Fitness, Athleticism and injuries

Had this niggling doubt for quite a while...
We seem very flat and often short of energy and athleticism since tail end of last season and into this.

Sturm Graz looked to be a change for the better, but we also lost multiple players due to major muscular injuries.

I start to think whether the energy and injury issues are linked?
Is our fitness and conditioning where it should be?
Is having the same old backroom staff through multiple years and issue and not moving with current demands and methods?

 

Hard to say but I think there a couple more obvious reasons than the competency of the fitness staff.

Firstly, we are signing guys like Tierney and Iheanacho who are injury prone to start with. we need to factor in that CCV is likely going to be out for quite a while every season as he cannot stay fit. As well as being injury prone, guys like Tierney, Iheanacho, Jota, are signing having hardly kicked a ball over years and need months to get fit. Those players alone are the core of a team.

Secondly, I don't get any sense of a planned rotation schedule based on maximising fitness. Even in our easiest games we rarely rest players. Last season we could be 5 up against Ross County and we are still watching Maeda bomb around at full pelt a few day before a european tie. This season arguably we have less choice given our squad is a mess and no game feels easy. But if McGregor pulled up on Sunday, would that be "bad luck" or is that just what happens when a 32 year old midfielder cant be rested?

 

One of the main conditioning coaches left during last season for a job in the US I am sure.

 

We run players into the ground as well which doesnt help. Think the amount of games theyve played over the last few seasons is catching up

 

Delaying rest (CCV), rushing a player to return earlier than he should have (AJ) and overusing a player with questionable fitness (Iheanacho) are all signs of a manager who doesn't trust his bench. I guess it's bad luck that AJ thought he was recovering faster than he was, but Iheanacho shouldn't even be here, but a fitter striker. That's down to the board. CCV probably needed rest here and there, but couldn't get it. The Pusey fiasco I don't know who to blame for.

 

John Currie was the main conditioning guy

 

This for me is the reason due to our lack of investment in squad depth. We play a massive amount of games per season where we are expected and its demanded we win a large percentage of them. We play our strongest 11 in virtually every game because the fear and pressure of dropping a point or getting knocked out of a cup is massive on the manager.. its crazy. Thats not even taking into account most of our players are internationals

Some of our players are playing what, 60-70 games a season? Absolutley impossible to keep your energy and athleticism up and stay injury free..


So for me its 2 things.. lack of investment due to a completly inept board and fear of losing

 

Agree that some are overplayed, some poor decisions on subs, rushing players back etc.
For example, not taking CCV off was borderline negligent when Rodgers himself said he wanted to - so * didn't you?
But Rodgers consistently uses majority of our subs, whether needed or not. Sometimes also weaning team.

However, I still think there is general lack of fitness and sharpness generally in the squad whether it be overworking or (as I suspect) underworking due to our excessive negativity during matches and this whole walking pace approach (that causes so many other issues) must be lowering general 'match fitness'.
I still worry about potentially stale training methods and staff too when you see Kennedy and Strachan etc surviving multiple coaching regimes.

As a collective we are consistently flat, lacking sharpness and definitely don't overrun any of our opponents as we did Leipzig last year.
I hope our medical, conditioning and coaching staff are looking to address this, whatever the causes are as it's a big problem.

 

I can't if remember we had as many injuries under ange i dont think we did .and we played a far more intense system under him ..Rodgers first stint he overplayed tierney he had to keep getting injections because we never had cover .plus Patrick roberts also suffered we * that boy got injured guys only played about 3/4 90 mins since he left celtic .Definitely something wrong the way we are training

 

Was Hearts game lack of energy due to lack of fitness or desire or both?
Hearts out ran, out sprinted and outfought us all over the park today - why?

I can't shake the feeling our team simply aren't fit enough.

Edit - Lenny just said similar on Sky

 

Heard a pundit talking about West Ham and saying how they’re the least athletic team he’s seen in the EPL in a long time.

Bit like us in Scotland.

AJ aside, none of our back 4 could really be described as athletic.

Not one of our midfielders.

Maeda is probably the only attacker that fits that description.

We’re full of slow, one paced players.

 

Well now that backroom staff and fitness guru gone - we'll find out pretty soon if fitness was/is below the required standard.
Glad there has been refresh, long overdue.

 

After that half of * - edit = and 2nd half
I genuinely don't think the players are fit, so slow to react and play.
Been playing walking football so long they have no 'match fitness' anymore

Combine that with being cowards, this is what we get

 

Watch us rush Jota back

 

Weird thing for me is I don’t think we’re actually full of slow players. The front three tonight, Tounekti, Kenny and Maeda are quick. Tounekti the slowest and showed his pace the most. Hatate isn’t a slow CM, Calmac even slowing down isn’t either but could be arguable now.

Trusty is quick, Scales quicker than hets credit just look at his recovery against Gassama on Sunday. We don’t ever really use anyones pace though, even Maeda.

What do you mean by athletic btw? If Maeda is only probably one, instead of definitely athletic. I think we have a good few I’d label athletic. What we sorely lack is power.

 

And more controlled aggression imo.

 

I didn’t mean Maeda is probably athletic. Was meaning he’s probably our only real athletic attacker. Osmand would fit that bill as well now that we’ve seen him.

By athletic I mean strong, agile, stamina, decent pace etc

AJ, Trusty, Osmand, Maeda. Even Balikwisha to an extent looks athletic I suppose.

 

Sarrachi, Kenny, Tounekti, Yang

 

Jota
CCV
Johnston
Iheanacho
And now Osmand

That is some amount of quality missing. Not saying we would win the game yesterday with these players but we would be MUCH better with them in.

We are much stronger than what we showed yesterday but something is wrong regarding the fitness at the club. I remember in Rodgers first stint we had similar problems with players being ran into the ground but with decent players on the bench you can rotate more and avoid these problems.