Fitness

[lcfc67]

After watching last season's team woeful attempts at keeping up with other teams I am delighted to see that we have a manager and coaching team that seem to have availed themselves of the superb facilities at Seagrave to ensure we have a FIT team this season !

 

The difference between last year and this year is quite remarkable

 

Seeing us 3-1 up and on a breakaway towards the end of a game and the only people keeping up with Mavididi were 2 city players busting a gut to be available for a pass was a truly wondrous sight.

 

Long may it continue

 

Last Friday was a great away night. Hadn't been to an away match for a while and thought the support was great. Sky's coverage and the sound turned down didn't do it justice compared to being there 

[Tommy G]

I think it helps having Tielemans not at the club anymore, he was in the team week in week out and simply not fit. Maddison, another candidate for alway being 80% fit - despite him being an exceptional player. A general lack of fitness throughout the team too.

[Sharpe's Fox]

Biggest upside to this is Ricardo playing a full 90 minutes. Without a doubt the best player in the league for me.

[Zear0]

So much easier to run about when winning than getting trounced. 

[filbertway]

The number of late goals are definitely a testament to the improved levels of fitness. It's such a basic building block to being a successful team, you need to be able to at least match the opposition in terms of running if not be able to beat them. No ability needed for that one, just hard work.

 

Really rate everything that Maresca is doing so far. Not gonna get too excited though as I was ready for Rodgers to sign a lifetime contract in December 2019

 

[Pliskin]

The trip to Thailand probably has a lot to do with it in all honesty. A few weeks training in that humidity is certain to get you fitter quicker. So perhaps it wasn’t a disaster after all. 

[whoareyaaa]

All hail King Enzo

[goose2010]

Hopefully there are a lot on here that can now our preseason even though was a vanity project for KP was also taken seriously by the playing staff and coaches. 

 

The first few weeks we were streets ahead of others in terms of fitness, teams will catch us up re the fitness levels but we will also be that one step ahead. 

 

The club needed ripping apart and starting again and other than Rudkin this has been done and so far its working. 

 

Trust the process and enjoy the ride. 

[smudgerfox]

Also benefitting from using a whole squad - Justin in for Faes and no decline in team performance - makes a huge difference whena third of the squad isn’t being frozen out…young players like McAteer are being trusted and supported …more players in contention means the workload can be shared 

[StriderHiryu]

My suspicion is this is heavily down to Maresca. He's been at Man City for years so will know first hand the fitness needed for a top team. He may not have run the fitness drills himself, but I am sure he brought the right people in from his team to handle it. Diego Simeone at Atletico has a guy called Ortega that works for him that is legendary for improving the fitness of the team.

 

Maresca brought in a guy called Marcos Alvarez, seems like he's been a good hire!

 

https://www.lcfc.com/teams/staff/men?lang=en

 

 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

42 minutes ago, Zear0 said:

So much easier to run about when winning than getting trounced. 

This is true, but for the time under Rodgers when we had possession and still lost, we still looked podgy after about 30 minutes. 

[sacreblueits442]

34 minutes ago, filbertway said:

Really rate everything that Maresca is doing so far. Not gonna get too excited though as I was ready for Rodgers to sign a lifetime contract in December 2019

...it almost felt like he did!!!

Would you be inclined to offer a longer contract on better terms to Maresca come December, if we are top and 5 points ahead of the pack?

[Scotch]

I said it after the first couple of training videos in pre-season. The players weren't just pottering about, laughing and joking like they did under Brendan. They actually looked tired like the session pushed them and we are now seeing benefits of that. 

[StanSP]

Helps that we have a structure about the team and each player knows their role, which will hopefully only improve as the season progresses. You have players busting a gut for each other, not just on a break either. There's a togetherness and collectiveness about the squad now, not just for the 11 on the pitch. 

 

All of that is a far cry from how things looked with an egotistical manager who only really cared about himself first. At least with Maresca we have a purpose about us which is the priority, as opposed to manager being the priority. 

 

All of the confidence gained so far helps physically as well as mentally. When you know you have a teammate (or several) to rely on if you make a mistake, it makes you want to reciprocate and bail them out if the time comes, or support them any opportunity. 

 

No doubt the training regimes have changed as well, so a lot of the above is psychological but I guess it helps having structure and a clear vision off the pitch too. Perhaps there's more of a balance between on-field and gym work and tactics etc. 

 

Can never underestimation the power of organisation and having people in the right places. 

[AjcW]

1 hour ago, Sharpe's Fox said:

Biggest upside to this is Ricardo playing a full 90 minutes. Without a doubt the best player in the league for me.

I always thought it was a bit of a joke how good Newcastle squad when they went down was, but we make it look crap in comparrison. The fact Ricardo is starting week in week out in the championship is outrageous, even if he's made of biscuits. 

[st albans fox]

i guess players are as fit as they want to be

 

it would seem that some of our players last season weren't bothered to get themselves to the level required 

 

the issue being the coach kept picking them when he shouldn’t have (or perhaps he didn’t have enough players who were fit to select’

 

[Bert]

It’s a very positive start regarding fitness. Let’s see where the levels are at in March. 

[Levi Port]

It is a much easier game when you have possession. Much harder chasing the ball for large parts of the game like last season. 

[coolhandfox]

No surprise with an Italian coach in charge.

 

It also helped that the squad has been reshaped with hungry players, who want to be here.

 

Look at the 3 involved in the breakaway for the Mavididi goal; KDH wants to be seen as the best player at the club, Mcateer wants to establish himself as a first-time player, Mavididi want to prove he can do it in English football and get to the PL. 

 

[sacreblueits442]

48 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

i guess players are as fit as they want to be

 

it would seem that some of our players last season weren't bothered to get themselves to the level required 

 

the issue being the coach kept picking them when he shouldn’t have (or perhaps he didn’t have enough players who were fit to select’

 

...you cannot have a team that trains to the limit that they are comfortable with!!!

Any manager who believes that is acceptable is crazy and is only asking for problems to manifest itself. Rodgers's assertion that his teams always finished strong was never borne out. Our midfield last season contained Tielemans, someone who would be blowing after 15 minutes, his partner was Soumare who had his own approach to his midfield duties.

  Much like one of my most admired teams back in the day, Ipswich Town who came up in the Premier League playing in a way where possession was the key, and like us were scoring goals after 90 minutes because they refused to put pointless crosses into the box but insisted on keeping the ball on the ground and taking the same approach from minute 1 to minute 93.

[dmayne7]

People love to overcomplicate football but that's only really essential when competing at the very, very top for bigger games.

 

Prioritising fitness is a complete no brainer. If they are fit enough to keep going until the end, then you're at a huge advantage. I get the modern way is to introduce the football in the first session of pre season, and that's a good idea but you need to focus it on putting in the hard yards and then having fun mini sessions in between.

[dmayne7]

48 minutes ago, Levi Port said:

It is a much easier game when you have possession. Much harder chasing the ball for large parts of the game like last season. 

We had plenty of the ball but never in dangerous areas. Look at the title winning team; they barely had the ball but were so much fitter than other teams. Your general point is spot on but if you're organised, you're not actually chasing the ball anywhere near as much as you could be.

[Spudulike]

2 hours ago, filbertway said:

The number of late goals are definitely a testament to the improved levels of fitness. It's such a basic building block to being a successful team, you need to be able to at least match the opposition in terms of running if not be able to beat them. No ability needed for that one, just hard work.

 

Really rate everything that Maresca is doing so far. Not gonna get too excited though as I was ready for Rodgers to sign a lifetime contract in December 2019

 

Which is why it felt like we had been cheated with 3 mins stoppage time against Hull. 

 

All those early leavers will be missing even more goals this season. 

[foxfanazer]

2 hours ago, sacreblueits442 said:

...it almost felt like he did!!!

Would you be inclined to offer a longer contract on better terms to Maresca come December, if we are top and 5 points ahead of the pack?

How long is his deal now? If it's 2 years or more I'd be inclined to keep it as it is and keep him hungry

[Wasyls Pec Deck]

Also when a new manager and pretty much entire new staff come in, it will be human nature to want to impress them - and surely the first place to start is to get fit. And then if Enzo brings in someone who is actually as a bare minimum fairly competent at fitness then we’re laughing. Btw I’m assuming the people in the old regime were on a level with Mr Blobby when it came to fitness.
 

It just highlights how stale everything had got. And like a lot of things, the turnaround and upward trajectory is so impressive. Everything seems to have been revolutionised.