BigPaul
Well-known member
We have historically talked about players being a 90 minute player in terms of the energy they have.
In the old days players would have to manage their efforts during a game in order to ensure they could last 90 minutes for fear of being found wanting in the dying stages of a game.
That was also the case if the quality available to the manager on the bench was not as good as the starting eleven.
Today's match at Boro' has shown me how much things have changed.
We now have the luxury of being able to say to our attacking players, "OK, go and run your hearts out for 60 minutes and then we'll sub you if necessary"
With modern monitoring techniques there has never been more information available about the physical condition of players during a match.
The fitness staff can see at any moment how far a player has run, heart rate and respiration and probably much more.
Of course, this is only any good if you have the right quality of players on the bench to replace those who started.
I'm guessing most managers would choose this tactic with creative and attacking players, rather than defenders.
This is important, because when we make our changes to our creative players, the new, fresh legs will be coming up against defenders from the opposition who are likely to play the whole 90 mins.
Nowhere was this demonstrated better than our goal today.
Against a tiring defence, we brought on probably our fastest player in Idamo and one of our most skillful in Romain Esse.
Our move for the goal was the quickest we had turned defence into attack in the whole match.
Idamo left their left back completely on his arse before tearing off down the wing.
It was no surprise to see who was on the end of the cross, because Esse too was fresh and had no trouble keeping up with the play.
Having said that, it was no tap in, was it?
That was a class finish, worthy of any Premiership player.
Anyway, the beauty of having such a strong squad as we have now is that we can change it around as the manager sees fit.
Next week it may be Watmore who comes off the bench and Esse who starts.
Same in midfield. Some weeks Saville will start and Casper will come on as sub.
Whichever way you look at it, you need an intelligent manager to look after his resources and make the subs at the right time.
Apologies if I'm stating the bleeding obvious, but it sometimes takes me a while to catch up and fully understand how things work.
It is certainly a far cry from the game I grew up watching.
In the old days players would have to manage their efforts during a game in order to ensure they could last 90 minutes for fear of being found wanting in the dying stages of a game.
That was also the case if the quality available to the manager on the bench was not as good as the starting eleven.
Today's match at Boro' has shown me how much things have changed.
We now have the luxury of being able to say to our attacking players, "OK, go and run your hearts out for 60 minutes and then we'll sub you if necessary"
With modern monitoring techniques there has never been more information available about the physical condition of players during a match.
The fitness staff can see at any moment how far a player has run, heart rate and respiration and probably much more.
Of course, this is only any good if you have the right quality of players on the bench to replace those who started.
I'm guessing most managers would choose this tactic with creative and attacking players, rather than defenders.
This is important, because when we make our changes to our creative players, the new, fresh legs will be coming up against defenders from the opposition who are likely to play the whole 90 mins.
Nowhere was this demonstrated better than our goal today.
Against a tiring defence, we brought on probably our fastest player in Idamo and one of our most skillful in Romain Esse.
Our move for the goal was the quickest we had turned defence into attack in the whole match.
Idamo left their left back completely on his arse before tearing off down the wing.
It was no surprise to see who was on the end of the cross, because Esse too was fresh and had no trouble keeping up with the play.
Having said that, it was no tap in, was it?
That was a class finish, worthy of any Premiership player.
Anyway, the beauty of having such a strong squad as we have now is that we can change it around as the manager sees fit.
Next week it may be Watmore who comes off the bench and Esse who starts.
Same in midfield. Some weeks Saville will start and Casper will come on as sub.
Whichever way you look at it, you need an intelligent manager to look after his resources and make the subs at the right time.
Apologies if I'm stating the bleeding obvious, but it sometimes takes me a while to catch up and fully understand how things work.
It is certainly a far cry from the game I grew up watching.
