Fitness concerns

[Yellow Green Army 248]

Could our fitness levels be the reason our performance levels drop off so dramatically each and every game. We have 20-25min spells each game where we look really good but just don’t seem to be able to sustain it for a full 90mins.

On Saturday after about 30mins there were several players blowing heavily and clearly struggling with the pace of the game. Add to that several players who are clearly not 100% match fit and it’s no conincidence that our levels drop. 

So, what do NCFC do? Give the players a week off and then send them on a nice luxury holiday to USA for a further week.

Our previous successful teams coached by Farke, Lambert could fight to the death and the amount of points rescued late in games was astonishing, all down to fitness levels. This current squad just do not have those fitness levels to be able to do it.

[Nexus_Canary 1,183]

Already a thread about this the other day I think.

Short answer , team not as fit under Smith as under Farke.

[littleyellowbirdie 3,103]

25 minutes ago, Yellow Green Army said:

Could our fitness levels be the reason our performance levels drop off so dramatically each and every game. We have 20-25min spells each game where we look really good but just don’t seem to be able to sustain it for a full 90mins.

On Saturday after about 30mins there were several players blowing heavily and clearly struggling with the pace of the game. Add to that several players who are clearly not 100% match fit and it’s no conincidence that our levels drop. 

So, what do NCFC do? Give the players a week off and then send them on a nice luxury holiday to USA for a further week.

Our previous successful teams coached by Farke, Lambert could fight to the death and the amount of points rescued late in games was astonishing, all down to fitness levels. This current squad just do not have those fitness levels to be able to do it.

It's a training camp, so they will be training. As for a week off, recovery time is important to maintain peak athletic performance; the nature of the fixture list, with two games a week many weeks, means a lot of our key players get very little rest, which can only damage performance.

Edited November 14, 2022 by littleyellowbirdie

[Capt. Pants 4,882]

There's only so much training they can do as you as the body needs to recover in order for the adaptations to occur and fitness to improve.

Just as important will be training the mind; there seems to be a mental fragility with the current players and the Head Coach! Hopefully this is also scheduled in the programme.

[yellowrider120 896]

41 minutes ago, littleyellowbirdie said:

It's a training camp, so they will be training. As for a week off, recovery time is important to maintain peak athletic performance; the nature of the fixture list, with two games a week many weeks, means a lot of our key players get very little rest, which can only damage performance.

True but this applies to all Championship teams and most (if not all) do not have the bloated squad number we do. We should be able to 'rotate' for example. Others do not have that luxury quite probably? 

[littleyellowbirdie 3,103]

34 minutes ago, yellowrider120 said:

True but this applies to all Championship teams and most (if not all) do not have the bloated squad number we do. We should be able to 'rotate' for example. Others do not have that luxury quite probably? 

Bloated is a good word for our squad. We have a big squad, but the real talent doesn't extend far beyond a good starting 11. Hayden's pretty much our only serious option for a defensive midfielder and he's not quite up to full match fitness; that's a massively important role. You hope he'll rub off on Gibbs who seems to have potential in that role.

Overall, I think we've got more to gain than many others from this break in terms of building the familiarity and drilling the midfield further, resetting most of the injuries, and also probably having a more level playing field for players coming out of injury regarding match fitness compared to the rest of the league. Let's face it, nobody thinks we've reached anything like the potential as it is, but we're still very much in contention for promotion. When things click, it's going to be fun. Fingers crossed that happens at Swansea.

[Capt. Pants 4,882]

Just watched highlights of Man City v Brentford, crikey are Brentford fit, that counter attack on 110 mins was impressive. Point being who are the natural athletes in our squad? Aarons possibly but a bit diminutive, McCallum seems to have a pace and physicality nut doesn't last 90 mins. Not many I would say.