Yes we did have plenty of spine, a bloody great big spine, its bloody width we need, every player forward of the defence was at least 15 yrds from the touchline.
Reward/extra rest day considering there are 4 games in the next 15 days? And spineless is a barmy comment.
If you knew anything about sports science and had competed at a reasonable level in an intensive physical sport you would know that a body needs time to rest and recover. When Les Lea played for us he said it took 3 days to recover from a match.
Genuine question - how do cyclists in the Tour de France cope - they must expend more energy than a typical footballer but recover in less than a day and do it all again. I remember an interview with Dave Brailsford where he was a bit scathing about footballers who struggled to play 2 games in a week.
Its about the body recovery. From i can remember from School. when you go on a bike you normally keep to a similar pace. Same as when you run but its a lot more impacting when you run on the joints in the leg. but in football you do a lot of high intensity runs at 100% and its that what makes you tired. Same as a hundred meter sprinter, after that 100 meters there gone.
Different types of fitness. Different muscles, different aerobic requirements. Cyclists train to cycle long distances, footballers train to play for 90 minutes. Football is a physical impact sport in terms of running and jumping etc., cycling is non impact and helped by the fact that the bicycle is the most energy efficient means of transport invented.
What about tennis players then that can do high intensity runs at 100% for four hours and play again two days later constantly for a fortnight?
They might play 2 games at anywhere near full intensity. They go through the first team of a gran slam playing at little more than 50% and thats why you sometimes see upsets.
If by day off you mean they've been able to sit at home counting their money, or taking their lass out for a bit of Christmas shopping, then you're right it ****ing stinks. I wouldn't claim to know much about recovery times after playing football (although I think its a load of ******** that they "need" as much time as is claimed) but even if they couldn't do shuttle runs they could surely sit down and watch a dvd of the game and analyse the **** out of it to see what the **** is going wrong.
If footballers train to play for 90 mins then surely they should be able to play 90 mins without needing half a week to get over it?
He changes at least 8 players every match anyway, most of them will only play 2 in the next 15 games. And yes I'd say they were spineless, or at least half of them were, greening for example, scared shitless to actually take a step forwards with the ball, much easier and more cowardly to simply pass the ball backwards. Wednesday defenders were throwing their bodies on the line to keep the ball out, ours left their men unmarked 6 yards out. We had players up front who didn't have the balls to actually have a decent shot or go into the box at times. In fact I'd say the most spineless one was him who was scared of losing so played a totally negative, spineless starting 11 and formation which offered nothing going forward because all he cared about was defending and trying to get a 0-0 draw. After the match he said on the radio that in the first half we did well to 'contain them' most of the time. I couldn't believe that a team at the bottom of the table on a run of form like wednesday were were trying to be contained at home. They should have been attempting to contain us, not the other way round but he was too spineless to take the game to them which is why the likes of jim obrien was sat on the bench. Also they might be tired but would it really be too knackering to have a team in such a precarious position who obviously have a lot to learn sat in a classroom watching a DVD of the game and attempting to learn from it and improve? No excuse for giving them the day off imo
Weren't the players doing their annual visit to the poorly kids in hospital or summat? No, it's tomorrow at 2pm. http://www.barnsleyfc.co.uk/news/article/reds-players-to-visit-barnsley-hospital-531293.aspx
It's not how much energy is expended. It's about how it is expended and the different energy systems used. Cycling is an endurance sport football isn't, though it does have an endurance component. Footballers do more intensive sprinting during a game than a cyclist does in a race. The footballer is carrying his/her own body weight and also has to cope with sudden changes of speed, and twisting and turning. Footballers also get lumps kicked of them and are more prone to injury by the nature of the sport. They need time to recover mentally as well as physically. See Physiology of Sport and Exercise by Willmore and Costill
I know that visiting the kids is a good cause but I really must be missing something here because that suggests to me that they wont be bothering doing any training tomorrow either, or at the most it'll be a couple of hours and off to the hospital. Are we at the top of the league with a perfect squad or something to be doing next to no training in the days following an embarrassing defeat to the team second from bottom?