How important is nutrition?

I eat * every day and I'm as fit as a fiddle..

Yada yada

 

I was watching a show about food in Scotland and this was a big point - starting in the 1970s processed food made bigger roads there than almost anywhere else for some reason, even the US. I think people would be surprised to find that the Lions probably had a fairly good diet, and their alcohol intake probably wouldn't have been any more than their opponents.

Back to the OP, you can't take them in isolation. Nobody had broken the 10-second barrier in 1967 for the 100-meters, and now basically everybody in the final round breaks it.

 

Your breath must be stinkin!

 

And what

 

It's important, the modern game is a lot faster and players are expected to cover far more ground.

I watched a programme on BBC iplayer a few days ago about the 1990 F.A Cup Final between Man Utd and Crystal Palace and every game all throughout the tournament they showed involving both clubs looked like it was played at a pedestrian pace, and that was only 26 years ago nevermind 50.

 

Depends on the player,there are those than can have a unhealthy diet and still be great players but for the most part...to be at the top....you have to work at all parts of you're life style.
You do not get to be the very top in you're field with fish and chips and beer at the weekend.

 

Every year, the most forward thinking teams look for ways to outperform their competitors. This is true in every sport.

Being more physically effective in a competitive, intense sport is a natural advantage. Sports conditioning has become the norm for most top sporting professionals, and nutrition is a supportive pillar. Without proper nutrition, you are unable to achieve the extra 2-3% you might have with proper preparation, balance and recovery.

For footballers, some day they don't need to be high-end athletes. In my eyes, as a club in a smaller league, starved of top-level talent, one simple way to help compete at a higher level is to make our guys more physically effective, enabling the to work harder and therefore better than the competition.

I'm all for the kind of methods RD introduced regarding conditioning, nutrition, recover, sleep etc. Seems like a no brainer. Hopefully under Rodgers it will be more readily accepted and we'll been to see it bear fruit.

 

It should be a no brainer. However some people find it hard to grasp the concept, particularly in the Scottish Football media.

 

I think you are right regards Rodgers and the style he is going to introduce being in demand of extreme physical fitness. He says he wants our defenders to press aggressively and get the ball up the pitch quickly via our midfield.

Even the slower controller in his 1 2 system would have to be quick. I wonder who is best suited to that position? Allan springs to mind because of his passing ability but we've not seen enough of him to know. Johansen is another candidate as that is not far of his POTY position isn't it?

You mention sleep, I think that is probably more important than nutrition. Nothing worse than only getting a couple hours and then having to play.

What did make me wonder a little about nutrition is the results Lenny got from his players when they were allowed to eat coke and crisps apparently. He did have better players that's true but I wonder if the lack of response we sometimes seen is down to too stringent a diet being enforced on the players?

It was a good thing Ronny did and now the players will be used to it and can't blame the new manager for it so he won't have to rock the boat in that dept.

 

FFS.... Is it any wonder why Scottish football is so behind the times with Neanderthal attitudes to diet? If it ain't lumpen, long ball counterproductive coaching from uneducated * coaching kids and generally being a malign influence on the national game, it's an unprofessional approach to fitness. This is a deep rooted problem in the culture of the Scottish game - apparently anything with a hint of intelligence and rationality is scoffed at by low life pundits, failing to realise that their attitudes are symptomatic of why Scottish football is in the doledrums. There's an incredibly 'anti-intellectual' approach to football, which is why we are so * as a nation these days.

This changes now with Brendan on board. It's time Scottish football returned to the technical wizardry of old, and here's hoping Brendan teaches the League a few lessons in a similar manner to how Wenger arrived in England 20 years ago. Out with the archaic route one obsessions and poor diets and in with the fittest players possible and free flowing technically brilliant football.

The fact that Neil Lennon had them munching on chips and tomato ketchup only a few years ago says it all - it had become common sense in English clubs to ban this type of thing when Wenger arrived two decades ago. Pathetic really.

 

Scottish football has a history of having to find a way to beat physically larger players though because we are naturally smaller so the passing game was introduced to beat England as far back as the late 1800s. That style of game meant less running about. Hence Dalglish saying the same thing 70 years later about Scotland and England. He didn't say we could be less fit, just that they were so large we had to pass the ball to beat them as we couldn't get involved in a physical contest.

Can't deny Lenny's team was fit. Wenger hasn't won a title in ages. I do agree with what you're saying I just had to point those things out.

 

Aye his chip munchers got to the CL group stages while Deila's lettuce munchers won 2 out of 12 EL games :smiley-laughing002:

I get the point you were making but that was a * poor example.

 

Aye the Barca game was one of the fittest displays I've seen, not just physically but mentally. I'd love to know the stats of ground covered that night.

 

Only fatties who love kebabs want everyone else to eat kebabs.

 

Well what's your excuse and you're sticking to it :smiley-laughing002: Well played man

 

Not for me. I had two pork pies this morning while waiting for my bacon to cook.

For players though its massive. You can't expect to beat the best if you're not at your peak physical and that starts with what you put in your body.

 

@OP

So important it's not even worth talking about

 

I don't see the big deal with munching on some chips here and there, what's more important is that it's factored into their overall diet - tracked and tweaked as required etc. If a player is in good shape and training hard I'd bet they're burning enough calories to feed on some chips occasionally, but you wouldn't want a player recovering from injury doing that as they'll be burning a whole lot less.

Other parts of nutrition are important too, whether it's ensuring there's enough protein in the diet to aid in muscle recovery (which comes along with things like stretching/massage, appropriate rest), or managing energy levels just before or during the match (i.e. some players might need an energy hit mid game).

So again, some players healthy diet might including a feed of what you might call "unhealthy", but they're not sitting on their * all day.

 

But we're trying to compete in the champions league and all of these elite teams do focus on nutrition, we have to stay in touch with what's happening globally in football. Loop at Lennoxtown, we're serious about player development and maximising sell-on value, and a player with good diet, training habits and fine tuning their fitness to suit their position will make us a lot of money if done properly

For a start...

 

Ridiculous question tbh. Every single professional athlete, in the world. Should be as fit as possible, both physically and mentally. Ronny Deila had some great ideas, just the fat * over here couldn't be arsed implementing it. Apparently Ronny put a poster up of Ronaldo, with his top off and said 'there's no reason why we shouldn't look like this' . He's right. People laugh at the '24 hour athlete' motto. Tells it all really.

However, I do believe we're stuck in this *, fatty fatty boom boom attitude and way of thinking, forever. The players, managers, and especially media won't stand for it. Absolute disgrace.
If I was a manager, I'd be like De Niro, in casino. Measuring everybody's body fat every week. Checking their diet etc. No doubt the fat * would revolt though, and I'd be sacked :smiley-laughing002:
Happy to collect their thousands per week, athlete wages, but don't wanna act like athletes.