you have to work progressively harder and harder to reach that next level of fitness. For top athletes, that means the moment they drop below rigorous, highly strenuous training regimes they'll see very rapid drops in performance levels. Meanwhile, we normies can mostly sustain our fitness through home exercise regimes or through jogging/walking etc in the vicinity of our homes. There's a definite case that the players won't be ready to return to playing competitively in the immediate aftermath of the virus. It would be akin to going into a normal season with no pre-season training, and the longer the lockdown the worse that delta will likely get. There's only so much even the most professional of players will be able to do without access to their usual facilities. This is just a compounding reason that makes finishing the season look like pie in the sky to me. Resuming the season after a months of everything being suspended would seem likely to lead to lots of otherwise avoidable injuries. Not sure the clubs (or perhaps more importantly, the players) will go for that. That would therefore necessitate another preseason period to get conditioning back to safer levels, which requires more time. Be interesting to see how this unfolds though.
You'd hope the coaches are doing video sessions or something where they can see them working. If the season resumes, fitness more than anything is likely to define who finishes where. Teams on bad runs will have had the time and space to sort their heads out, so "recent" form isn't likely to carry on.
According to that article the club have given each player heart rate bands to track how often they're working out and to what intensity. Indeed. I'm not sure it's a good thing for us really if this drags on too long and we still have to finish the season, as we have quite an old squad and even though our form wasn't great it was still better than Brighton's, Villa's and Muff's.
Thanks for the reply. After how many weeks of this would you guess the players would end up needing a full 5-6 week pre-season? If this rather lasted, say, 2-3 months then would they likely need even longer than a typical pre-season?
That's well outside my wheelhouse. I'm just making some basic assumptions. From memory I think most gaps between season end and pre-season starting aren't any more than 2 months. It seems likely to me that the players won't return from e.g. a 2 months self-quarantine in much (if any) better condition than they would from an end of season break. While they might be eating a bit more healthily due to reduced options to go out, they're also likely a lot more limited in terms of fitness equipment they can use and living far more sedentary lifestyles than they would usually, due to being confined. It's hard to know quite what to expect; this situation is so abnormal.
What percentage of injuries are in the first 8 games of a new season, rather than wear and tear injuries? Perhaps this enforced break will see all squads not only lose form and fitness but also more/less injuries. How long would the season break be if matches not concluded until Late June. How many first team squad players will need to be in self isolation, before Premier League allows a club to ask for a postponement? No doubt the big clubs will want to have plenty of friendly games to build up revenue and fitness before the new season proper starts.
I think the season will be voided. But if not, all teams will be in the same boat. A mini pre season would surely be preferable dependant on how long the delay is. What price Delefeou fit for next game? All teams are likely to be off the boil and disjointed but whether it is to finish the season or start a new one I fancy us under Pearson to do well. More to the point will be the extension of contracts with players like Foster.
I wonder if they'll take 'pre-season' a bit more seriously this time? Didn't seem to give a **** over the Summer, that opening game was horrendous.
I see there are already managers asking for the date to be pushed back already... That wlll be the next dispute.
It's odd, because the break we've had since what was meant to be the Leicester game has been pretty much the same length of time as the average off-season. I presume we're going to have another two months, give or take, once we've played catch-up? It feels very stop-start.
True, Troy is certainly an endomorph but you would hope his PT would be able to put something together for him to stay athletic. He has been working on that side of his game, he employed Dr. Scott Robinson last season for nutrition and PT as well as Dan Sargeant a personal chef and performance specialist. So hopefully he will be in good shape on our return.
