Football During Coronavirus Crisis | Page 153 | Vital Football

Football During Coronavirus Crisis

I hold out no hope of us staying up with the players we have, but this break was just delaying the inevitable.

I'm so happy to get the football back! Can't wait to start watching matches again. I'm in Oz at the moment and can watch all the Prem games either live or by replay, or you can watch 24 minute 'mini matches,' or 3 minute highlights, all for $15 a month. Kind of makes up for being over here and missing the live games. When we're back in the Championship though it's a different subscription for $22 (I think it was that) a month and you can only watch the games that get on Sky in the UK, for the other games you can only get them on Villa TV, which didn't offer replays last year and the games are on too late to get up and watch live for $12 a pop! I'm praying for that miracle to keep us up!
 
All I'm asking for is go onto the pitch and give it everything you've got until you drop. Then at least we have got a fighting chance and should we lose then I will accept that knowing we gave it 110% (As Ron Saunders would tell us in his programme notes every home game) and we just weren't good enough.

Don't give the club that commitment and effort then I will be asking some serious questions about the whole set up?
 
Last edited:
DeanoVilla said:
I think the strength and conditioning stuff is a myth. There was a manager once who said as much (can't remember who it was), but he said the managers who go into a new club and blame the previous manager for allowing fitness levels to slip is 90% bollocks.

These players are all athletes. They are the peak of human physique, they should all be able to get through a 90 minute football match and run a round a bit. I don't think an extra 60 minutes intensity training a week would really make that much difference when you get to this level.

For semi-pro and Sunday league players then yes extra fitness sessions would make a huge difference but at this level, I don't buy it. They should all be able to put in the yards on a match day.
Click to expand...
Strength and conditioning fitness levels a myth? Ask the Villa players who trained under a certain Ron Saunders.
 
My view of the restart is that playing behind closed doors will not give you a home advantage. This has been proven with results in Germany.
Given this is the case winning matches will be more about the ability and motivation of the team itself.
As we will be playing mainly teams in the top half of the league I think our task is more difficult than it was before.
 
JP Healy said:
Strength and conditioning fitness levels a myth? Ask the Villa players who trained under a certain Ron Saunders.
Click to expand...

Back then they were all beer swilling, chain smoking animals.

There was probably a huge difference between the ones who were fully committed and worked hard than the others.

This day and age diet and fitness is at the forefront. They are all bred like race horses, so I don't think there is much difference in fitness levels between most premier league players.

I honestly don't think you can blame fitness (or lack of) for anything these days. They're pure athletes.

1980 was completely different.
 
DeanoVilla said:
Back then they were all beer swilling, chain smoking animals.

There was probably a huge difference between the ones who were fully committed and worked hard than the others.

This day and age diet and fitness is at the forefront. They are all bred like race horses, so I don't think there is much difference in fitness levels between most premier league players.

I honestly don't think you can blame fitness (or lack of) for anything these days. They're pure athletes.

1980 was completely different.
Click to expand...
We have too many not physically up to it. Playing Anwar, Trez, Jota and Connor with Engels and Targett is just plain daft. All nice players but too lightweight.
 
sirdennis said:
3 weeks to go to kick off and the knives are out already. :grinning:
Click to expand...

Its the same season though. And before the suspension we were bloody abysmal so its only natural that there is severe scepticism as to how we will do. I don't buy the 'it's like starting a new season' that I think Smith said previously. Its nothing like it. If it was like a new season, we would have new players, a kick from surviving and we wouldn't be in the bottom 3. And that's not even touching on the behind closed doors aspect and the complete departure from a normal match experience.

We always make things hard for ourselves and i will be interested to see what the behind closed doors table looks like at the end of the season. Odds on we will be the fannies who cope the worst in this situation.
Can anyone really see anything other than at best a skin of teeth survival (which I would totally take !) based on the evidence presented to us this season?
 
Interesting stats on the distances covered this season. Jack top, Mings second. Then Guilbert, Luiz, Nakamba.

Running isn't everything. Some teams rely on it to make up for their players being average. I think with us it's more a question of how the team is set up, plus tactics.

I've never been convinced by the "play as hard in training as you do in a match" approach. You want players fresh in a match, not knackered.
 
McParlandTheGreat said:
Interesting stats on the distances covered this season. Jack top, Mings second. Then Guilbert, Luiz, Nakamba.

Running isn't everything. Some teams rely on it to make up for their players being average. I think with us it's more a question of how the team is set up, plus tactics.

I've never been convinced by the "play as hard in training as you do in a match" approach. You want players fresh in a match, not knackered.
Click to expand...
Second most distance covered is our centre back. Yikes. Is that per 90 minutes played or just in total?
 
DeanoVilla said:
Back then they were all beer swilling, chain smoking animals.

There was probably a huge difference between the ones who were fully committed and worked hard than the others.

This day and age diet and fitness is at the forefront. They are all bred like race horses, so I don't think there is much difference in fitness levels between most premier league players.

I honestly don't think you can blame fitness (or lack of) for anything these days. They're pure athletes.

1980 was completely different.
Click to expand...

Having said that , it was widely acknowledged at the time that any side managed by Ron Saunders were going to be fitter than any other team. If you read his book , he was way ahead of others in the importance of fitness as he had applied it to himself when he was playing. Wenger was the same when he took over at Arsenal.

I do agree that there is little or no difference between the fitness of the sides nowadays. Certainly not enough for anyone to have a big advantage.
 
if it was all about how far you can run Mo Farah would be the best player in the league. Good players don't run they glide
 
I for one hadn't quite realised what this will ask of our squad. We start 17/6 and must finish w/e 25/7, having played 10 games. So that's 5.5 weeks, with the exception of maybe one mid week game, we have midweek & weekend fixtures back to back for 5-6 weeks solid.
Also considering the FA cup teams (4 of the 8 left are teams we need to play) we could have to re-schedule a fixture or two away from FA cup weekend games.
Combine that with all players not having played for 13 weeks or so, I'm unsure we have a squad capable of completing these games, never mind dying for the shirt twice every week.
Every team has this I guess (we have 1 more than most), but if we lose a key player in this period, we are almost certainly doomed. Should we field tactically dependant upon games we have a chance in?
 
jpmangel said:
I for one hadn't quite realised what this will ask of our squad. We start 17/6 and must finish w/e 25/7, having played 10 games. So that's 5.5 weeks, with the exception of maybe one mid week game, we have midweek & weekend fixtures back to back for 5-6 weeks solid.
Also considering the FA cup teams (4 of the 8 left are teams we need to play) we could have to re-schedule a fixture or two away from FA cup weekend games.
Combine that with all players not having played for 13 weeks or so, I'm unsure we have a squad capable of completing these games, never mind dying for the shirt twice every week.
Every team has this I guess (we have 1 more than most), but if we lose a key player in this period, we are almost certainly doomed. Should we field tactically dependant upon games we have a chance in?
Click to expand...

I don't think this will be an issue jpmangel. For some players, this will have been the longest break they've had from competitive football in their whole careers. It could have done some a lot of good actually, look at how much managers like Klopp and Guardiola were moaning about fixture congestion before the suspension.

Considering this will only be a one-off period and not a regular thing, 2 games a week for 5 or 6 weeks isn't too bad, especially with sports scientists measuring everything it's possible to measure in players' bodies all the time.

Also don't think the FA Cup will be much of an issue. There's only 7 games left in the competition, and that's partly why the PL are playing games everyday between the the restart and the end of the season, to help the spread.
 
We start with two quick fixtures which will define what happens. Re previous point about 5 subs which is think is valid. It seems that the bottom teams are being rolled over. However, whats interesting is that there is a lot that has not been agreed. Venues is still up in the air with still talk of neutral venues. 5 subs and then talk with points per game average if season is stopped again. Clearly nothing on relegation and what happens if the Championship is voided with regard promotion/relegation.

We need to be very tough at next meeting) and stand our ground and hopefully the bottom 6 will all stick together. Also, government have still not given the green light.
 
JP Healy said:
First few minutes of the Cherries home game. They were at a different level physically.Some games this season,no,most games we were off the pace. Midfield with Luis, Connor, Trez and Anwar featuring regularly ain't gonna cut the mustard. On balance,l would keep Dean,drop or not,but hopefully he has learned that this league is for the super fit,the super quick.
Click to expand...
yes I was one of the ones that thought the bottom eight clubs were much of a muchness with the top few in the Championship.
Boy was I wrong. We have looked way off the pace in games that have required physical effort and hard work, and teams in the lower positions pass it about and close down a lot quicker than we do.
Re Smith if we go down I would keep him, and if we stay up, then presumably he will have done something good to keep us up, so unless someone with a great CV threw his hat in the ring for whatever reason I would at least give him a go at the start of next season.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.